For their most recent Individuals and Societies unit, Grade 8 learnt about international organizations, culminating in a Model United Nations (MUN) simulation on Friday, March 16. Here’s what they had to say about their experience.
We had a valuable experience in the MUN debate and position paper and were inundated with information about International Relations and Model United Nations.
We had been researching for their MUN debate where each of them had to dress up with formal clothes and give an opening speech. We had a few practice debates during our class time and learned the debate vocabulary. We each got a country and wrote a position paper, which is a a paper with information about our committee (human rights or political) and country. Our final debate was really successful because all the students were prepared and participated. All the students were divided into small groups and had to come up with a solution to their problems.
What most of the students learned through this process was what the UN does to find solutions to worldwide issues. Most of us wished the debate was longer than four hours because all of the students enjoyed the debate since they were all prepared and participated well. The general questions that students had were solved during the practice debates. The students found the practice debates and the research time given in class very helpful. Most of the students also improved their research skills in these classes which meant they found the most reliable sources they could and they used these skills in both the position paper and the debate. The position paper has also helped people understand MUN and how it works. It also helped people think about these issues from the perspective of their own countries even if they like the system of the country or not.
– By Jaehyung, Charlotte, Samiye and Cem
Jessica Davey
HoD English as a Second Language
Nicholas Kolentse
MS Dean of Students
