Model UN is an educational simulation that students around the world participate in. It is set to be a mock United Nations summit. Students are put into pairs and are assigned a country and a world issue.
The countries are chosen for them as well as the problem that the countries are facing. For weeks students research their assigned country to see how the chosen problem is affecting their country. This year the World History students of Malden High school were working with the issue of food insecurity.
Throughout the event the students play the role of their assigned countries’ UN Ambassador. Those present work together in attempt to a solve a real world problem and create a joint resolution.
During the event there was a number activities including working with other countries that had a common effects relating issues of food insecurity. While working with these different countries, they worked together to see how they could work together to fix this problem and make a stronger case to the other delegates.
Other activities that the students did while in their conference were “write Position papers, give opening statements, debate possible solutions and create resolutions that are voted on by country” stated MHS History teacher Michael Lightbody.
Model UN is an activity that all College Prep and Honors World History classes take part in at Malden High. This experience was a positive experience for many students. “Model UN was fun, it was a format of debate and discussion that [she] forgot to familiarize herself with because it’s been so long since [she has] done it. But overall it was a nice experience and it was something [her] partner and [she] worked hard on and bonded over,” explained senior Vivian Dang.
Model UN is an international organization that all junior students at Malden High school take part in. Filmed and edited by Tonijoy Pimental.
The Model UN is the closest event to an actual UN conference that high schools can get to and “it is interesting to see the students who are normally really quiet in class really begin to speak up and become involved,” said MHS History teacher Kurtis Scheer.
The event was quite interesting for the students as well. Junior Kevin Laughlin explained that“[he] got to learn more about what the UN actually does rather than the country because [he] was representing the United States.”
“[He] really got to learn about what the people worked on and talking about and how their work was helping people.”
During the Model UN conference, Scheer noticed that “students were really getting into what they were talking about, they were dedicated to their debates. They were also working really hard to work with other countries to deal with their countries concerns.”
The students who participated believe that they got a lot out of this event. Dang explained that “[she] learned that the first step to becoming a good leader is that we must educate ourselves on problems dealt within and nearby our community [and] country. Model UN has taught and allowed [her] to exercise [her] ability to improvise a solution on limited time and negotiate with other peers.”
