Cool Website Spotlight -- New Global Citizens

To conclude my series of cool websites with an emphasis on global connections, I end with one that encourages students to put their knowledge to use and take action on an issue. New Global Citizens.

http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/

New Global Citizens is a United States based non-profit that aims to give middle school and high school students a global perspective and provide avenues to take action on an issue. They believe that through empowering students to become agents of change that they are in fact equipping a New Global Citizen. New Global Citizens serves as a middleman to facilitate global partnership with service agencies on the ground around the world. As opposed to seeking out a direct partnership with an international organization (which is difficult) that line of communication is open and ready for a classroom to engage in the work. For instance, New Global Citizens have a partnership with the Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project which serves children in Uganda. Teachers and student leaders, would “lead a team” to educate others about the issue, increase global awareness and raise money for a cause that helps others around the world. 

How would I use this in my math classroom? I suppose whenever fundraising occurs money and accounting are not far behind. Asking students to keep cost and revenue records lends to systems of equations and projecting future costs or revenue connects with modeling, patterns and regression. Whenever money is involved, math is not far behind.