MYP Individuals & Societies • Unit 2
It's All Connected
For individuals and societies, global interactions focus on the interdependence of the larger human community and the many ways people connect to one another and the natural world.
Global interactions and systems.
Original AdornGeo sequence
Unit learning
Mapping impacts of the Anthropocene
Consumption — watch and discuss
The Story of Stuff
Going Full Circle
Connected production and consumption systems
Assessment — showing how local choices connect to global impacts
Mapping impacts of the Anthropocene
Begin by locating evidence of human influence at different scales. Compare change through time, add examples to the original collaborative map, and identify links between local decisions and global environmental systems.
Consumption — watch and discuss
Use consumption as the entry point into the unit. Trace who benefits, who bears the environmental cost, and how an everyday product connects consumers to extraction, labour, waste and unequal exposure to pollution.
Van Jones — The economic injustice of plastic
The Story of Stuff
Follow the materials economy from extraction through production, distribution and consumption to disposal. Students should annotate the system, identify feedbacks and externalities, and challenge the idea that it is a simple linear chain.
The Story of Stuff
Going Full Circle
Replace the linear take–make–waste model with circular design. Compare repair, reuse, remanufacture and recycling, then judge which interventions redesign the system rather than merely treating its waste.
Dame Ellen MacArthur — what sailing solo revealed about finite resources
Ellen MacArthur Foundation — Explaining the Circular Economy
Connected production and consumption systems
Apply systems thinking to a real product or service. Map material, energy, money and information flows; locate stakeholders; identify leverage points; and propose a solution that changes the rules or purpose of the system.
The Story of Solutions
Assessment — showing how local choices connect to global impacts
Create a clear infographic or systems map explaining how one local choice connects to global people, places and environments. Include mapped evidence, flows and feedbacks, stakeholder perspectives, data, and a justified intervention.