Introduction

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) pictured in Figure 22.1 and ratified by all United Nations member states in 2015 link human prosperity with health, social justice, environmental goals, and economic growth. In this lab, you’ll investigate connections between one of the SDGs and your own community. You’ll explore how these connections play out using a research technique called photovoice, which is described below.

Part 1: UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, the United Nations Member States adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), creating a global partnership to focus on environmental, social, and economic objectives such as ending poverty and protecting life on earth. Read more about the history and context of the SDGs on the United Nations website below the goal icons on the page.

The target date to achieve these goals was set for 2030, but progress has been uneven. As you explore the different SDGs, notice that each of the 17 goals is divided into specific targets and indicators that will explain if or how the goal is being achieved. For example, goal 1, “End poverty in all its forms everywhere,” includes target 1.1: “By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.” You can also check the reports under the “Implementation Progress” section to find more text-based reports on the progress made for each goal. Not sure where to look? See the screenshot below:

As part of this lab, you will choose one specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goal that is connected to environmental biology in some way and explore how it can be better implemented in your community using at least one of the goal’s targets as well as the indicators and progress reports on the United Nations website.

Part 2: Photovoice technique

Photovoice, developed by Wang and Burris (1994), is an educational method where teachers ask students to use photographs to document issues that are important to them. Through the thoughtful selection of photographs as well as their display and discussion, students draw conclusions about themes present in those photographs and are empowered to plan action. According to Cook and Buck (2010),

Photography also offers students new and reflective ways to perceive their own world and the science around them. The photos taken by students can create dialog and serve to advance social action as the community responds to students’ perspectives and strives toward solutions.

In order to document the ways that your community currently addresses your SDG, you will use a modified photovoice technique. For example, you could choose goal 15, Life on Land, and after looking at the target indicators, choose target 15.45 to focus on biodiversity as your topic. You would then take photos of biodiversity (or the lack of biodiversity) in your community.

As you think about which SDG you might pick, think which goals might have a particular impact on the people and environment of your community. Once you have selected your SDG, think about how your specific SDG is implemented there. What is going well, and what could be improved? Does everyone in your community have the same experience of the SDG that you do? How can you document your responses to these questions through the pictures you take and captions that you write?

Read more about photovoice in this entry from the Community Toolbox, hosted by the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas.

Part 3: Pathways of Public Service and Civic Engagement

As action is an important part of the photovoice technique, you will end by thinking about how to better implement/advance progress for your chosen SDG in your local community.

The Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, in conjunction with Campus Compact, documents six ways that we can contribute to the public good, including Community Engaged Learning and Research, Community Organizing and Activism, Direct Service, Philanthropy, Policy and Governance, and Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility. Learn more by watching the video below:

(Video: Pathways of Public Service and Civic Engagement)

What pathways do you have experience in? Which would be most relevant in helping you to better implement your SDG in your own community? You’ll be answering this question in your Lab Response.

Lab Directions

In order to complete this lab, you will follow the steps outlined below:

1. Examine the list of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Choose one that you think has local relevance to the people and environment.
2. Take several pictures that illustrate different aspects of how that goal is being implemented (or not being implemented) locally and share those with your classmates as directed.
3. Research the impact of your chosen SDG on the people and/or environment of your community.
4. Work with your classmates to discover common themes that you discover when looking at photos related to your SDG.
5. Use one of the Pathways of Public Service and Civic Engagement to develop a plan to better implement your SDG in your community, explaining why the pathway you picked was a good fit for your topic.

References

Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas. (2024). Implementing photovoice in your community. Community Tool Box. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/photovoice/main

Cook, K., & Buck, G. S. (2010, March). Photovoice: A community-based socioscientific pedagogical tool. Science Scope, 35–39.

Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University (Director). (2019, August 29). Pathways of public service and civic engagement [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2JVnLcTEjQ

Campus Compact. (n.d.). Pathways of public service & civic engagement. (n.d.). https://compact.org/current-programs/student-programming/pathways-of-public-service-civic-engagement

United Nations. (n.d.). The 17 goals. https://sdgs.un.org/goals

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Lab 22 Response: SDG Photojournal Assignment

Complete this assignment by following the steps below.

Part 1: Build a Photo Story

For part 1 of this assignment, you will create a presentation about how your Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is implemented in your community using a set of thoughtfully selected photos. To do this, complete the following:

Explore the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to find one that is important to the people and environment of your community. Once you’ve chosen a goal, click on it and explore the overview, targets and indicators, and global progress being made on the issue.

Take 15-20 photographs documenting how this goal is implemented (or not) in your community. As you take photos, think about what is unique about how your specific SDG is implemented in your community. Take photos that reflect the following questions:

Your SDG in Your Community Questions:

• • What is unique about the way that the SDG is supported (or not) in your community?
  • What is going well, and what could be improved?
  • Does everyone in your community have the same experience of the SDG that you do? Why or why not?

Research: Take a moment to do some research on your SDG. Why is it important to the people and/or environment of your community? Find at least 2 authoritative and credible sources to learn more.

Document: Open up PowerPoint, Google Slides, or another presentation software approved by your professor.

On the first slide, write your chosen SDG and explain why this goal is meaningful for your community, using the overview, your selected target(s), and the indicators and progress notes to explain your choice.

On the second slide, explain the connection between your SDG and biology.

Now, select your best 5-7 photographs and paste each photo to its own slide. Under each photograph, write a 4-5 sentence caption that includes:

• • The date and location of your photograph.
  • How your photo connects to your chosen SDG.
  • An explanation of what you were trying to document (refer to the Your SDG in Your Community Questions above).

Summarize your research on your last slide. Why should we care about this issue? What would better implementation of your SDG mean to your community? Cite both sources in APA, CSE, or MLA style.

Your professor will sort the class into groups. Post your slides to a Blackboard discussion board assigned to your group.

Before class, review each of your group members’ slides for a discussion.

Part 2: Discuss, Engage, and Learn

The goal of this portion of the assignment is to learn more about your community through the discussion of your photos with the group. Each student in the assigned group will lead a discussion about their presentation slides in order to discover new details and explore common themes documented within everyone’s photos. Complete the following steps either in class or online via the discussion board, as your professor requests:

Discuss your slides with your group. Researchers who use photovoice will often refer to the acronym SHOWED to work with the photographs.

• • What do you See here?
  • What is really Happening here?
  • How does this relate to Our lives?
  • Why does this condition Exist?
  • What can we Do about it?

Use these questions to guide a discussion about your slides and your classmates’ slides.

Part 3: Summarize and Plan Action

Now is your chance to put together everything you learned and create a plan to better your community.

Create a final document.

In your document, begin by answering the following questions:

1. 1. How did your perception of how the SDG was implemented in your community change as you put together your photograph collection? Use examples to explain your response.
   2. How did your perception of how the SDG was implemented in your community change after discussion with your group? Use examples from your photographs and your discussion to explain what changed and how. (Note: if the answer to either of the above questions is “it didn’t,” dig deeper.)
   3. What common themes were present among all of your classmates’ photos? Explain, using examples.
   4. What was unique to your project and photos? Explain, using examples.

Now, let’s focus on action. In the same document, respond to the following questions:

1. 5. What action could be undertaken to alleviate or improve how your SDG was implemented in your community? Be specific: explain who would be responsible for undertaking which actions, and for how long the action would be carried out. Your answer should be at least four sentences long.
   6. Explain the impact of this action, drawing upon your work for your presentation slides as well as your answers in the document above. Again, be specific.
   7. Pick 2 or 3 pathways from the Pathways of Public Service and Engagement that you could use to support this action. Explain how this might work.

Submit your document in Blackboard as a Word document or a PDF.