Organizations in the Field
Updated: Sep 7
Below you will find a curated list for content-specific resources to aid your journey of implementing global competency into your classroom.
Math:
This is a free, accessible resource featuring research, data, and interactive charts on important global issues. Teachers can use the search tool to find reliable, topic-specific materials that bring real-world evidence into classroom discussions and lessons. In a math class, students can analyze the charts and datasets to practice skills such as interpreting graphs, calculating percentages and averages, and comparing trends across countries. It is a valuable resource for helping students explore global perspectives, compare experiences across countries, and strengthen their data literacy.
This is a free resource featuring student-centered math lessons that use Google Earth to connect mathematical concepts to real-world places and problems. Teachers can use the concept lessons to make topics such as estimation, exchange rates, scientific notation, and time zones more meaningful and engaging. In a math class, students can measure distances, solve problems, analyze geographic information, and apply formulas in an interactive setting. It is a valuable resource for helping students see how mathematics can be used to understand the world around them.
This resource is my favorite for math because it can be easily paired with other content areas if you want to collaborate with your colleagues or even another school. It is a collection of stories that connect mathematical concepts to people, cultures, and places around the world. Teachers can use the stories and supporting activities to make math lessons more meaningful, culturally responsive, and engaging. In a math class, students can solve real-world problems, explore social justice topics, and strengthen their critical-thinking skills. It is a valuable resource for helping students understand mathematics through diverse global perspectives.
Educators can discover global projects that connect classrooms across countries and cultures. What I like the most about this site is that teachers can search by age, language, or subject to find collaborative activities that align with their curriculum. In a math class, students can work with international peers to explore topics such as sustainability, financial literacy, and data analysis through real-world projects. This resource helps students strengthen their problem-solving, communication, and global citizenship skills while learning with the world.
Science:
Aside from being free, the amazing thing about these resources I am linking here is that they work for many subject areas. I linked this one above for math; however, science teachers can find global projects focused on topics such as climate change, water, biodiversity, and sustainability. Students can collaborate with peers in other countries to conduct research, collect and compare data, and investigate environmental issues. These projects allow students to apply scientific concepts to real-world challenges while learning how those challenges affect communities differently. The resource also strengthens students’ critical-thinking, communication, and global citizenship skills.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Built around authentic scientific data the NOAA provides lessons, activities, and interactive tools focused on the ocean, atmosphere, weather, and climate. Science teachers can use these materials to help students investigate topics such as coral bleaching, ocean acidification, drought, and water quality. Students can analyze real-time and historical data, interpret maps and graphs, develop research questions, and draw evidence-based conclusions. This resource helps make science learning more relevant while strengthening students’ inquiry, data literacy, and critical-thinking skills.
Ready to bring exploration into your science classroom? If curiosity and discovery are your jam—this resource is for you. National Geographic Education offers interactive lessons, maps, videos, and virtual experiences that connect students with scientists, researchers, and explorers from around the globe. If you want your students to dig into heavy-hitting topics like climate change, wildlife conservation, ocean health, and space, this is a great place to spark meaningful learning and inspire them to think like scientists.
Smithsonian Science Education Center
Want your students to see how science can actually change the world? If hands-on investigation and student-led action are your jam—this resource is for you. Smithsonian Science for Global Goals offers free research guides that allow students to use their own communities as laboratories while exploring heavy-hitting topics like climate change, biodiversity, clean energy, ocean health, and sustainable agriculture. If you want students to move beyond simply learning about global challenges and begin developing solutions, this is a powerful place to start.
History/Social Studies:
Ready to let your students step into the role of historian? The LOC is basically a treasure chest of primary sources—including photographs, newspapers, maps, manuscripts, recordings, and personal narratives. Students can investigate heavy-hitting topics like civil rights, war, immigration, government, and civic life while learning to question perspectives and evaluate evidence. With ready-to-use classroom materials and primary source analysis tools, this resource makes it easier to move history beyond the textbook and into the hands of your students.
What if your students could watch the world’s population grow right before their eyes? World Population History uses an interactive map and timeline to show how human populations have changed from 1 CE through projected growth in 2050. Students can explore how major developments in health, agriculture, technology, and society have shaped where and how people live, while adding data layers for topics like urbanization, life expectancy, fertility rates, and carbon emissions. If you want students to make connections between historical events and today’s biggest global challenges, this resource is definitely worth exploring.
Constitutions can feel a little dry—until students begin comparing how countries around the world approach rights, power, and government. This site brings the world’s active constitutions together in one searchable space, allowing students to read and compare them by country or topic. Students can explore questions about freedom of expression, equality, voting, executive power, and the role of citizens in different political systems. With classroom lesson plans available for grades five and up, this resource is a great starting point for meaningful conversations about government, democracy, and global citizenship.
History hits differently when students can follow it step by step across the globe. Out of Eden Walk follows journalist Paul Salopek’s 42,000-kilometer journey retracing the pathways of early human migration out of Africa. Through interactive maps, photographs, videos, audio recordings, and stories from people along the route, students can connect the deep past to issues like migration, climate change, conflict, and cultural identity. This resource is a powerful way to move beyond dates and borders and help students explore the shared experiences that connect humanity.
ELA/Reading:
Good communication is about more than just taking turns talking. The Essentials of Dialogue is packed with activities that help students listen closely, ask thoughtful questions, express their ideas clearly, and respond respectfully to different perspectives. In an ELA classroom, these strategies can deepen discussions about complex texts while strengthening students’ speaking, listening, writing, and reflection skills. If you want your students to move beyond surface-level conversations and truly engage with one another’s ideas, this guide is a strong place to start.
Looking for a way to bring more global voices and perspectives into your reading instruction? The World Digital Library (a section of LOC) offers thousands of cultural treasures from around the world, including books, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, films, and sound recordings. Students can closely examine primary texts, compare how different cultures communicate their stories, and build background knowledge that strengthens their understanding of literature. With materials representing more than 100 languages, this collection can open the door to meaningful conversations about language, identity, culture, and whose stories get told.
Writing becomes a whole lot more meaningful when someone beyond the teacher is reading it. Write the World is a free online community where writers ages 13–19 can respond to prompts, publish their work, enter monthly competitions, and connect with peers around the globe. Students can experiment with genres like poetry, journalism, memoir, and fiction while giving and receiving feedback throughout the writing process. If you want to build student voice, strengthen revision skills, and give young writers an authentic audience, this resource checks all the boxes.
Your classroom library should be as diverse as the world your students live in. The Worlds of Words K–12 Global Book Lists feature recommended fiction and nonfiction organized by grade band and themes like forced journeys, relationships, identity, and taking action. Each selection includes a plot description, global setting, genre, and information about text complexity, making it easier to find books that fit your readers. Whether you are planning literature circles, read-alouds, or paired-text studies, this resource can help students discover new perspectives and build meaningful connections with cultures around the world.
World Languages:
There is something powerful about hearing a piece of literature read in the author’s own voice. The PALABRA Archive features nearly 800 recordings of poets and prose writers from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Iberian Peninsula, and other Luso-Hispanic communities. In a world language classroom, students can strengthen their listening comprehension, explore pronunciation and rhythm, and experience authentic literary language across Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, French, and several Indigenous languages. This collection brings language and culture together while introducing students to voices and perspectives they may not encounter in a traditional textbook.
Food may be one of the easiest (and most delicious) ways to get students excited about another culture. Global Table Adventure features more than 650 recipes from over 195 countries, along with stories and cultural background that bring each dish to life. In a world language classroom, students can build food vocabulary, practice reading instructions, create menus, or present a recipe in the target language while exploring the traditions behind it. This resource adds an authentic cultural connection to language learning and might even inspire a classroom taste test.
Language learning is really about connecting with people—and Empatico puts that idea front and center. Its library offers activities and games designed to help students practice empathy, perspective-taking, and communication, with a dedicated collection of materials in Spanish. World language teachers can use these resources to build speaking and listening skills, explore identity and culture, and prepare students for meaningful cross-cultural conversations. Although Empatico’s classroom exchanges are currently suspended, its activities still provide plenty of opportunities to help students use language with greater confidence, curiosity, and compassion.
Sometimes the fastest way into another culture is to simply press play. Kid World Citizen’s international movie list features more than 35 films from countries around the world, with summaries and lesson plans for many of the selections. World language students can use original-language audio or subtitles to strengthen listening skills, build vocabulary, and explore how culture shapes characters, traditions, and everyday life. Be sure to preview each film for age appropriateness, but this list is a great starting point for turning movie day into a meaningful language and cultural learning experience.
Physical Education and Health:
One of the biggest ideas of Global Learing is the concept of “Glocal,” where you don’t have to leave the classroom to invite a global lens. No bus, no permission slips, no problem—these field trips bring the experience right to your students. Discovery Education’s Virtual Field Trips include free, on-demand experiences focused on sports, health and wellness, and life skills, each paired with an educator guide and hands-on activities. PE and health teachers can take students behind the scenes of professional basketball, soccer, and golf while exploring movement, teamwork, communication, leadership, and resilience. This resource is a fun way to show students that physical activity is about much more than competition—it also builds skills they can use throughout their lives.
Who says health lessons can’t have a beat? Flocabulary’s Health and Wellness collection uses educational hip-hop videos and interactive activities to teach topics like fitness, nutrition, hygiene, viruses, and stress. PE and health teachers can use the songs to introduce key vocabulary, spark discussion, or help students remember important concepts—and students can even create their own academic rhymes to show what they have learned. While full access requires a subscription, this resource can bring energy, creativity, and a whole lot of student engagement to health instruction.
From stretching and exercise to nutrition and emotional wellness, PBS LearningMedia has plenty of ways to bring health topics to life. This free platform offers videos, interactive activities, and lesson plans that can be searched by subject, grade level, and educational standard. PE and health teachers can use a quick video to introduce a topic, lead students into a movement activity, or spark conversations about healthy choices and lifelong wellness. With familiar PBS programs and ready-to-use materials, this resource can make health instruction both engaging and easy to fit into your day.
The Arts:
Need a soundtrack for your next trip around the world? All Around This World introduces students to almost 300 songs from more than 100 countries, with many rearranged so children can easily sing along. Music teachers can use the regional collections to explore rhythm, instruments, language, movement, and the cultural traditions behind each song. The site is being updated, so preview the links first—but it remains a joyful starting point for helping students experience the world through music.
When the Smithsonian opens its art collection to your classroom, you know there will be plenty to explore. Smithsonian Art and Design Learning Resources offers PK–12 activities featuring visual art, music, design, artist biographies, museum objects, and hands-on projects. Students can analyze portraits, experiment with different artistic techniques, create posters and collages, and investigate how art connects to history, science, literature, and culture. If you are looking for inclusive resources that build creativity and critical thinking, this collection is a creative gold mine.
The arts are not just something students watch—they are something students do. The Kennedy Center’s Lessons and Activities collection offers classroom-ready ideas across music, dance, theater, and visual art. Students can create, perform, interpret, and respond to works of art while making connections to subjects like language arts, science, math, and social studies. Whether you are planning a full arts unit or looking for one activity to spark creativity, this resource makes arts integration feel manageable and meaningful.
A good art lesson does not always have to begin with a blank canvas. Ovation’s Arts Ed Toolkit pairs program clips with free lessons, discussion prompts, and activities covering visual art, music, animation, costume design, and more. Designed primarily for grades 9–12, the resources support the National Core Arts Standards and can be adapted for younger students. Preview the archived materials before using them, but this toolkit is a strong way to introduce working artists, creative careers, and the stories behind the art.
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