United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship
Investigate and Promote an Agency
Anna McWhirter, Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona)
Mary Wall, Montgomery College (Maryland)
Edgardo García Chaves, Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciecia y Technologia
2022-2023
Introduction:
Welcome to your role in an international mission. This mission is dedicated to expanding
educational access and championing student empowerment through "open pedagogy." In this
approach, you, as a student, are at the heart of an engaging, collaborative learning environment,
with the freedom to access your educational journey. What is this mission's ultimate goal? To
heighten social justice in our community, promoting the free exchange of knowledge and work.
Under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, this renewable
assignment paves your path to becoming an agent of change within your community. Prepare to
embark on this transformative journey.
For this work, we will integrate the disciplines of Reading, Psychological Sciences,
Mathematics, Statistics and Data Science, Urban development, sustainability, and public policy
to respond to SDG #2: Zero Hunger. Within this SDG, we will focus on the specific target 2.1:
By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular, the poor and people in
vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round.

Purpose:
This assignment will provide practice in critical reading and thinking skills while working
toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #2: Zero Hunger. After
investigating agencies, you will produce an advertisement to share with others. You will view
these advertisements to help you determine what agency to work with to complete your servicelearning hours.

Learning Objectives:
1. Investigate 3-5 Local and Global Agencies currently working to achieve UNSDGoal 2 (Zero
Hunger) to determine who, how, and when the agency serves that population to achieve
Target 2.1
2. Reflect upon the viability of contributing hours to the agency in an attempt to achieve Target
2.1
3. Employ critical reading and thinking skills in analyzing arguments for structure, persuasive
language, and evidence strength to create an advertisement for one of the agencies
4. Utilize information gleaned from Agency investigation and Agency Advertisements to
become an agent of change in the community by partnering with an Agency Partner working
to achieve UNSDG 2.1.
5. Complete service-learning hours and paperwork as required by your institution.

Instructions:
Part 1: Investigate and Share
1. Investigate 3-5 agencies that seek to achieve UNSDG 2.1. This may be done by interviewing
agency representatives or gathering information from their websites, or both.
2. Determine how these agencies address the task: who they serve, how they do so, what
resources they utilize, and where you can help them.
3. Reflect on the viability of contributing your hours to each of the agencies you investigate.
4. Once you have this basic information (you may use this organizer to help), share the
information with your team.
Part 2: Create an Agency Advertisement
In your teams, use what you have learned about argument analysis, persuasive elements, and
types of evidence to create advertisements for one of the agencies shared. Your advertisement
may be in the form of a billboard, magazine ad, poster, radio, or TV commercial. Your
advertisement must include the following:
-Clear argument structure (with an issue, a conclusion, and reasons).
-Use of persuasive language
-Use of evidence to strengthen the argument
Your overall goal is to persuade your viewer or reader to contribute their service hours to that
agency, so be sure to include details about how your classmates can help the agency achieve
Target 2.1.

Part 3: Select an Agency Partner
1. Assess the merits of the arguments found in each Agency Advertisement created by your
classmates.
2. Determine where in your community you will serve to combat Target 2.1, with the ultimate
goal of utilizing critical reading and thinking skills to become agents of change in their local
and global community.
3. Complete any necessary service-learning paperwork required by the Agency or this
institution.
Part 4: Contribute to Your Community
1. Complete your service-learning hours at the Agency by the due date.
2. Submit necessary paperwork to the institution as required.
3. Reflect on your service-learning activities (part of our Institutional Assessment for Civic
Engagement per HLC):
-- Inclusiveness: Briefly describe your agency and what you did for your service learning hours.
Some may not have investigated your agency, so provide a statement about what you did and how
it serves the community. You only need to select one to discuss if you served in several capacities.
-- Application of Knowledge: Explain where the critical reading came into play in this project-either the service itself or the news log from which it drew inspiration. This should serve as a
clear description of critical reading in the contemporary world.
-- Civic Identity and Commitment: Reflect on your role as a citizen. In what ways did you
engage as an active citizen in your community? Include the benefits to you and your community
from your service.
-- Civic Communication: What did you learn about your community as a result of this service
learning project? Share one meaningful aspect of your service in this crisis and explain why it
was meaningful. This can be something you shared with me in your portfolio or something else
that you are willing to share with the group.
-- Engagement in Civic Action and Reflection: What can you do to help your community in the
future?
Your advertisements should attempt to convince your audience (classmates or others) to
contribute their service hours to the agency. Show what you know about critical reading and
thinking by demonstrating the following in your advertisement:
-Clear argument structure (with an issue, a conclusion and reasons).
-Effective use of persuasive language
-Effective use of evidence

Format Requirements:
Video and Audio advertisements must be 30 - 60 seconds in length and must be appropriate for
the public.
Billboard, Magazine, and Poster advertisements must include between 1-4 visuals and be
appropriate for the public.

Assessment Criteria:
The investigative worksheet will be submitted before group advertisement work (30 points)
Advertisement (50 points) must include the following:
-Clear argument structure (with an issue, a conclusion, and reasons).
-Use of persuasive language
-Use of evidence to strengthen the argument
Service-learning hours (100 points) must be completed by the due date. Students earn 10 points
for each hour served as validated by the agency partner selected.
Responses to reflection questions completed both before and after serving with the agency (50
points) must be thorough and specific.

Investigate and Promote an Agency is licensed by Anna McWhirter, Maricopa Community
Colleges (Arizona); Mary Wall, Montgomery College (Maryland); and Edgardo García Chaves,
Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciecia y Technologia under the Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International (CC-BY)