United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship
Communicating with your community on a water issue
Sharon Brewer, Thompson Rivers University (BC, Canada);
Darian Qureshi, Pima Community College (Arizona)
2021-2022
Introduction:
You are a part of a collegewide effort to increase access to education and empower students
through "open pedagogy." Open pedagogy is a "free access" educational practice that places you
- the student - at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative
learning environment. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in
our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community. This is a
renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your
community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Chemistry and Political Science to
achieve SDG #6: Clean Water and Sanitation with a focus on Targets 6.3, 6.4, 6.a, 6.b 6.3, 6.4,
6.a, 6.b.

Learning Objectives:
By the end of this assignment, students will be able to:
− Identify, curate information, and describe a current water issue in a community to which they
are connected.
− Use critical thinking skills to analyze the water issue and propose solutions to it.
− Write a persuasive article or letter on a current water issue.
− Compose a formal letter or publishable article to inform and influence a policy-maker or the
general public.
− To demonstrate their participation in civic conversation and contribute to the democratic
process.

Purpose/Rationale:

This active learning practice is designed to improve your writing and persuasion skills, increase
your knowledge about water issues, and to encourage you to participate in civic conversation and
contribute to the democratic process.

Instructions:
This assignment will consist of two parts:
Short paper describing the problem and your proposed solution(s) to it. This should be at least
1250 words, double-spaced, and 12-point font. It should contain, on a separate “Works Cited”
page, at least five references to reputable sources.
You will use this short paper as the basis for writing your opinion piece or letter to an official.
You will then submit your letter or opinion piece to the media organization or influential person
or you have identified. Instructions for the two are described below.
a. If you choose to write an opinion piece, you can find instructions for doing so on the
newspaper’s website. For instance, in Tucson, you can find these instructions for the Arizona
Daily Star at https://speedway.tucson.com/letters/?action=opinion. You can also read opinion
pieces at https://tucson.com/opinion/ to get a sense of what a good opinion piece looks like.
b. If you choose to write a letter to a public official, it should be formatted with the proper address
and title of the official, as well as your name, address, and email. Your letter should consist of an
introductory paragraph stating briefly who you are, your relation to the subject (are you a
constituent of the area the representative serves, are you a concerned citizen?), and the specific
topic you are writing about.
The next paragraph should consist of a description of the problem and why you are concerned
about it. Your final paragraph should include a solution to the problem and a statement of thanks
to the official. An example of how to format a letter written to an elected official can be found
here:
https://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aboutaasl/aaslcommunity/quicklinks/el/Sa
mple_Letter_to_Elected_Officials.pdf
Format Requirements:
See Instructions section.

Communicating with your community on a water issue is licensed by Sharon Brewer,
Thompson Rivers University (BC, Canada) and Darian Qureshi, Pima Community College
(Arizona) under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC)