In my opinion International mindedness is an understanding and awareness that despite how much distance exists between two individuals, their actions will, either directly or indirectly, affect one another in several different aspects of life i.e. global warming, and through several different forums i.e. media. 

I believe being a global citizen requires acknowledgment of the idea of globalisation and how, even if we don’t always realise it, we are dependent on one another and this planet we share. So a global citizen is someone who is aware of, and understands the wider world - and their role in it where they use the world’s resources sustainably, and not selfishly, as the globe is shared.   

A topic that comes up in biology in a lot of different curriculums is sustainability and sustainable practices, which are practices of a global citizen. For example, the importance of not overfishing, and fishing quotas, and the negative impacts of deforestation are often discussed on national and global scales.

There is also often a focus on ethics when discussing scientific studies, such as use of embryonic stem cells in scientific research, for which the rules vary depending on the nation, and the rationale behind why countries have made the decisions they have. Additionally, in the curriculum I currently teach, the ethics and consequences and national limitations of animal testing when developing pharmaceutical drugs is discussed. These are both topics global citizens should be aware of. 

There are infinite ways in which classroom practise has benefited from contributions from other communities, cultures, and nationalities. Fundamentally, on a larger scale, the scientific community and our knowledge of scientific concepts would not have progressed at the rate that it has without scientists reading the studies and collaborating with scientists of other nations. On a more personal level some ways in which my classroom practise has benefited from contributions from other communities, cultures, and nationalities is through things like this course. We all bring holistic pedagogical ideas to our forums from the communities and cultures we live in, and ideas that other have mentioned on previous international online courses have influenced my ideas in my classroom lessons, As I’m sure discussions from this course will on my future practise.   

I believe for biology, or any course for that matter, one can help their students to understand the importance of international understanding by looking at case studies of where this has not been the case in the past and looking at the negative ramifications that had occurred as a result of lack of international understanding. For example, in biology, my class and I looked at a case study a couple of years ago during our extinction lesson. We looked at a species of fish (I can’t remember which one at the moment), which was heavily fished in the 1980’s, before fishing quotas were applied, and it lead to the fish becoming extinct globally. We discussed how that species of fish is now not only extinct for humans, but also to its natural predators, and prey. We talked about this in the context of the negative impact on ecosystems, food webs etc. I think it is important for students to understand that globally societies need to learn from their mistakes, and given the continually globalising world, international understanding is vital.     

One example of an activity that I did in class to highlight international-mindedness was stated in question 5. Another activity that I did that was more celebratory of international-mindedness is a ‘global scientists timeline project’. This is a project I did with my students recently and involved the students researching national scientists and creating a timeline of their achievements which have all contributed to our understanding of scientific concepts today. It was a wonderful celebration of all of the different nations that have come together and contributed to the greater good of society and our understanding of the world around us, and the students seemed to really enjoy doing it too!