Day 8 - Friday, Dec 12th
Hi all,
Today was the last day of Model UN for this term! Thank you to all the students for working so hard and making the experience so enjoyable - this has been a lovely class to teach, and I am excited to see many of you back next term. As well as that, a big thank you to parents and guardians for all your continued support and showing up for our debaters, especially for last week's competition. This could not have been possible without you!
Happy Holidays, and see you in the new year!
Mahveen :)
Day 6 - Friday, Nov 21st
Hi all,
Here is the debate topic for the week, along with the teams!
Should countries invest more money in building sanitation systems, even if it means spending less on other services?
Alyssa, Brandon, Matylda, Sophia - Angola
Mira, Naomi, Brendan, Blythe - Vietnam
Claire, Simon, Lara - Ukraine
Arya, Crystal, Lucas - Iraq
Additionally, please make sure to sign up ASAP for our upcoming debate competition on Tuesday, Dec 2nd, 2025 through the link in the email I sent out!
Day 5 - Friday, Nov 14th
Hi all,
Today, we presented our debate on encouraging more women and girls to pursue STEM career pathways. I was very impressed with all the teams today - everyone should be very proud of themselves. Our debates are improving by the week, and are becoming a lot more sophisticated! Keep up the good work everyone.
Our question for this week is:
Should nations across the world develop and/or improve public transport systems and encourage their citizens to take public transport more often to reduce carbon footprint and pollution?
The teams are as follows:
Qatar - Alyssa, Mira, Sophia, Lara
Canada - Naomi, Lucas, Matylda
Bolivia - Brandon, Simon, Blythe
Netherlands - Brendan, Crystal, Claire, Arya
Day 4 - Friday, Oct 31st
Hi all,
Our question for this week is:
How can nations access the world encourage and provide more opportunities to more girls and women to pursue STEM career pathways?
The teams are as follows:
Spain - Arya, Matylda, Mira
Oman - Lucas, Lara, Blythe, Sophia
Botswana - Claire, Crystal, Brandon
Thailand - Brendan, Alyssa, Naomi, Simon
A few important reminders:
- For parents - please make sure you email me in advance if there are changes in pick up arrangements for any given week. For your child's safety, I will not be able to send them home with another parent/let them walk home on their own unless I have received an email from you.
- Please ensure you are doing your share of the work in your groups - it is unfair to those who are putting in the effort and often having to do a disproportionate amount of the work. If you feel that you are taking on an unfair share of the weekly tasks, please come speak to me during class.
- Do not use AI to do your work.
Day 3 - Friday, Oct 24th
Hi all,
Today, we presented our debate on single use plastics. We also learnt how to formulate closing statements for our debate, meaning we ran through a full debate today! Everyone performed excellently.
Our statement for this week is:
Should countries make stronger laws to protect people's data from big technology companies?
The teams are as follows:
Germany - Alyssa, Mira, Lara, Simon
Uganda - Brendan, Naomi, Blythe
Bangladesh - Crystal, Arya, Brandon, Sophia
Japan - Matylda, Lucas, Claire
Day 2 - Friday, Oct 17th
Hi all,
Today, we presented our debate on world hunger, and our stances on whether or not developed countries should provide aid to developing countries to tackle the issue. We managed to get into some rebuttals and responses as well, which was excellent!
Our statement for this week is:
We should eliminate single use plastics by the year 2040, and instead find a more sustainable replacement.
A reminder that your country can partially agree with the statement, but you must explain why! You would still be taking the affirmative position even if your agreement is partial/conditional upon other factors, e.g. the delegates from ____ take the affirmative position, but under the following conditions: ____/not by the year 2040, but rather ____.
The teams are as follows:
Norway - Brendan, Sophia, Matylda
Morocco - Lucas, Blythe, Alyssa, Crystal
India - Simon, Naomi, Mira, Brandon
Brazil - Arya, Lara, Claire
As always, please make sure that the workload is evenly distributed - if it helps, you can assign each person in your team a section of the PEELS paragraph e.g. one person can be responsible for the greeting and point, another person can find a piece of evidence and explain it, another person could do another piece of evidence and an explanation for it, and another person could do the link and solution. Be creative and fair!
Please ensure that you are not using generative AI such as ChatGPT to write your responses for you!
Here is a sample opening statement:
GREETING - Hello my esteemed opponents. Today, I take the position that zoos are cruel and must be fixed in order to make sure animals live a healthy life. POINT - Zoos in India are cruel because they do not provide a good living environment for animals in the zoos. Zoos often overcrowd living spaces. EVIDENCE - According to the Deccan Herald, around ¼ of animals in zoos in India are endangered species. EXPLANATION - This means that if we do not treat these species with care, our endangered species will go extinct. This may affect other animals and humans as well! LINK - This proves that overcrowding zoos is a cruel thing to do. SOLUTION - Zoos must consider that different animals may require different types of living space. For example, a monkey may need trees to swing on, whereas a tiger may need lots of space to move freely, as they run and hunt in the wild. This means zoos will need to make sure animals have a similar environment to where they live in the wild. This means that governments around the world must invest more money into creating larger habitats in the zoos.
Day 1 - Friday, Oct 3rd
Hi all,
We had an excellent first day today! We learnt the structure of debate, what the history of the UN is, and did a practice debate in class today!
Our statement for this week is:
Developed nations should provide greater financial and food aid to developing nations to end world hunger.
Students should research in their groups to formulate their country's position and stance on the statement. A country can partially agree with the statement, but you must explain why! You would still be taking the affirmative position even if your agreement is partial/conditional upon other factors, e.g. developing nations should provide food aid, but under the following conditions _____/only in certain cases, such as ____.
The teams are as follows:
China - Sophia, Lucas, Naomi, Lara
Nigeria - Simon, Matylda, Claire
Morocco - Arya, Crystal, Brendan, Alyssa
USA - Mira, Brandon, Blythe
Please work as a group to formulate your argument - everyone exchanged email addresses in class today, so it is best to create a Google Doc/Word Document to complete your work. Please make sure that the workload is evenly distributed, and that you are not using generative AI such as ChatGPT to write your responses for you!
Welcome
Hi Everyone
Welcome to our program! My name is Mahveen and I will be the instructor for Model UN.
To help you prepare, we’ve included all the essential information you’ll need below. Please take a few minutes to read it— It's packed with helpful details about what to expect, and how to make the most of the experience!
I love teaching Model UN because this is a fun and engaging way of improving public speaking skills, confidence, and the ability to be quick on your feet. Model UN really helps improve your child's persuasive capabilities, which is an essential skill to have!
In this blog, you will get information on everything you need to keep up to date on our program. This blog will be updated weekly so please bookmark this page and refer to it weekly!
PLEASE DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE TO OUR EMAILS, AS WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO EMAIL YOU ANY UPDATES.
General Information
🕒 Class will start at 3:50PM and end at 4:50PM!
Please note as requested by the school, we are going to try to start the class earlier at 3:50PM. This means, pickup is 4:50PM. Please be on time to pick up your child.
How the program works:
- Our Model UN Represenatatives will be assigned a country, either individually or in small teams, to respond to a debate topic relating to pressing world matters from their assigned country's perspective.
- Representatives will research facts, statistics and other relevant information to form their argument. It is important to remember that you are not debating from your own personal standpoint, but rather from your country's standpoint. You will be able to gauge the country's standpoint based on the information you gather in your research.
- We will walk through each part of a debate, including opening statements, rebuttals/cross examination, and closing statements. We will learn how to do effective research, present ourselves in a formal manner and use sophisticated vocabulary.
- Debaters will be given a score at the end of every debate, which will be broken down and explained. Feedback will be given on what went well and what can be improved, and debaters will formulate their next debate with the feedback in mind to continuously improve!
UPCOMING EVENTS
During the school year, we will also be having an inter-school debate with TFS, Bayview Glen and Sunnybrook. Historically, Sunnybrook students have done very well, winning many trophies and medals! I am excited to teach them again!
About Mahveen
I am a third-year University of Toronto student, majoring in Psychology and double minoring in Political Science and Biomedical Ethics. I have been teaching a variety of programs at Explorer Hop for the past 2 years, including Model UN, Financial Literacy, and Entrepreneurship. I have lived in five different countries, and I love to travel, which gives me a well-rounded, inclusive and diverse perspective. I am looking to either go to Med School or do my master's in Psychology / Social Work and become a therapist. Happy to get any wisdom others in the universe are willing to give me as I try to make this decision!
My primary objective is to ensure that all our young debaters gain valuable knowledge and enjoy a positive, engaging experience!
You can reach me at mahveen@explorerhop.com for any questions or feedback!