This page contains a wide range of activities for students to use at their Model UN club meetings or for teachers to use for their Model UN class.  Click the links below to jump to each category, or explore this page to see what works best for your Model UN organization!

Meeting Agendas

Curious about what you should do at your club’s weekly meeting? Here are some suggested meeting agendas used by successful MUN clubs around the country!

Weekly Meeting

  1. Welcome everybody as they enter the meeting. Bang gavel to get everybody’s attention as you start the meeting. (Optional- Take Attendance).
  2. Ask anybody new to introduce themselves and share what their name is, what year they’re in, how they heard about the club, and one interesting fun fact about themselves.
  3. Give any updates about the club that you need the members to be aware of, including:
    • Upcoming conferences to sign up for
    • Opportunities to volunteer for events or staff a conference
    • Events in the next few weeks that you want your members to show up and participate at
    • Any logistical announcements about upcoming conferences, and general news for the club
  4. Do at least one fun activity (we recommend you try some of the activities below, especially the Jeopardy and Public Speaking activities!)
  5. End the meeting on time, with a clear call action on anything that you need your membership to follow up with.

Executive Board Meeting

  1. Welcome everybody to the meeting.
  2. Each member of the Executive Board briefly shares their “Headlines”- any news that they want to share with the Executive Board.
  3. Review each person’s To-Do list from the previous week, and make sure everything on the list was accomplished.
  4. Briefly review any upcoming events, as well as your “scorecard” if you have any goals your team is working towards.
  5. Have each member of the team identify any issues that need to be discussed, and spend the majority of the meeting finding a solution to each of these issues.
  6. Create a To-Do list of follow-up items, and adjourn the meeting.

First Meeting of the Year

  1. Welcome everybody to the meeting.
  2. Introduce yourself, and have each member of the Executive Board, as well as your advisor (if present) introduce themselves.
  3. Start the meeting with a club-wide Icebreaker (see list here).
  4. Send around a sign-up list for everybody to list their name, year, and email address.
  5. Explain what your club is, what your mission is, and any expectations and rules you have for the members.
  6. Preview your major events for the year- any conferences you’re traveling to or hosting, any advocacy projects you’re undertaking, and any fundraisers or other exciting events that club members can participate in.
  7. Do one public speaking or current events activity (try to avoid activities that are too MUN-focused at the first meeting- you don’t want to scare off people that haven’t tried MUN yet!).
  8. Invite any new members to come introduce themselves to you after the meeting. Clearly state when and where you meet each week, and adjourn the meeting. Follow up with an email about meeting details and more information for new members.

Elections Meeting

  1. Welcome everybody to the meeting
  2. Take attendance, and make sure you have a quorum of members attending (if your club requires a certain quorum for elections).
  3. Quickly run through weekly updates and upcoming events
  4. Pass out paper ballots for every member of the organization- each person should have the number of ballots (can be scrap paper) as the number of seats up for election.
  5. Explain the rules of the election to the membership. Each club can create their own rules, however we recommend the following (even if you don’t use these rules, make sure your rules are explained beforehand and consistent!):
    • Each candidate for each position will have 2 minutes to deliver a speech on why they should be elected
    • Once all candidates have spoken, a secret ballot will be taken. Ballots will be counted by the advisor and outgoing President.
    • If a majority is not achieved on the first vote, another vote will be taken between the top 2 vote-receiving candidates. Ties should be broken by re-votes.
    • Once a candidate receives a majority of the votes, they are officially elected. Candidates who are not elected are still eligible to run for the remaining positions.
    • Voting should go in order of most to least senior position (for example, President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Director of Membership, Secretary, etc.)
  6. Commence the speeches and voting on each position. If you run out of time, finish the current position being voted on, and pick up where you left off at your next meeting.
  7. Once all candidates are elected, finish the meeting by officially introducing the new Executive Board, and hold a training session for your new leaders after the meeting.

United Nations Activities

SDG Posters

SDG projectA great way for the group to learn about specific issues while having fun is through poster projects. Let each group choose a Sustainable Development Goal or a Non-Governmental Organization and channel their creativity to put together a poster about their goal or organization. They should write about why their goal or organization can help the world with specific solutions. Then, once every group has completed their poster, they can practice their public speaking by presenting their poster (or Video!) to everybody else. For extra MUN-relevant practice, try having them do a Q&A Session after their presentation! We recommend budgeting 90-120 minutes for this activity, with students in groups of 3-6.

UN Jeopardy

JeopardyIn need of a fun activity to quiz the class on UN Trivia? Split everybody into four groups, and try these Jeopardy challenges! You can also think of fun Final Jeopardy questions, or make your own (about the UN, current events, world affairs, or MUN Procedure) using jeopardylabs.com! Each round of jeopardy will take 20-30 minutes.

UN Jeopardy Level 1

UN Jeopardy Level 2

UN Jeopardy Level 3 (we recommend you let students use their books or phones to research for this one!)

Public Speaking Activities

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For and Against

This is an easy activity for all levels of students. Pick 2 students to come to the front of the room, and assign each of them either “for” or “against”. Then, throw out a topic that they have to argue for or against. This helps them practice for moderated caucuses, as they have to represent views that may not be their own, and think on their feet to respond to other students. Topics can range from serious to silly, for example For or Against…..

  • Gun Control
  • Foreign Aid
  • Donald Trump’s Hair
  • UN Security Council Reform
  • School Uniforms
  • Pistachio Ice-cream

JAM (Just a Minute) Sessions

JAM sessions are popular for both Model UN delegates and improv comedians, because this helps practice impromptu speaking skills. Have a student come to the front of the room, and throw out a topic for them to speak on. Give them 15 seconds to prepare, and then they have to deliver a speech as close to 1-minute in length as possible. This is great practice for timed speeches at Model UN conferences!

Word Linking

Another impromptu activity, this game has students shout out a few random words. Then, the speaker has to find a way to bring them all together into a story. If they can use all the words in one minute, they win!

Funny Pictures

Have a student come to the front of the room. When it is time for them to speak, pull up a funny picture on the computer- their job is to explain the picture! For more advanced students, you can put together an entire string of photos, or have them play PowerPoint Karaoke!

Filler Words Signaling

Have students prepare their speech like normal, however have the audience do a “signal” whenever the speaker demonstrates a bad speaking habit, like “Filler Words”. You could have the audience raise their hands every time the speaker says “Like” or “Uhm”, encourage the audience to put a hand behind their ear if the speaker is too quiet, or any other creative signals to help speakers get over their bad habits!

Distracting Audience

After students have written their speeches, have each come up to deliver them. While they deliver their speech, a few members of the audience should actively try to distract them- either through chatting and ignoring the speech, making funny faces, or getting up and moving out of the room. The speaker has to try to stay focused and not break from their delivery of the speech, because every Model UN committee will always have distractions!

Five Good Reasons

This activity can be done with either prepared or impromptu statements, but the goal is to get students to provide more defenses and ideas related to the topic at hand. Students are asked to give five good reasons why their solution will be successful, why their topic should be addressed, or why their country policy is correct. This will allow them to craft more detailed solutions and stand up to more scrutiny at a conference. For more advanced students, you can also ask more questions about each and every reason offered by the speaker- see if they can successfully explain and defend all five!

Resolution Writing and Negotiation Activities

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Fun Resolution Practice

It can be hard for students to learn how to write resolutions in Model UN- it’s a complicated process, made even more difficult by the complex topics they have to write about. Before trying to get students to write resolutions about difficult items like Sustainable Development, bring it down to something more approachable, so they can focus on getting the format right. A few topics we recommend are:

  • School Uniforms
  • What type of pizza is the best?
  • Driving Age
  • Should schools have summer breaks?
  • Should arts (or gym class) be required in school?
  • Anything else relevant to your students!

Clause Transformation

Like with the previous activity, it can be challenging for students to learn how to write solutions to complex topics while also learning about strict resolution format. You can also look at this issue another way- have students write out their solutions to complex topics in simple sentence format. What should the UN do about Climate Change? Or Small Arms Trade?

Once students have written out their sentences, show the group how to “transform” these solutions into clauses. For example:

Sentence: Countries should try to reduce their carbon emissions by 50% by 2040
Transform: Recommends Ccountries should try to reduce their carbon emissions by 50% by 2040;
Clause: Recommends countries reduce their carbon emissions by 50% by 2040;

Consensus Crunch

One of the biggest complaints of students in Model UN is “my country policy says I can’t work with them!”. This activity helps students learn that no matter who they’re negotiating with, they can find common ground. Assign each student a country (or policy), and give them a topic. After students have had some time to research their basic country policy, get them in to groups of 4-10 and tell them that they have to find as many statements of common ground as they can. The group with the most statements in agreement wins. Even two completely opposite countries will be able to find a few statements they can agree on about the topic, and this activity will help prepare students for how to handle disagreements in unmoderated caucuses.

Arm Wrestling Zero Sum Game

In Model UN, students should work together to help their entire group improve, instead of tearing each other down. This is known as “Zero Sum” versus “Positive Sum” thinking. To help demonstrate this, have students get into pairs, facing each other across a desk. Then, tell them to copy the position you are in, and get into an arm wrestling stance with somebody (without ever saying the words “Arm Wrestling”).  Tell them that the goal of the game is to touch the back of their opponent’s hand to the desk as many times as possible in 30 seconds- each time they do this, they get a point. Then say “Go!” and see what happens.

Most of your students will assume a “Zero Sum” game, and immediately begin arm wrestling, slowing both students down. Some, however, will simply flip-flop their hands back and forth or find other ways to cooperate, and end up with 10 or 20 times as many points as the other competitors! This is a great way to demonstrate Zero Sum versus Positive Sum thinking to students, and encourage them to look for ways to negotiate and cooperate with other students.

Model UN Procedure Activities

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Practice Topics

One of the hardest (and most important) things to teach Model UN delegates is the proper Rules of Procedure. Your Rules of Procedure may vary by conference, however there are a few key ways you can help students practice this procedure without them being distracted by equally complicated topics. Simply choose something that requires no research, and is super easy to discuss! Some topics include:

  • What are better, Fruits or Vegetables? Delegates can finish by writing a “recipe” for a salad using different Fruits or Vegetables.
  • Who should rule the animal kingdom, Land, Sea, or Air animals? Have students draft resolutions proclaiming the new heirarchy.
  • What Pizza should the group order? Debate, and then write a resolution for what will be included on the pizza!

Make sure to take students through Opening Debate, the Speakers’ List, Moderated Caucuses, Unmoderated Caucuses, and Voting Procedure in this activity to help them learn procedure!

Point of Order Game

Throughout practice topics, or really any Model UN simulation you do within your school, you can play the “Point of Order” game to get students to pay more attention to the Rules of Procedure. Have the Chair occasionally make mistakes (with precedence of motions, voting, etc.)- the first delegate to raise a “Point of Order” when this happens gets a point! However, if they raise a Point of Order incorrectly, they lose a point. At the end of the simulation, tally up the points and see who wins!

Current Events Activities

News Moderated Caucuses

For this activity, simply choose a news story from the previous week- preferably global news. Do a quick presentation on it or show a video about the news story. Then, open up the floor to a moderated caucus about the topic! Ask how the group feels about the issue or what can be done about it.

Current Events News Quizzes

If somebody has time to put together a Jeopardy Challenge each week (try using jeopardylabs.com), try kicking off meetings or classes with a Current Events Jeopardy Challenge, using news from around the world that week. Or, have the class compete in groups to choose the rights answers to the New York Times Weekly News Quiz (don’t tell them that’s where the questions are coming from, or they might look them up ahead of time!).

Fantasy Geopolitics

Everybody loves fantasy football and basketball- why not try the same thing for World Affairs? Fantasy Geopolitics allows students to draft and trade countries and put together their dream team. Each country earns points for how often it is mentioned in the New York Times that week, encouraging students to follow the news and be more engaged with world affairs! You can sign up in small groups of 4-5 for free, or purchase a plan for the entire class to play together. Check it out here. 

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