Pressure on resources & the future security of places.

Objective:  to gain and understanding of the complexities of 'The Nexus' and how its complex interactions affect:
• national water security, including access to safe water
• national food security, including food availability
• national energy security, including energy pathways and geopolitical issues 

"Trade-offs between energy and water, or between energy and food, are increasingly being debated in terms of the 'nexus' – a buzzword which has risen in prominence over the past few years as a way of thinking about interconnections between food, water, energy and the environment. These systems are inextricably linked, and integrated approaches are required, which move beyond sectoral, policy and disciplinary silos"   
​James Wilsdon and Rose Cairns June 2014 

Note students should not be directed to this page before undertaking the following activity. 

Task  - We are going to use solo hexagons to critically examine the complexities between the Nexus of water, food, energy and climate change.  To to this the following resources are important. 

Step 1 - The Preparation 

• Ensure that students have a pair of scissors each, a glue stick and A2 sized sugar paper for the final display. 
• Four sets of cards should be available to the students too (see above)
• An interactive whiteboard (not essential) 

Split your teaching group into pairs or groups of three.  Explain to the students that they are going to be completing a hexagon activity and that there is no right or wrong answer. The key thing is the discussion that goes with the activity and making as many links between as many global issues as possible. 

Step 2 - The Traditional Approach 

• Distribute 'Hexagon Card Set 1' (above right) and ask students to sort out the statements first into groupings and then to start making links between the groups. Possible groupings:  
  1. What is nexus?   2.  Past trends   3.  Future trends (may include rise of the middle class otherwise this could be a category in its own right) 4.  Climate change   5. Water    6.  Food    7.  Energy  8.  Other info
• If you have an interactive whiteboard, you may want to click on the link to 'Set 1 - Interactive' and use this to ask the students to show their results visually at the end of this step.  
• The students may add any additional hexagon cards by writing them on the blanks provided and adding to their diagram
• Prompt discussion about the 'traditional' viewpoint of these global issues and how these groups of issues that have been tackled independently. Do they simply have small sub-groups of hexagons separate from each other?

Step 3 - The Nexus Approach & Critical Thinking

• Now distribute 'Hexagon Card Set 2' (above right) and now ask the students to complete their diagrams. This may involve completely starting over again with their hexagon structure in order to incorporate this new nexus approach.
• Students can be given a chance to add their own cards to the diagram and there should be plenty of discussion of how they have come to the formation on their display card.
• A possible ordering can be seen by clicking here​

hexagon cards - Set 1

hexagon cards - Set 2

hexagon cards - SDG's

blank hexagon sheet

set 1 - interactive w/B

set 2 - interactive W/B

Images from Tarr's toolbox blog

Step 4 - The final display

• T​he students would then be given time to organize their cards (paper versions) onto display card.

 
Step 5 - Links with the SDG's

• A plenary would include a final pack of hexagons each with the logo of the 17 SDG’s where students have to fit them into the diagram as extensions to the hubs and nodes that they already have glued down.

 
Step 6 - Exam Corner

• The sequence of the hexagons diagram could then be further examined by using a hexagons Venn Diagram and ultimately  used in conjunction with the IB essay planner to formulate a response to the following 15 mark homework question                                               

“Water, food and energy security can no longer be viewed as isolated global problems” – critically examine this statement (15) 

Unit Planner v.1

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Additional Resources - For follow up lessons (not yet planned)

the guardian - what is a nexus?

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Sources of information.

With thanks to Russel Tarr for his ideas and inspiration.

http://www.classtools.net/blog/venn-diagrams-compare-and-contrast-two-three-factors-visually/ 
http://www.classtools.net/blog/using-hexagon-learning-for-categorisation-linkage-and-prioritisation/ 
​http://www.classtools.net/hexagon/ 

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