Episode Details

366:  Teaching Geopolitics and World Affairs to Teens

Teaching teens about geopolitics and world affairs can feel intimidating—but it doesn’t have to be. In this episode of Homeschooling with Technology, Meryl van der Merwe shares practical tools and creative ideas for helping homeschool students understand current events, global conflict, geography, and media literacy in ways that feel engaging and age-appropriate. If you’ve ever wondered how to teach world affairs in your homeschool high school, this episode is a great place to start.

Understanding what’s happening in the world is a life skill — it shapes how your teens will vote, travel, and navigate adult conversations. And for college-bound students, being able to speak to current events in scholarship and admissions interviews is a real advantage. In this episode, I share several tech tools for making world affairs come alive in your homeschool, using the Iran conflict as a timely example.

Homeschooling with Technology is part of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network, where homeschool families find practical help, encouragement, and trusted resources for every stage of learning. From homeschool high school and parenting to technology, current events, and future-ready skills, UHPN brings together podcasts designed to support families in real life.

If you want to make current events, geography, and global conflict more understandable for your teen, these tools can help bring world affairs to life in a much more visual and engaging way.

Tools and Resources Mentioned

Ground News — (also available as an app and on Instagram) A solid starting point for current events. Free at the basic level. Headlines are summarized and labeled by political lean (left, center, right), making it a natural fit for media literacy alongside geopolitics.

Google Earth —  Better than Google Maps for geopolitics because it shows geographic features — mountains, waterways, terrain — that explain why certain locations matter strategically.

VesselFinder — Track real-time ship movement around the world. Right now you can watch the dramatic drop in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz (from over 100 ships per day to around five or six). Give each student a different ship to track and check back at mealtimes.

FlightRadar24 — flightradar24.com Watch how airlines are rerouting around Iranian airspace in real time. A great visual for understanding how conflict ripples into everyday life — and a reminder of how a volcanic eruption in Iceland once