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LEASURE

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Resources:
1. Aberdeen's Homecoming Tartan Day
2. World Festival of Youth & Students

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4nGB91xzZU
3. World Youth Day Youth Festival
https://zenit.org/articles/world-youth-day-youth-festival-aims-to-bring-youth-together-through-entertainment-cultural-development-and-spiritual-formation/

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1. Discuss how important festivals and fairs are.
2. Write a description of a significant festival or fair held in their own culture.

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1. How important are festivals and fairs in bringing people together?
2. Do you think festivals and fairs give an accurate idea of the culture they belong to?

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Text type: Article
1. Ghandi once said: "no culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive" Write a newspaper article in which you explain how much festivals can contribute to nourishing roots of culture and keeping them alive.

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Audience
Meaning

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HEALTH

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Resources:
1. You too can be a medical practitioner by Julia Wilson. The Guardian, 2010.
2. Are you ready for digital pills by GreenMedInfo Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/are-you-ready-digital-pills
3. A Hypochondriac Nation by Tracey Brown. Culture Wars, 2008. http://www.culturewars.org.uk/index.php/article/hypochondriac_nation/

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Do you remember the traditional way to treat burns? Or what would happen to your face if the wind changed? If you think you can answer these questions, why not become a registered practitioner of Old Wives' Traditional Medicine?

Tomorrow at 11.30am outside the Department of Health in London, a new professional registration scheme for practitioners in the medical tradition of Old Wives' Tales will be launched. A group of junior medics and scientists from the Voice of Young Science (VoYS) network will form the new VoYS School of Old Wives' Traditional Medicine (pdf). They will hand out diplomas for people to practise Old Wives' Traditional Medicine, registering members of the public who can correctly answer questions about traditional cures and advice. The assessment is free of charge and absolutely no medical training or understanding of human physiology is required.

Hang on a moment. Surely it is better to stop people practising medicine that isn't evidence-based rather than encourage it? Well, according to the Department of Health, to be worthy of a professional registration scheme all that really matters is for practitioners to be following traditional methods. In a Department of Health steering committee report, and a later consultation to look into how the government should regulate traditional medicine practitioners, a professional registration scheme was proposed.

Just like the VoYS scheme, it would register practitioners for everything except whether a practitioner has medical training or whether the field is based on proper evidence.
The VoYS School of Old Wives' Traditional Medicine is delighted with this proposed scheme, as it flatters practitioners just for following traditional methods, and does away with the need for any of that difficult medical training. And while Trading Standards and other schemes already regulate practitioners for standards of hygiene, English fluency and criminal records, a Department of Health stamp of approval is far more glamorous.

But hang on a minute. What if you want little Johnny to be treated by someone with professional medical training? Could that lump that's appeared on the side of his face be indicative of something more serious than the wind changing while he pulled a face?

Sense About Science and a group of professional societies including the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, the Royal College of Pathologists and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences are indeed concerned about the risks of misdiagnosis (pdf), dangerous drug interactions and the problems of blurring the line between what is and what is not medicine.

But the new scheme has the Department of Health's approval, so there can't be anything to worry about, can there? And as the previous health minister Andy Burnham said:

I believe that the introduction of such a register will increase public protection, but without the full trappings of professional recognition which are applied to practitioners of orthodox healthcare."

Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's junior doctors committee, objects:

Providing regulation that looks like the kind of regulation that real medicine gets adds an undeserved veneer of respectability to essentially unproven therapies ... If they are proper treatments then they will be covered by the existing medical regulations; if they're not, then there is no benefit to dressing them up as being on a par with actual medical practice."

What a spoilsport. The Department of Health has reassured us, though, that a professional registration scheme that doesn't check for evidence or medical training is the right thing to do.

Come and show the Department of Health your enthusiasm for more registration schemes that don't require medical training. Take the test tomorrow, 8 September, between 11.30 and 12.30 at the Department of Health on Whitehall to see if you too can get a diploma in the medical tradition of Old Wives' Tales.

Julia Wilson is the VoYS Coordinator at Sense About Science
Topics

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You too can be a medical* practitioner | Julia Wilson

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Do you remember the traditional way to treat burns? Or what would happen to your face if the wind changed? If you think you can answer these questions, why not become a registered practitioner of Old Wives' Traditional Medicine?

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1. Opinion Essay
2. Blog Entry.

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It is not uncommon to very different approaches to coexist within a single human society. If two competing paradigms give different explanations, how can we decide which one is correct?
Research into one medical controversy:
1. Homeopathy
2. The Vitamin C diet
3. MMR vaccinations

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-Write a balanced essay.

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Purpose

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SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

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Resources:
1. Mitigate Crime, Poverty and Drug Use Through Education by Kristin Gabriel, 2011.
2. How to Change the Story about Students of Color by DENA SIMMONS, 2017. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_change_story_of_students_of_color
3. Why We Should Embrace Mistakes in School by Amy L. Eva, 2017. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_we_should_embrace_mistakes_in_school

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Rocco Basile is a man from Brooklyn, New York who has impressed me with regard to his beliefs about how we can all help to make changes in our world today through education.

Rocco Basile noted something that Gandhi believed. Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself. What better book can there be than the book of humanity? (Mahatma K. Gandhi)

"My education taught me to be sympathetic to the needs of others and helped me understand how that can change a world. Like Gandhi said it is important for us to be the change we want to see in the world," said Rocco Basile.

The US Department of Education (ED) tagline states, "Promoting educational excellence for all Americans." This organization was created in 1980 and the ED mission is "to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access."

Some 4,500 ED employees and a $71.5 billion budget dedicated to establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, as well as distributing and monitoring the funds; collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research; focusing national attention on key educational issues; and prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.

For example, in Brooklyn, New York, gang violence is just part of everyday life. There are 17 thousand child abuse cases in this community that have been documented. One out of every three families lives below the poverty line. There is a 48 percent drop out rate among high school students, so out of the 30 thousand students, 15 thousand are dropouts. Drugs, disease, gang violence, and crime contribute to about a thousand deaths annually. More and more people are realizing that the answer is education.

"I feel my education has allowed me to understand the adverse effects it had on my life. I was educated, therefore I was able to read many books from every culture and religion, which inspired me to make positive changes," he continued. "It has given me the intuition to see how positive change circulates back into my life."

What happens to those in society that don't invest in education? Does it make a difference to the overall social structure and eventually affect our economy? William Schweke, author of a book entitled "Smart Money: Education and Economic Development" believes that prevention is almost always cheaper than treatment. He states that if we do not invest now, we most certainly will pay later and discusses the social costs of inadequate educational and workforce preparation opportunities, believing that by increasing earnings, education can lower social costs.

Schweke notes that there is a strong relationship between low basic skills and welfare dependency. 60 percent of out-of-wedlock births among 19 to 23-year-olds are to those who score in the lowest 20 percent on basic skills tests. About 82 percent of all Americans in prison are high school dropouts. Sadly, he also points out that the United States spends almost 10 times as much as Western European countries on security services, arrest, incarceration and parole, while these same countries spend comparable amounts on subsidized employment and training.

Many people like these men believe that educating our youth is the answer to will break the cycle of poverty, crime and drugs. "Educating our youth is the foundation for prosperity ... Economic problems, in turn, exacerbate social problems, such as crime, drug abuse, gangs, reliance on government assistance, and family break-ups. To ameliorate these weaknesses in the social fabric, public funds that might otherwise go toward productive investment are spent instead on crime control, drug treatment and income support programs," says Schweke. "Education positively affects income distribution."

In the darkness, there is an organization in Brooklyn, New York that is bringing light and making a difference to help do something about these statistics. There are hundreds of people in need of intervention, children in need of education, and families in need of counseling, and hope, and Children of the City is an organization making a difference.

Founded in 1981, the volunteer-based outreach connects people in need with basic services, educational and employment training, health care, counseling, and many other personal growth opportunities. People like Rocco Basile are working through organizations like this helping to reach children at risk and who can be resilient if they are given the right intervention and education.

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Mitigate Crime, Poverty and Drug Use Through Education

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Rocco Basile is a man from Brooklyn, New York who has impressed me with regard to his beliefs about how we can all help to make changes in our world today through education. Rocco Basile noted something that Gandhi believed. Real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself.

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1. Based on the following stimulus, give a personal response and justify it.
"My education taught me to be sympathetic to the desires of others and helped me recognize how that can alter the world"

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1. To what extent does the environment have an impact on the way an additional language is acquired?
2. How well can a hungry child learn?
3. What happens to the education of a child who is in physical danger?
4. What happens to the education of a child born to drug addicts?

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Writing: Speech
Listening:

The curtain silence. BBC Radio Programme.

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The Curtain Of Silence, 1972-1973, Horizon - BBC

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Programme about deafness in Britain today. (1973)

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1. Context
2. Meaning

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COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

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Resources:
1. CELL PHONES AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE FUTURE IS MOBILE by Blog Entry by Audrey Watters in Sustainable Development. April 19, 2010
2. Are mobile phones Africa's silver bullet? by Ann Perkins. The Guardian, 2010.
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

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Jump to navigation

On April 12, internet analyst Mary Meeker from Morgan Stanley gave a presentation on Internet trends. Meeker's reports on the "State of the Internet" have long been recognized as important indicators for the present and future directions of Internet and web technology trends. The assertion from Meeker's latest report: the future is mobile. Meeker predicts that in the next five years, mobile Internet will outstrip desktop Internet usage. She contends that 3G coverage has reached a global inflection point. In other words, it available to over 20% of the world's cellphone users. Although this ranges depending on location -- from 54% coverage in Western Europe to 96% coverage in Japan, from 7% coverage in Central and South American to 12% in Africa -- there is little doubt that the push towards mobile technology and mobile Internet access will have profound impacts on the entire world.

According to some figures, more than 80% of the worldâ€™s population now lives within range of a cellular network, a figure that has doubled in the past ten years. As Johanna Hoopes wrote here in November, there are more than 4 billion cell phones now in use around the globe, and 75% of them are located in developing countries. Hoopes's article notes the opportunities for both entrepreneurs and end-users: the growth of the mobile operator industry, the development of mobile money transfers.

With the advent of text-messaging and low-cost calls and cheaper phones, mobile technologies have been embraced by consumers, investors, and governments in the developing world. The construction of cellular networks allows for the bypass of government-run telecommunication systems, which can be beneficial in terms of difficult bureaucracies and non-existent infrastructures. It is often easier and cheaper to build and maintain cell towers in remote areas than it is to integrate them into pre-existing telecom networks.

Research has shown that cellphone access helps spur economic growth in the developing world. Cellphones are a powerful communication device in areas that have often been without access to regular telecom service. They allow users access to information, whether for business, medical, or educational purposes. For those without fixed addresses and without bank accounts, a cellphone gives them a place where they can be contacted and a means by which they can pay bills. Unlike other forms of communication, including most web technologies, cellphones do not require literacy (although they can play a role in its development).

There are still many barriers to the spread of mobile technology in the developing world. The cost of phones is still too high for some. Many areas still do not have cell phone coverage. And most importantly, perhaps, many areas do not have the power necessary to recharge the phones. It may be that the pressures to expand mobile technology into the developing world can press forward other sustainable energy projects, such as solar-charging mobile phone stations.

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Cell Phones and Sustainable Development: The Future Is Mobile

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On April 12, internet analyst Mary Meeker from Morgan Stanley gave a presentation on Internet trends. Meeker's reports on the "State of the Internet" have long been recognized as important indicators for the present and future directions of Internet and web technology trends. The assertion from Meeker's latest report: the future is mobile.

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1. Book review
2. Based on the following stimulus, give a personal response and justify it.
"I'll admit sometimes I miss the simple life before mobile phones existed. Being connected to the world at all times comes with an incredible number of perks, but it has huge disadvantages too.

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More and more people have access to mobile phones and the Internet. Does this growth lead to more information or more knowledge? Is the same answer valid for a farmer in Tanzania with access to a community phone and an IB Diploma student in an international school?

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Text type:
1. Public commentary

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Variation
Purpose

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THE ENVIRONMENT

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Resources:
1. Public supports geoengineering research, survey finds by Hanna Gersmann. The Guardian, 2011.
2. What steps can the UK take to reach net zero emissions by 2050? by Fiona Harvey. The Guardian, 2018

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The British, American and Canadian public is largely in favour of research into engineering the planet's climate to combat global warming, according to a study published on Monday. But critics said the paper was "not exactly disinterested science" because one of the authors is the founder and president of a geoengineering company.

The first international survey on the perception of geoengineering, published in the Environmental Research Letters of the Institute, comes at a critical stage as a major UK test project was recently postponed.

Scientists from Cambridge, Oxford, Reading and Bristol universities had planned to send a balloon with a hose attached 1km into the sky above Norfolk within months, to test the future feasibility of pumping hundreds of tonnes of minute chemical particles a day into the thin stratospheric air to reflect sunlight and cool the planet. But late in September, they delayed the test, citing the need to "allow time for more engagement with stakeholders."

The new 18-question, internet-based survey, was "designed to ascertain how widespread public knowledge of geoengineering was and how the public actually perceived it."

Some 72% of the 3,105 participants in the UK, US and Canada said they "somewhat" or "strongly" supported general research when asked: "Do you think scientists should study solar radiation management?"

But there was also significant support for views such as: "The Earth's temperature is too complicated to fix with one technology"; "Humans should not be manipulating nature in this way", or "Research into solar radiation management will lead to a technology that will be used no matter what the public thinks."

Prof David Keith of Harvard University, one of the authors, said: "Some reports have suggested that opposition to geoengineering is associated with environmentalists, but our results do not support this view. We found that geoengineering divides people along unusual lines. Support for geoengineering is spread across the political spectrum and is linked to support for science concern about climate change. The strongest opposition comes from people who self-identify as politically conservative, who are distrustful of government and other elite institutions, and who doubt the very idea that there is a climate problem."

But Jim Thomas from the Ottawa-based technology watch ETC Group, that campaigns against geoengineering, said: "This commissioned survey by a commercial company is not exactly disinterested science - it's more like a marketing exercise by a high profile geoengineering advocate and his students."

Thomas said that Keith was "consistently on the record as a supporter of real world geoengineering experiments". He added: "Keith has designed 'self levitating' nanoparticles to be released in the upper atmosphere and managed a multi-million dollar private fund from Bill Gates from which he distributed monies to technicians developing geoengineering hardware to be used by private companies in experiments."

Keith is also the founder and president of Carbon Engineering, a geoengineering company with 10 employees funded with around $6m by Gates and tar sands oil magnate Murray Edwards.

Keith told the Guardian: "To be clear, starting two years ago I did organise a commercial activity in CO ₂ removal [another form of geoengineering], but I believe that commercial activity in solar geoengineering should be restricted or where feasible prohibited."

He said that ETC Group was "attacking the messenger, not the message".

"We are happy to make all the survey materials publicly available. If the survey is wrong then ETC should work with a survey firm or an academic to produce a survey that contradicts these results. Our survey was reviewed by Nick Pidgeon, a leading expert on studying public reception," he said. Pidgeon told the Guardian that, while he was a peer-reviewer for the study, he was not endorsing it any way.

Ashley Mercer, co-author of the study at the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy at the University of Calgary, said: "I can assure you the funding sources did not bias this research or its design. The goal was to simply assess current understanding and provide baseline data on emerging attitudes."

Earlier this October, the Washington-based thinktank Bipartisan Policy Center published a major report calling for the United States and other countries to move forward on "climate remediation". Prof John Shepherd, chair of the Royal Society's Working Group on geoengineering, wrote in the Guardian in September that research would be "sadly necessary" because current greenhouse gas emission cuts and political will were not sufficient to stop global warming.
Topics

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Public supports geoengineering research, survey finds

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The British, American and Canadian public is largely in favour of research into engineering the planet's climate to combat global warming, according to a study published on Monday. But critics said the paper was "not exactly disinterested science" because one of the authors is the founder and president of a geoengineering company.

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1. Blog Entry
2. Article

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1. If there is an influence, does it occur in natural science research?

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IA practice (Visual stimulus)
IA practice (interview)

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Audience
Context

Variation