Category Archives: Debates

Environment

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‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is the name of a movie by former U.S. vice president Al Gore. The movie is a presentation about climate change and its effects. The purpose of the movie is to inform the people of the world, and especially the U.S., that global warming is real and caused by humans.  It also shows how we can change global warming. Watch the movie trailer with English subtitles and give your opinion about the following questions :

  • What are some ways that you can reduce pollution in this country?
  • What can you do to help prevent pollution?
  • What can you do to make this world a better place?
  • Which is more important, increasing people’s standard of living, or protecting the environment?

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Interesting Stories is a collection of interactive stories that focus on the intersection of human health and the environment.
These stories are based on real-life problems that involve the effect of our environment on our health.

Throughout the story, you will encounter information that explores the science behind the key health questions in the story. Analyze this information and then use it to answer the open-ended question that completes each story.

inside-stories

Vocabulary, articles, news, games and information relating to the environment


Secrets of the Psychics

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Since we are going to deal with this topic, I am posting a very interesting documentary presented by James Randi, a master magician who uncovers the secrets about psychics. After you watch the video, I would like to know your opinion about psychics :

Do you believe they  have special powers? Can they be able to move objects at will, read a person’s thoughts, or even cure physical illnesses with the power of the mind? Have you ever been to a psychic? Is psychics power real or fake?

This documentary is divided into 6 parts. This is the first part of the programme but you can watch the following episodes on YouTube if you want to know more about Randi’s investigations.

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PISA report

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Are students well prepared for future challenges? Can they analyse, reason and communicate effectively? Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life? The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) answers these questions and more, through its surveys of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialised countries. Every three years, it assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills essential for full participation in society.

Based on test results in 2006, Finland and South Korea  were in the top five in reading and maths. Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Greece were below average .

 What are the reasons for this poor performance of our teenagers?

How would you improve these results?

Watch this video  about  learning science in a Primary School in Finland.

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