The Cancer-Test Kid After a family friend died of pancreatic cancer, high school sophomore Jack Andraka invented a diagnostic strip that could detect the disease in its early stages. WHIZ KID: Jack Andraka’s tireless work in the Johns Hopkins University lab of pathologist Anirban Maitra paid off in the form of a $75,000 scholarship.COURTESY OF JACK ANDRAKAIn the spring of 2011, 15-year-old Jack Andraka had a lot on his mind. A close friend of the family, a man who was like an uncle to Andraka, had recently died of pancreatic cancer. Reading up on the disease, the then high school freshman discovered that around 85 percent of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed too late, when patients have less than a 2 percent chance of survival. The reason, Andraka learned, was that the best tools for early detection are both expensive and woefully inaccurate. “I was like, ‘There has to be a better way than this really crappy test,’” says Andraka, currently a sophomore at North County High School in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Socialising 1: Breaking the ice Socialising 1: Breaking the ice Submitted by admin on 15 May, 2012 - 12:26 For many people, the idea of walking into a room full of strangers and trying to socialise with them can be terrifying, especially if you have to use a foreign language. Topic: Socialising and starting conversations Level: Intermediate (B2) and above Aims: To discuss and deal with some of the psychological issues connected with starting conversations with strangers.To teach some useful phrases for starting a conversation and leaving a conversation.To provide practice and feedback of the situation of starting and leaving conversations with strangers. Plan components Lesson plan: download Worksheets: download By Jeremy Day The plans and worksheets are downloadable and in pdf format - right click on the attachment and save it on your computer. Copyright - please read All the materials on these pages are free for you to download and copy for educational use only. Printer-friendly version
Motivating teenagers I will link three practical classroom activities to the ideas of American Psychologist Carl Rogers. The ideas of Carl Rogers Types of motivation and teenagers Ways to improve motivation:Journals - empathy Using photos - authenticity Music - acceptance The ideas of Carl Rogers Rogers (1957) outlined 3 attitudinal qualities that a teacher, or in his words, a facilitator, should have to assist the learning process. They are empathy (seeing things from the students' viewpoint), authenticity (being yourself) and acceptance (of students' ideas and opinions). Types of motivation and teenagers It is widely agreed that motivation has a great effect on a student's capacity to learn. Ways to improve motivation Journals - Empathy Journal writing can create wonderful opportunities to find out more about your students' lives. Joanna Budden, British Council, Spain I will link three practical classroom activities to the ideas of American Psychologist Carl Rogers. Ways to improve motivation
Controlled oral practice in ELT – what happened to drilling? [This article was originally published as What happened to drilling? in the BELTA Bulletin in October 2014. It’s available on-line for BELTA members here. It’s reprinted here with the permission of the editor.] As communicative language teachers we are told that drilling is bad. We’re told it is pointless, uncommunicative and deprived of any meaning. Before you jump on the bandwagon and continue the rant, I’d like you to pause for a moment and ask yourself whether drilling really has to be so horribly boring and uncommunicative as we are repeatedly told. In this article I’m going to first look at eight common criticisms of drilling and controlled oral practice (COP) and show why they are not all together accurate. Let’s then look at the criticisms. Criticism: Too much emphasis put on accuracy, hindering the development of real communication skills. Having dealt with some of the most common criticisms, let’s look at examples of COP. Substitution Drills: T: midday T: she T: he/drinking Related
Hail the Kale! More Vegan Grub on the High Street 27 Sep Good news for sandwich fans! PETA UK Vegan Food Award winner and national fast-food chain Pret A Manger has added even more vegan goodies to its offerings! A new Super Greens sandwich, featuring kale, spinach and avocado, joins its Naked Avocado Bloomer as a vegan option on its sandwich shelf. It’s also added more varieties of vegan soup: the beetroot and horseradish soup, South Indian tomato and spice soup, smoky root vegetable and bean soup and butternut squash and sage soup are all delicious and free of animal products. Pret has also added a page to its “What Can I Eat” guide that details all the choices for hungry herbivores. Earlier this month, Pret won a PETA UK Vegan Food Award, which highlighted the best food for compassionate eaters. The number of plant-based foods will only grow as more and more Britons make the compassionate decision to go vegan. Share This
Socialising 2: Keeping conversations going Socialising 2: Keeping conversations going Submitted by admin on 14 May, 2012 - 13:00 After struggling to break the ice, the next obstacle is to keep the conversation going beyond the initial conversation. For this reason, this lesson aims to provide students with a bank of around 15 questions that they would feel comfortable asking in a conversation with a new acquaintance. They will also learn more general techniques involving different types of questions and the skill of turn-taking. Topic: Socialising and keeping conversations going Level: Intermediate (B2) and above Aims: To raise awareness of some techniques for maintaining a conversation with a person you have just met.To analyse the effect of different types of questions, and to practise making different types of question.To come up with and analyse a bank of questions that can be used to keep conversations going.To analyse and practise a technique for turn-taking in a conversation. Plan components Lesson plan: download
IATEFL 2018: Safe Speaking Environments - What? Why? How? | WoBL Published 9 April 2018 In our first post from IATEFL 2018, we’re sharing the talk from Professor of Psycholinguistics, Zoltán Dörnyei, on what exactly Safe Speaking Environments are and why you should care. The talk looks at creating a psychological environment in the classroom which might make students’ lives easier. Create suitable conditions in accordance with the main tenets of group dynamics, andApply the principles of safe speaking environments What conditions need to be in place so we can start implementing a safe speaking environment? Zoltán talks about group cohesiveness being a very important attribute, which determines the productivity of the group, and the degree of members’ engagement with the group. He looks at eight different factors that promote group cohesiveness, including cooperation, competition and teachers’ leadership styles. Zoltán goes on to discuss group norms – the rules and regulations that govern classroom life, as well as unproductive norms. 1. 2. 3.
Motivating speaking activities for lower levels | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC Planning time has been shown to increase production in speaking tasks. Lower level learners often find it especially difficult to speak spontaneously, so these activities incorporate 'thinking time' during which learners can prepare for speaking by planning what they are going to say, and asking the teacher or using a dictionary to look up missing vocabulary. The following activities are relatively short, with minimal materials preparation time for the teacher. They are designed for use as a warmer or a filler in the middle or at the end of a class. 1. This activity is good for activating existing vocabulary or revising vocabulary studied in previous lessons. Procedure Choose a vocabulary topic (this can be vocabulary you have recently studied or a topic you want to introduce). A faster-moving, fun alternative to this activity is a team game. 2. 3. This is a variation on the above activity and is great for practising adjectives. Cartoons, cartoon stories and unusual pictures 4. 5. 6.
Environment and climate change Cookies on the New Scientist website close Our website uses cookies, which are small text files that are widely used in order to make websites work more effectively. To continue using our website and consent to the use of cookies, click away from this box or click 'Close' Find out about our cookies and how to change them Environment Log in Your login is case sensitive I have forgotten my password close My New Scientist Look for Science Jobs IPCC: World must adapt to unknown climate future Metal-eating plants could mine riches through roots Slow-motion tremors make Tokyo megaquake more likely TODAY: 14:00 16 April 2014 Increasingly frequent slow-slip earthquakes, coupled with the after-effects of the 2011 Tōhoku megaquake, may be pushing the Tokyo area towards disaster What climate change has done to Walden's woods REVIEW: 20:00 15 April 2014 A hymn to citizen science, Walden Warming by Richard Primack seeks the reality of climate change in the effects that ordinary people have recorded Most read Subscribe
Getting the whole class talking Getting the whole class talking Submitted by admin on 16 August, 2011 - 14:39 The following activities are designed to get everyone talking. Remember to set up and demonstrate these activities carefully before letting the class go ahead. Jigsaw puzzle challenge Take 3-4 large pictures/photos and stick them on card. Something in common or 'give me five' Explain that we can all find something in common with those around us. Create a biography Take a biography of a famous person and write each detail on strips of paper. These activity ideas originally appeared on the British Council Language Assistant website Clare Lavery, British Council Printer-friendly version
Total physical response - TPR Where is it from? How can I use it in class? When should I use it? Where is it from? TPR stands for Total Physical Response and was created by Dr. How can I use it in class? In the classroom the teacher plays the role of parent. It is more effective if the students are standing in a circle around the teacher and you can even encourage them to walk around as they do the action. When should I use it? TPR can be used to teach and practise many things. Vocabulary connected with actions (smile, chop, headache, wriggle) Tenses past/present/future and continuous aspects (Every morning I clean my teeth, I make my bed, I eat breakfast) Classroom language (Open your books) Imperatives/Instructions (Stand up, close your eyes) Storytelling It can be adapted for all kinds of teaching situations, you just need to use your imagination! Why should I use it in the classroom? It is a lot of fun, students enjoy it and it can be a real stirrer in the class. A few useful variations
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