This class aims to help you develop your own English communication knowledge and skills through studying some topics or disciplines that you are interested in.

In class, the teacher supports your learning by giving you lots of different topics or contents. You should choose what you want to study and listen to the topics, read the texts, write your reflections and speak to others.

I hope you will achieve CEFR B1 or B2 before finishing this class.

What is integrated learning?

Arts Integration for Deeper Learning in Middle School

English as a Lingua Franca

What is a Lingua Franca?

Ask the Doctor

Scripts

Netflix

What Is Brown Fat and Why Do We Want It?

What is Brown Fat?

Brown fat, or brown adipose tissue (BAT), is metabolically active fat that is turned on when your body gets cold. It produces heat to keep your body warm in colder temperatures. It contains many more mitochondria than white fat, which are the iron rich engines that burn calories and produce heat in brown fat. Researchers have become interested in studying it because it appears to be able to use regular body fat as fuel. As your body uses BAT to combat the cold temperatures, it burns calories (thermogenesis), creating heat without shivering. Babies, who have not yet developed the ability to shiver to maintain their body temperature, rely on the thermogenic deposits of brown fat in the neck and around the shoulders to stay warm. Initially, researchers assumed that BAT disappears during childhood, never to return. We now know, however, that adults in fact do have brown fat, and that we can stimulate our bodies to produce more.

Overview: Sleep Apnea

Sleep Apnea is a medical condition where you repeatedly stop and start breathing while you sleep. There are several types of sleep apnea, but by-far the most common type is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This type of apnea occurs when your throat muscles intermittently relax to the point of collapse and block your airway during sleep. A noticeable sign of obstructive sleep apnea is snoring.

Sleep apnea occurs in about 3% of normal weight individuals but affects over 20 % of obese people. In general, sleep apnea affects men more than women. However, sleep apnea rates increase sharply in women after menopause.

Sleep apnea can cause short-term sleep deprivation, which can affect mood as well as your safety at work and while driving. It’s also strongly linked to life-threatening chronic conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke,Type 2 diabetes, and depression. Undiagnosed sleep apnea is often linked to heart disease and metabolic issues like diabetes. Therefore, it is important to treat sleep apnea.

Treatments for obstructive sleep apnea are available. The most common treatment involves using a device (CPAP) that uses positive pressure to keep your airway open while you sleep. Another option is a mouthpiece to thrust your lower jaw forward during sleep. In some cases, surgery may be an option.

Binge Drinking

What Is Binge Drinking?

Binge drinking used to mean drinking heavily over several days. Now, however, the term refers to the heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time (just as binge eating means a specific period of uncontrolled overeating).

Today the generally accepted definition of binge drinking in the United States is the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men — or four or more drinks in a row by women — at least once in the previous 2 weeks. Heavy binge drinking includes three or more such episodes in 2 weeks.

The True Stories Behind These 9 Childhood Fairy Tales Will Leave You Traumatised!

Remember all those romantic fairy-tales that made you go 'aww' and helped you live life in your bubble? Yeah, well, turns out they were never that soppy and happy till Disney stepped in. They were as sad as real life gets. And they were never for kids at all.

P.S: Proceed at your own risk. Do not blame us for ruining your romantic hopes and childhood memories forever.

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Shabana Basij-Rasikh: The dream of educating Afghan girls lives on

In this deeply moving talk, educator Shabana Basij-Rasikh shares the harrowing story of evacuating more than 250 students, staff and family members from the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) -- the country's first and only all-girls boarding school -- to Rwanda after the Taliban took power in 2021. An exceptional story of hope, resilience and dreaming big for future generations of Afghan girls -- and a challenge for the world to not look away.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Shabana Basij-Rasikh · Educator, social entrepreneur

Shabana Basij-Rasikh is the cofounder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), the country's first and only girls' boarding school.