CLIL Seminar in Getxo : Philospohy

Particle fever (2014) is a fascinating documentary film that follows six scientists working to see if the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will produce evidence of the Higgs boson, commonly referred to as the "God particle." Although safe for all ages, the subject matter of Particle Fever makes this movie most appropriate for high school students and older. The science presented is top-notch, with complicated physics explained in language that everyone should be able to understand.

Why am I writing about this documentary in my CLIL blog today? Well, I reckon that this documentary conveys in a superb way the passion of some researchers for Science but also the honest attitudes one can adopt to grasp knowledge of our world. Therefore, I would say that we can make use of this documentary in several subjects: Technology, Maths, Physics, Philosophy or Citizenship. You can follow the official trailer below these lines:

If you like the proposal, let me just help a bit with some study questions. You can find them here.

Today I have decided to write a post on an issue that worries us both as parents and as educators since many of us have had to give guidance to our sons/daughters/students on how to choose a career path. In spite of the severe economic crisis we are going through, I reckon we should encourage our youth to take ownership of their lives, choose something they like, master it and then make a living by doing what they love most.

Therefore, to help young people make the correct choices perhaps we could start by asking them: What would you do if money were no object? This is a question British philosopher and writer Alan Watts (1915-1973) asked himself and I would say he gave a truly appropriate answer in an amazing lecture from his last years.

I believe his speech could be the starting point for a very interesting debate in our Citizenship/ Philosophy/ Tutorials classes.

The following video summarizes the ideas of his lecture quite accurately: