Zaman International School Newspaper Issue 31

NEWSPAPER

Volume 3 Issue 31

15 January 2006

Ideal Schools Of The Future Physical Setting

Where the school is situated effects the quality of education it can provide. Ideally it should be detached from urban centers. Noise and disturbance around the school can be just as disruptive as noise within the classroom.

The easy access in town to cinemas and cafes, to sports stadia, to shopping or amusement arcades, prevent the pupils from committing themselves fully to their school life.

Away from these temptations, pupils will be able to devote more time to reading and relevant conversation and, when they need to relax, to active, useful pastimes in each other's company. In this way, they will have the freedom to become more broadly cultured. They will develop self-reliance, and

independence and will be able to concentrate more on their academic achievement.

Also, the beneficial effects of exposure to the freshness and

It is necessary to give adequate attention to the maintenance of a mean temperature that is neither too hot nor too cold. In view of the cost of heating, it may be advisable to invest in a system that, although costly to install, may be cheaper in the long term, such as solar energy. restful colours of a rural setting are well known - to say nothing of the advantages for students of nature, whether artistic or scientific, of having the real thing outside the window.

ZAMAN NEWSPAPER Zaman, Publisher Serap Sinik, Editor-in Chief Gurkan Cil, Editor at Large

Prepared by 12-F Zaman International School Newspaper dedicated to educating students and training journalists.

Published 2 times a month in Zaman International School.

Copyright 2003 by the Zaman International School.

All rights reserved.

No part of this periodical may be reproduced in print or electronically without the consent of The Zaman International School.

cost - the 'best' design is the leaves them feeling tired at the end of the day The maximum cheapest. possible use should be made of By contrast, in the past, efforts natural light. Apart from being were made to surround the 'free', it is conducive to the wellbeing and cheerfulness of both teachers and pupils.

Similarly air circulation should depend on openable windows rather than on noisy (and expensive) air coolers and fan.

Physical Design As well as setting, the design of the school buildings and equipment are vitally important.

For example, desks and chairs that are too comfortable may encourage an over-relaxed, even lazy, attitude in pupils; on the other hand, if they are too luxurious and ugly they may cause distress and restlessness in class. Each individual pupil should be assigned a desk and a locker specifically for his or her use. This would free pupils of the burden of carrying too much around with them from lesson to lesson. The general character of the school buildings should, I suggest, be traditional. At present, the primary consideration in the design of buildings is

schools and universities with green, with trees and walks in wooded lanes, rivers and ponds, besides which the pupils could relax. Consider how well the learning environment was designed and presented in the ancient seats of learning like Oxford or Cambridge - their buildings seem, in a sense, to improve as they age. They used stone to build thick walls and walled many interior spaces with quadrangles and cloisters which owe their form and function, ultimately, to Islamic originals in the Maghreb and Spain.

Nosy cost-cutting has led to the building of separation walls so thin that teacher and pupils can hear what is being said in the next room:the resulting distraction can lead to irritability and loss of learning time. Lighting is another important factor, too often neglected. Artificial lighting is not as satisfactory as natural light. As well as being costly to run, many pupils daim that it

Tower block construction is quite unsuitable for educational buildings as it inhibits direct, physical contact between students. Again, telephone or computer networks, important as they may be, are no substitute for direct personal contact which is indispensable for teaching and learning.

The detachment of the school from the urban centre means that its buildings complex must be self- dependent. Facilities need to be provided on or very near the school so that leisure activities, vital to the enhancement of study can be easily accessed. They should include sports fields and gymnasia. It is important that the school caters for the needs of pupils so as to allow them to play and compete in a proper way: failure to do so will only encourage truancy.

15 January 2006

ZAMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

2

EDUCATION The Teachers The teachers are the essential key to whether an educational institution succeeds or fails. A good teacher is one who stays abreast of the latest developments in his or her field and knows how to pass on that knowledge to others. Although there are worthy arguments against doing so, I favour the regular resting of teachers to ensure that they are keeping up in their subject areas. There are, alas, too many teachers who use the same notes they used twenty years before, and whose work (for the pupils as well for themselves) lacks freshness and appeal.

Beside intellectual and teaching ability teachers should be trained and selected for a number of other qualities: 1 strict punctuality - the teacher should not arrive late to class; 2 fairness the teacher must have an understanding of the personal frictions that can develop between teacher and pupil and how to overcome them; 3 sense of humour - while retaining some distance and authority the teacher should not be solemn for the whole of a teaching period, but vary and lighten the tone of the teaching in order to keep the attention of the pupils; 4 openness to innovations - new equipment and new techniques are always coming onto the market the teacher should seek to exploit these effectively not avoid them because it might mean changing established methods and habits; 5 freshness - the teacher should seek to adapt and combine different teaching styles and methods in the way most effective for pupils doing that particular subject at that particular level: in language training, for example, some ready- to-use courses require the teacher to lecture, others to merely observe, others to participate with pupils, etc.- a good teacher should know how to mix and match from what is available to suit his pupils' needs;

be alert to the social and cultural norms of his pupils and go with care when mentioning or discussing ideas or symbols which have special resonance for them, even when he or she does not share the same norms.

Teachers need to be well-trained to start with. However, they also need to be provided with opportunities to further their knowledge and skills, if necessary going abroad on a direct or exchange basis with foreign establishments. And finally, to secure high morale among teachers and commitment from them in a taxing profession, they need to be much better paid than they are at present in Turkey for example: many, alas, have to devote some of their time and energy in a second job, simply to make ends meet.

The Pupils

The Administrators Administrators, especially principals and heads of school, should be authoritative and serious. Their concern for discipline should be equitable, and focus on teachers as well as pupils. They should encourage and enable parent-teacher meetings at the school to discuss an individual pupil's progress with his or her teachers. It is the duty of administrators to see to it that the school is clean and fit for all normal activities. It also falls on them to advertise the school effectively so as to raise its image in public perception and so attract more pupils.

Finally administrators need to keep abreast of the latest developments in educational psychology and innovations in methods or equipment.

The Family An effective class is one made up, more or less, of pupils of the same ability at the same level. To achieve this, testing of pupils before, and perhaps also after, they are admitted is essential.

Mixed ability schools are one thing but mixed ability classes are quite another and impose intolerable burdens on the teacher who cannot know how to plan the pace and level of difficulty of what he is teaching: going too slowly he or she risks losing the attention of the brighter pupils, going too fast risks driving the weaker pupils to opt out of the lessons altogether.

It is important too for the school to screen the pupils it admits for personality or character as well as for academic potential. If such information is available to teachers, they will not overreact when a pupil with, say, a record of bullying or stealing, bullies or steals. Too harsh a punishment by a teacher could further intensify the pupil's problems which would, in turn, affect class and school performance.

as pupils' attention span is limited. Particularly to be avoided is the habit some teachers now have of combining two periods into a double period which is simply much too demanding for ordinary pupils. Instructional material exists in great abundance hut only appropriate use of it benefits pupils. TV and video need not be a means of passively wasting time; they can be applied to the job of teaching many hundreds of pupils at the same time.

Computers, will never replace human contact but are useful tools which ease organizational problems and can stimulate children. They may match certain temperaments and help children over specific learning difficulties.

Always relevant are the traditional instructional materials such as pictures, tables, diagrams, maps and illustrations. But the technology exists to operate these maps and diagrams through the computer by scanning images, or transferring them to overhead projector slides for a modern version of the blackboard.

Parents mostly entrust their children to schools (rather than teach them themselves) and for many 'out of sight, out of mind' applies. However, education and upbringing are very much within the responsibilities of parents to children. The parents may be Serap ŞİNİK disappointed by their child's performance but must not blame the teachers for it.

R a t h e r, t h e y should openly acknowledge the effects of family life on the stability of children's character and on the quality of their performance.

Parents should exhort children to d o t h e i r h o m ework, to take part only in such leisure activities as are beneficial, and help their attendance at school by accompanying them to it.

To diminish the effects of social class differences, at least during school time, pupils should wear a I n s t r u c t i o n uniform or the same or very and teaching similar clothes. Teachers can be expected to behave more fairly materials towards pupils if they appear the Instruction hours same. should not be 6 sensitivity - the teacher should overly prolonged

15 January 2006

ZAMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

3

EDUCATION

On Intelligence, Effort, and Success This article discusses the sources of differences on intelligence and their effects on desirable outcomes in people's lives. The questions of whether intelligence is hereditary and whether an individual's performance is determined by a general factor of intelligence are very controversial topics. The reason is that the answers given impact political and social programs. After surveying possible explanations of intelligence, the relationship between intelligence and success is analyzed. Arguments against the heredity of intelligence and the lack of conclusive evidence for the "intelligence determines success" motto follow. An emphasis on personal effort for achieving desired outcomes concludes the discussion.

If you find something hard to grasp, do you immediately conclude that you have reached the limit of your cognitive ability and give up? Do you usually associate successful outcomes with smartness and failures with lack of intelligence? Do you consider intellectual ability an indispensable component of every accomplishment, or it is the effortplain, sweaty hard workthat brings about the desired outcome?

A Historical View Theories about Intelligence The effort/ability dilemma has been very controversial in the West. It has not been a mere academic debate, but one with political and social implications and a very eager public interest.

The publication of Darwin's The

Origin of Species (1859) had a competences into intellectual major impact on biology and equals. other fields.

The Cognitive-Psychology The first half of the twentieth View century witnessed an overwhelming belief in eugenics in Adherents of this theory view academia and among intellectu- intelligence as a process, not an als, politicians, and business- innate ability. The process men. It became "an established consists of creating a mental fact" that single-unit genes representation of problems determined such traits as e n c o u n t e r e d , r e t r i e v i n g alcoholism and mental incompe- apparently related information, tence. and devising a solution. In short, it emphasizes experience for success in life, but does not The Psychometric View completely eliminate the relation between general intelligence and experience.

This view claims that individual differences in human cognition or mental ability can be measured adequately by intelligence tests. Many widely used tests seek to measure some closely related criteria, such as scholastic aptitude and academic successnot intelligence itself. Examples of such tests in the Unites States are the SAT or ACT (college admission), GRE (graduate school), and G M AT ( g r a d u a t e b u s i n e s s school) exams. Although test administrators try to distance themselves from testing one's actual intelligence (namely, one's I.Q.), it is generally accepted by the research community that one's IQ and the above tests are closely related.

IQ tests are offered in many verbal and non-verbal forms.

The general practice for IQ scores is to scale them around 100 in such a way that 95 percent of the population falls between 70 and 130.

Psychometricians assert that people are born with unequal intellectual potentials, just as they are born with different physical potentials, such as height and eye color. They also state that no amount of social engineering can make individuals with different mental

fail to perform as well as those without those talents, for the latter depend on systematic effort.

An IQ test may be a speed issue. That is, it may measure only how quickly people learn or solve complex problems. It is a well-known fact that once something is learned, the performance of a person with a lower IQ is not significantly different from that of a person with a higher IQ.

A certain amount of intelligence seems to be needed to gain entry into an intellectually demanding field. However, P r o b l e m s w i t h t h e beyond that point, success is Psychometric View determined by the effort put into the job, social support, and T h e p s y c h o m e t r i c v i e w experience. claims that intelligence is the Average IQ test scores have single best predictor for individual performance at school and been increasing in the West for on the job, as well as for chances several decades. However, of divorce, dropping out of s c h o o l p e r f o r m a n c e h a s s c h o o l , l u n e m p l o y m e n t , o r remained almost constant, if they having illegitimate children.(12) did not actually decrease. This However, the interactions and clearly indicates that success in correlations of various factors in life is not directly related to IQ social studies make it very scores.

A common error is to assume difficult to draw such concluthat something heritable is sions.

Here are some remarks on the psychometric view of intelligence and its relation to success in life Many people with high IQ scores fail to become successful due to a lack of motivation, personality, laziness, or short attention span.

A low IQ score can be changed through conscious choice and effort. As an analogy, consider a gifted athlete. Some athletes have special talents for a particular sport. However, they

unchangeable. Infants adopted into advantaged families tend to have higher IQs in childhood than would have been expected, had they been raised by their birth parents.(14) This is further proof that how a child is raised and what he or she is exposed to have very long-lasting effects.

F u r t h e r, a n d i n d i v i d u a l ' s personal choice has considerably more impact on one's life than usually thought.

Sreypeou Sar

15 January 2006

ZAMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

4

TECHNOLOGY

Why is Internet Control Necessary?

Today, owing to the widespread belief in the importance of the Internet and the new horizons it has uncovered, more and more people have begun to buy computers and to set up Internet access for their children. One thing that must not be overlooked is that technology potentially has both beneficial and harmful aspects. The Internet, a technology that enables easy access to information and fast communication, also contains knowledge that can cause damage to the mental and psychological well being of adults and children. As many Internet consultants argue, the reliability and accuracy problem of the data on the Internet is only just one of the potential dangers of the Internet. Unfortunately, a more formidable peril for parents and educators who are trying to bring up decent and virtuous members of society is the fact that the Internet also has content that can negatively affect child development. Web-sites c o n t a i n i n g p o r n o g r a p h y, violence, and drug-related issues are just a few examples that can be cited.

In the United States, it has become common- place for statistics concerning the detrimental effects of the Internet on children to be published from time to time. According to one of the latest studies, one out of every five children with Internet access is exposed to harassment online. What is more, one out of every four children owning an email address is sent obscene photographs, harmful sexual matter, drug advertisements, and other unethical documents. By the use of innocent and appealing words such as “Internet fraternity”, “virtual friendship”, or “Internet chat buddy”, children are offered immoral, violent games, some of which even offer inducement to drug taking; these are actually traps prepared particularly for children.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that nearly 50% of the content on the Internet consists of audio-visual and written

material that can negatively influence a child's development.

The data and documents designed to hinder the healthy and well-balanced development of children and to lead them to degeneration are just a click away for a child with access to the Internet.

Some parents buy computers and provide Internet access for their children or let them go to Internet cafes. Others allow their children to gather at the homes of

friends with such access. These statements are not intended to show that the Internet is hazardous. It is without question that, in almost any way possible, young people should be granted the right to benefit from the Internet; but not in a way that is damaging to their development.

What parents and educators must do is not deprive their children of such an invaluable source of knowledge as the Internet, but rather install on computers software that filters the harmful matters out.

How many parents are aware of the dangers of the Internet, and how many are using such indispensable computer programs? Although the use of such programs has become mandatory in Western countries, all parents and educators all around the world should be well informed through the media. It is a fact that parents usually tell their children not to talk to or make friends with strangers, sometimes even forbidding the children from going out alone.

Ironically, how would a child who owns a computer with Internet

connection make use of such advice? Obviously, such a child, in the realm of the Internet, can easily experience almost everything that is forbidden to him/her outside the home.

Unfortunately, many things likely to be harmful to youngsters are online,24/7.

The dismaying reality is that most parents and educators are not completely aware of the menaces of the Internet; hence they do not take the necessary precautions. What should they

do then? Should they make their children renounce the opportunity to use the Internet and acquire the essential skills of the modern age? Or should parents always be around while their children are on the Internet? Or should the number of more democratic, liberal, useful, and e d u c a t i v e w e b s i t e s b e i ncreased? Even though such remedies may be taken into consideration, the principle, “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure” makes us realize that the ultimate solution is to use programs that filter data by blocking the hazardous but facilitating the beneficial. Only thus can we lead our children to the good and valuable contents of the Internet.

Some measures that should be taken in order to minimize the probable damages of the Internet are as follows: 1. While online, children and students should never share their personal data, such as addresses, telephone numbers, and familial information with strangers; it is impossible to retrieve information once shared

on the Internet.

2. Children and students should periodically be encouraged to talk about what they have been doing and learning on the Internet, and all family members ought to inform each other about the knowledge that they have acquired from the Internet. It is necessary to keep an eye on whom children are communicating and chatting with, be-cause youngsters may naturally not be aware of what is useful and what is harmful.

3. A computer should never be put in a child's room. If it has already been placed there, it should immediately be removed.

It must be placed in a common room shared by all family members.

4. A child should not use unusual or strange user names and email addresses.

5. Dozens of programs that record the time of Internet usage and the content of web sites visited by children are on the market. By installing these programs on their computers, parents can very easily control their children's internet use.

6. There is more developed and sophisticated computer software that lets users enter only permitted websites and blocks the unwanted ones, filters the content in accordance with the selected instructions, arranges Internet access hours, and keeps records about each user. If necessary, with the assistance of experts, such software may be purchased as well. If such programs are used, most of the aforementioned measures will already have been taken.

To sum up, the Internet is both useful and harmful to the development of children and families. Leaving a child alone with the Internet without taking any precautions is like leaving someone who does not know how to swim alone in the middle of the ocean. It must not be forgotten that the Internet is a technology that consists of both good and evil, and special care must be given to how it is used, as well as implementing filtering programs. Otherwise, both children and society will become vulnerable to degeneration and loss.

15 January 2006

ZAMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

5

GENERAL

How To Make Our Children Love Reading

W

hen reading is mentioned, we usually talk about the reading habit of adults, and ignore that of our children.

However, if children do not read, if their parents do not read to them, then there is a serious problem. Making children love reading and making them read the right books at the right age is the duty of all parents.

Pre-school children and reading

R

eading books to little children is one of the best ways of spending time with them.

What we tell them at this period has a greater influence on them, because this is the period when their personalities are developing. It is a very remarkable fact that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) counseled Muslims to whisper the adhan and iqama in a baby's ear as soon as he/she was born; from this we can infer that we should start talking to our child from the very first day. Today, researchers who study child development have reached the same conclusion.

What is the benefit of books?

B

ooks are the most important means of educating children. We transfer our culture to new generations via books.

Books improve language use and teach about life. Children can get to know people through books and evaluate them.

The stories children read teach them that they should not step on ants, destroy bird-nests, that they should not let animals starve and so on. They make children feel in their consciences that lying, stealing, and fighting are all wrong.

T

here is no magical way to make children love reading.

“Sure,” they replied, “We'd love N e v e r t h e l e s s , w e c a n t r y to meet him.” different ways to approach this problem.

“There's something you should know,” the son continued, “He First of all, if the adults at home was hurt pretty badly in the constantly read and share their fighting. He stepped on a land opinions with each other about mind and lost an arm and leg. He the themes or characters in the has nowhere else to go, and I books they are reading, the want him to come live with us.” children will develop an interest in reading. Reading starts with “I'm sorry to hear that, son. the family.. We should empha- Maybe we can help him find s i z e t h e e n t e r t a i n i n g a n d somewhere to live.” attractive sides of books also.

“No, Mom and Dad, I want him Children should be made to meet to live with us.” books as if they were meeting a friend. We should read together “Son,” said the father, “You with our child. Children love this. don't know what you're asking.

We should alter the tone of our Someone with such a handicap v o i c e w h e n w e r e a d w h a t would be a terrible burden on us. different characters are saying, We have our own lives to live, trying to animate the story. If the and we can't let something like parent is the only one reading, it this interfere with our lives. I think will be boring for the child. you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a Sometimes the child should read way to live on his own.” to his/her parents. Some parents habitually read stories to their At that point, the son hung up children before they go to sleep. the phone. The parents heard This is a good method that can nothing more from him. A few b e u s e d i n m o s t f a m i l i e s . d a y s l a t e r, h o w e v e r, t h e y received a call from the San In conclusion, if we choose the Francisco police. right ways, any child can love reading. However, we cannot Their son had died after falling make a child read a book by from a building, they were told. force. Even if we cannot help the T h e p o l i c e b e l i e v e d i t w a s children to love books, then at suicide. least we should not make them hate books. Once a person hates The grief-stricken parents flew books, it is very difficult for them to San Francisco and were taken to warm to them again. to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they Borany Tork also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Children internalize values, such story told abut a soldier who as being kind to people, helping was finally coming home them without expecting anything in return, courage, determina- after having fought in Vietnam. tion, modesty, being resolute and He called his parents from San s t r i v i n g f o r s u c c e s s w h e n Francisco. identifying themselves with the “Mom and Dad, I'm coming heroes in the books they read. home, but I have a favor to ask. I How can we motivate children have a friend I'd like to bring home with me.” toward books and reading?

A

All too soon, it was time to leave. My classmates and I boarded the bus to return to school. As I sat in the bus, waving to those happy faces below, it felt great to know that I had helped put those smiles on the children's faces. Suddenly, I understood why it is often said “It is better to give than to receive.”

How To Be A Good Friend This is a passage which explains how to be a good friend. I will try not to get to soppy and lovey dovey and keep details strictly to the cold hearted facts (actually, maybe I won't be that severe and detour from the cold and hard facts occasionally!).

Step 1: I suggest that if you want to be a good friend you become friends with someone you actually like. This automatically eliminates all teachers, politicians and people who get rid of school holidays.

Step 2: Once you have found someone you have things in common with, you should expand on this and get to know y o u f r i e n d b e t t e r. P e r h a p s inviting her to sit next to you in maths or even talking to her now and then could help.

Step 3: If you mutually decide you have some things in common, good - you have found yourself a nice new friend. If you don't have anything in common, don't worry and keep searching there are plenty of other fish in the sea!

Step 4: Now yes, this friend will require quite a large proportion of your time, because naturally both parties need to be enthusiastic for a friendship to blossom.

This means that you will need to support your friend in all their chosen paths, but be prepared to advise them against treading through dangerous waters.

Step 5: A friendship which is built upon mutual trust, respect, support and (my favourite) the acceptance of differences and the right to be an individual will foster other benefits such as loads of fun times where you party together or just hang out and share secrets.

Step 6: Well, now that you've found a friend, you should work on keeping them (that is if want to be a good friend and not just a friend fling). My best word of advice would be to continue with the above steps, make your friend feel loved and wanted and show you do care about them. If they're down and feel like they have no one in the world, prove them wrong by rocking up to their house with a bunch of sunflowers and a bottle of wine (or cordial, depending on how old you and your friend are) and talk through their concerns with them.

15 January 2006

ZAMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

6

SCIENCE

Air Pollution and its Effect on our World's Climate

I

t is a Divine rule that As you sow, so shall you reap. The effects of pollution are not always felt by those who create it, but instead are suffered by these downstream or, in the case of air pollution, downwind. As the atmosphere is constantly moving and no one can actually claim specific molecules as their own, we are all forced to share in the responsibility for its maintenance. The build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is believed to cause changes in the climate which affect weather patterns, the ability to grow food, and the flooding of low lying areas, in general. Since the atmosphere is an entity without political boundaries, the way to lower destructive levels of greenhouse gases is for all nations to work toward the common goal of reducing their build-up in the atmosphere, since we are all in the same boat.

In the ongoing efforts of the United Nations toward that end, representatives from 50 countries participated in an informal international meeting convened by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), in conjunction with the Earth Council and the Government of Costa Rica, held 29-31 October in San Jose.

Specifically, the meeting entitled, 'New Partnerships to Reduce the Buildup of Greenhouse Gases, discussed cooperation through a range of issues related to the concept of 'Activities Implemented Jointly' or AIJ. Among those present were Elizabeth Dodeswell, the executive Director of UNEP, Mr. Maurice Strona, Chairman of the Earth Council, and Dr. Mostafa Tolba, Director of Inter-national Centre of Environment and Development. The forum was opened by the host, His Excellency The President of Costa Rica, Mr. Jose Maria Figueres.

emissions are often more costeffective in developing countries.

As a result, joint implementation strategies might involve a developed country investing resources and technology in a developing country in exchange for emission credits. As Ms. Dodeswell pointed out, it may not however be enough for Joint Implementation agreements to be struck on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, but in addition, will require assessment and brokering through a neutral international process, bringing objectivity to the transaction and monitoring the implementation, to ensure fairness throughout.

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Berlin. AIJ is intended to provide an impetus to investment and co-development of advanced technologies that reduce the rate of greenhouse gas emmissions while advancing national economic and development goals. AIJ or, simply, any well-thought out Joint Implementation scheme, may be a cost-effective way to achieve the objectives of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by encouraging technology transfer and cooperation between North and South. An AIJ Pilot Phase was included in the decision which forged the Berlin Mandate.

UNEP's Executive Director, Elizabeth Dodeswell, in her address to the informal forum in San Jose, said that, 'Joint Implementation, whether or not it involves credits but most T h e c o n c e p t o f A I J ( w h i c h particularly if it does, must be appears to be a spin-off of the devised with one overriding o l d e r c o n c e p t o f J o i n t considerationit must be fair.'

Implementation) emerged in 1995 at the First Conference of O p p o n u n i t i e s t o r e d u c e o r the Parties to the United Nations m i t i g a t e g r e e n h o u s e g a s

At the Second Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Geneva, 8-9 June, 1996, the implementation of the Convention was reviewed. The Ministers and other Heads of delegations present stated, among many other things, that they will: 'Instruct their representatives to accelarate negotiation on the text of a legally-binding protocol or another legal instrument to be completed in due time for adoption at the third session of the Conference of the Parties. The outcome should fully encompass the remit of the Berlin Mandate...' In addition, one of the particulars noted is 'quantified legally-binding objectives for emission limitations and significant overall reductions within specified timeframes, such as 2005, 2010, 2020, with respect to their anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol.' The goal of all these Climate Change meetings is spelled out in Article 2 of the Convention. Heavily s u m m a r i z e d , i t c a l l s f o r, stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations in a timely manner in order to avoid climate change with dangerous consequences so that economic development may proceed in a sustainable way.

The Third Conference of the Parties, referred to in the preceding

Paragraph, will be held in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. Let us hope that agreement can be reached and carried out in a fair and constructive manner so that talking about the weather in this or future generations may continue to be a pleasant conversation- opener.

Recognizing that, in today's world, it is intolerable for 800 millions to be suffering from hunger and malnutrition and that it is everyone's right to have adequate food to survive, the United Nations must reorganize itself in order to meet this challenge. The United Nations work in the field of peace and security is no less relevant: more effective conflict prevention and r e s o l u t i o n e ff o r t s h o l d t h e promise of preventing the loss by millions of people of food security, particularly in the poor countries. At long last, very important principles on which to base our future action can be found in the results of previous world conferences and summits, including Rio, Vienna, Cairo, Beijing, Copenhagen and Istanbul. All conferences held so far have confirmed that environment matters all over the world. It matters as a set of interconnecting problems that threaten the quality of life and the sustainability of economic development worldwide. The environment is a global issue affecting people in developing and developed countries alike, and linking them in the need to take immediate action.

Today, there are 1.5 billion people living with dangerous air pollution, 1 billion without clean water, 2 billion without sanitation.

Food production has doubled worldwide in the past quarter century but at the price of loss of c r o p d i v e r s i t y, i n c r e a s e d chemical contamination and loss of natural habitats. Around oneseventh of tropical forests have been lost in the past 25 years.

These are not just local problems; their global impact takes the form of growing regional pollution, the spread of epidemic disease, the loss of biodiversity, global climate instability and the likelihood of mass migration from lands that can no longer support their populations.

15 January 2006

ZAMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

7

SCIENCE

When a Finger Moves The moment I want to move my finger, a large number of neurons in my brain start sending each other small electrical impulses.

These impulses travel from my brain to the rest of my body through the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord. They are then delivered to my arm, which forms only one part of my peripheral nervous system.

When these small electrical impulses reach my finger, they cause the muscle cells there to contract and thereby enable my finger to move.

specific compartments within the cell to open and release calcium into the cell. You might remember from high school biology that muscle contraction is the result of two proteins (myosin and actin) sliding over each other.

Normally, actins are masked by proteins known as tropomyosin.

During the waiting period, therefore, the interaction between myosin and actin, which leads to contraction, cannot occur. This is why the muscle cell releases calcium, for when calcium is free in the cell, it binds to tropomyosin and enables it to At the same time as these events move. As a result, actin is free to are happening almost simulta- i n t e r a c t w i t h m y o s i n . 1 neously, information from my eyes and my finger is being sent After that, millions of molecules to the brain so that my finger will containing energy, known as move in the way I expect it to. For ATP, bind to millions of myosin example, if the path of my p r o t e i n s , a n d t h e m u s c l e finger's movement is somehow contracts. When the contraction blocked, my brain can redirect it. ends, the freed-up calcium is However, the event described stored once again in specific above is not that simple. Starting compartments. When calcium is from the neurons and continuing not present, tropomyosins again until we reach the muscles, every mask the actin proteins, and element that acts during this millions of muscle cells revert to process displays extraordinarily their initial position, ready to complex alterations at both respond to another contraction. cellular and molecular levels.

Expressions like “ATP binds to Consider muscle cells, since myosin” and “calcium is stored in t h e y a r e m o d e r a t e l y w e l l compartments” are, in fact, understood. Upon arriving at the simplified ways of explaining a m u s c l e c e l l , t h e e l e c t r i c a l highly complex event. Since impulse causes the voltage- there is a reason for everything, sensitive calcium channels in

our cells should contain something that is performing these functions and carrying out such events. If we expand this problem to its limits, we will have to understand that each cell contains a large set of rapid and specific chemical reactions that occur constantly and yet do not interfere with one another. Based on current scientific knowledge, we can say that enzymes conduct almost all reactions in a cell, and that DNA has all the necessary information to produce enzymes.

Enzymes are protein molecules that speed up and regulate all of the reactions that take place in a cell. If there were no enzymes, the reaction that a cell carries out in seconds could only be completed in thousands of years, and consequently, life as we know it would not exist. Life requires that the correct enzyme be found in the correct place and at the correct concentration.

Based on this, let's revisit the above example. When the electric impulse reaches the muscle cell and calcium ions are released, this and every external and internal signal is conveyed to the DNA through a mechanism that we are just beginning to

appreciate: signal transduction.

Later, RNA is produced in those regions of the DNA that are responsible for producing the enzymes that enable the cell to give the appropriate answer (RNA helps DNA to produce enzymes). The synthesis of the enzyme is regulated at various checkpoints, such as during RNA production or RNA translocation out of the nucleus by other enzymes.2 ATPase, one of the many enzymes produced, makes it possible to use ATP, while another enzyme makes sure that the ATPases are in the correct location in the cell.

Meanwhile, in order to sustain life, thousands of other enzymes conduct various reactions at the correct time and place.

Therefore, when I move my finger, the number of active elements increases enormously.

15 January 2006

ZAMAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

8

ENTERTAINMENT

Fill all empty squares so that the numbers 1 to 9 appear only once in each row, column and 3x3 box.

Friends A friend is someone we turn to when our spirits need a lift.

A friend is someone we treasure for our friendship is a gift.

A friend is someone who fills our lives with beauty, joy, and grace.

And makes the whole world we live in a better and happier place.

- Jean Kyler McManus