Do you have highly motivated students in Year 9 (and possibly year 8) who are interested in some of the big questions in the social sciences? Are you looking for an event geared specifically to this younger age group that seeks to bring some crucial current affairs issues to their attention in an interactive and non-technical way? If so the LSE Big Questions Lecture series might be just for you. I am grateful to Dr Jonathan Leape for sending through details of the first event - details of which are below.

East beats West? Is the East taking over the world? at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) at 1.00pm on Thursday 30 June 2011. The lecture will be delivered by Danny Quah, Professor of Economics at LSE.

In a highly interactive lecture for schools, Professor Danny Quah will explore how the world is changing, with countries such as China and India becoming wealthier and more powerful than ever before. Using simple ideas from economics, he will explain why this is happening and what it means for our future. The lecture is most suitable for students in Year 9, and more motivated students in Years 7 and 8 and has been designed with elements of the KS3 citizenship curriculum in mind. It will give students an understanding of:

How the East’s economic power is growing and what this means for Western countries such as the UK, and potentially for the students themselves. The importance of viewing the changes in local, national and global contexts, whilst also taking into account moral, historical and social dimensions of the changes. *What an economy is and how trade works. The benefits of economic development for a country. How economics provides a useful way to interpret the world.

For more details, please see the LSE Events website

The lecture will take place in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre in the New Academic Building located at 54 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LJ. The lecture will be filmed and made available on the web after the event. If your school would like to participate and be part of the live audience, please email at this address