VOA慢速英语2014 AS IT IS 2014-03-08 Students Get Hands-on with Science at Smithsonian

 

AS IT IS 2014-03-08 Students Get Hands-on with Science at Smithsonian

Hello and welcome to As It Is from VOA Learning¹ English!  I’m Faith Lapidus in Washington.   

Do you think learning to play a musical instrument makes a child more intelligent? The answer may surprise you.

But first we hear about a new program at America’s world-famous Smithsonian Institution.  The program is designed to get young people interested in science.  

Hands-on Science for Students at Smithsonian

It is not just another day in a classroom for some students in Washington, D.C.  A group of young people is volunteering at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  They are among the first to test a new program at the museum.

The program has an unusual name – spoken as “Curious” and written as Q-question-mark-r-i-u-s.  Q?rius includes hands-on exhibits³ that teach young visitors science through experiments.  

Q?rius is so appealing to young people perhaps because students helped design it.  Also, the exhibits, or displays, combine science with art.  The exhibits also take a whole body approach to learning that involves all the senses.  Q?rius combines the newest technologies and scientific equipment with more than 6,000 museum objects.  Objects that are both real and digital.          

During their visit, some students explore the mysteries of human bones.  Other students examine an insect under a microscope.  Many of the students already have their favorites.   

Nate Reistetter is 13 years old.  He likes using advanced technology to explore dinosaur⁴ bones. 

“There was a cast of a dinosaur bone and you can scan⁵ the QR code⁶ [computerized bar code] on the computers and it will tell you all about where it was found and all sorts of stuff⁷ about it.”

 

The “QR Code” that Nate talks about is a computerized bar code assigned⁸ to an item in the exhibit².  When scanned⁹, this QR code tells a fuller story.  What is it?  Where was it found?  When was it found?  The questions scientists ask.    

Student Ben Werb enjoys an exhibit that lets people use their senses to learn more about objects.  For example, he realizes that a butterfly smells a little like tea.  Who knew?                                 

One of the exhibit’s major goals is to involve all the senses -- smell, touch, hearing, taste and sight.  This is that “whole body” approach to learning that we mentioned earlier. 

At one display, students recreate the sounds of insects called crickets¹⁰. 

In another display they handle real human bones in a laboratory¹¹.  The science of investigating human remains¹² is called ‘forensic¹³ anthropology¹⁴.’   Forensic anthropology is often used to identify a person who has died and to learn the cause of death.                                     

Olivia Persons is 18 years old.  She is one of seven teens who helped develop the exhibit.  The laboratory is her favorite display area.

“There’s a lot of digital stuff, there’s a lot of computer screens and touch screens, but in here they are actually able to touch real human bones.”

The “Q?rius” museum exhibit is open to only students in the morning.  In the afternoon the public is welcome to explore Q?rius and be – well – curious.   There’s also a Q?rius website that allows visitors to continue exploring and experimenting long after they have left the museum. 

And I am Faith Lapidus in Washington.  You are listening to As It Is from VOA Learning English.

Now we go back to the question we asked at the top of the program – does learning a musical instrument make you smarter?  We turn to education reporter Jeri Watson for the answer.

Learning Music Makes You Smarter?  Not So Fast...

Many people believe that teaching¹⁵ children music makes them smarter -- better able to learn new things.  But the organizers of a new study say there is no scientific evidence that early musical training affects the intelligence of young people.

An estimated¹⁶ 80 percent of American adults think music classes improve children’s ability to learn or their performance in school.  They say that the satisfaction from learning to play a new song helps a child express creativity.       

Researchers at Harvard University, however, have found that there is one thing musical training does not do.  They say it does not make children more intelligent.                              

Samuel Mehr is a graduate student at Harvard’s School of Education.  He said it is wrong to think that learning to play a musical instrument improves a child’s intellectual¹⁷ development.                  

He says the evidence comes from studies that measured the mental ability of two groups of four-year-olds and their parents.  One group attended music class.  The other went to a class that places importance on the visual arts – arts that can be seen. 

“The answer there is ‘no.’ We found no evidence for any advantage on any of these tests for the kids who were participating in music classes.”

Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort to learn whether musical training can make children smarter.  He says the results have been mixed.  He says only one study seemed to show a small percentage increase in IQ – intelligence scores – among students after one year of music lessons.

He says researchers in his study compared how well children in the music training group did on mental processing tasks, or projects.  Then the results were compared to those of children who did not take lessons.  

There was no evidence that the musical training group did much better on the mental tasks than the other group.  The researchers confirmed their results with a larger group of children and their parents.       

A report on the benefits of music training in children was published in the journal¹⁸ PLOS ONE.  I’m Jeri Watson.  

Thank you, Jeri.  And thank you for listening to our program.  Join us again tomorrow for another As It Is from VOA Learning English.  To see more of our programs, visit our website, www.learningenglish.voanews.com. 

Also look for VOA Learning English on your favorite social media sites -- Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, iTunes and Twitter.  Whichever you choose, we’ve got you covered. 

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 exhibit   

vt.展览，展出，陈列；n.展览品；陈列品

参考例句：

• Next week those goods will exhibit in that shop. 下个星期，这些货物将在那家商店展出。
• The economy continued to exhibit signs of decline in September.9月份，经济继续呈现出衰退的迹象。

3 exhibits   

v.陈列，展览( exhibit的第三人称单数 )；表现；显示；[法律]当庭出示（证件、物证等）

参考例句：

• Many exhibits with characteristics of the Chinese art are on display. 许多具有中国艺术特色的展品陈列出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• One is dazzled by the endless array of beautiful exhibits. 展品琳琅满目，美不胜收。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

5 scan   

n.审视，浏览，扫描，押韵，细查；vt.细看，浏览，扫描，详细调查，信件扫描（指BBS处理直递邮件或会议邮件时，对所有或特定信区做检查的动作）

参考例句：

• The first scan was bad, so I had to do it again.第一次扫描不好，所以我得重做。
• A scan determines the position of the baby in the womb.扫描可以确定胎儿在子宮中的位置。

6 code   

n.代码，代号，密码；法典，法规，规划

参考例句：

• What's the code for Tianjin?天津的代号是多少？
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

7 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

8 assigned   

adj.选定的；被布置的

参考例句：

• But read-only values are different,in that they are assigned at runtime.但是只读的值是不同的，因为它们是在运行时被赋值的。

9 scanned   

经（擦伤仪）仔细检查的

参考例句：

• He scanned the horizon for any sign of land. 他仔细眺望地平线，找寻陆地的踪影。
• She scanned his face to see if he was telling the truth. 她审视着他的脸，看他讲的是否是真话。

10 crickets   

n.蟋蟀( cricket的名词复数 )；板球

参考例句：

• The crickets stridulated their everlasting monotonous meaningful note. 蟋蟀发出了它们持久的，单调而有意思的调子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The crickets chirped faster and louder. 蟋蟀叫得更欢了。 来自辞典例句

11 laboratory   

n.实验室，化验室

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a laboratory.她捐款成立了一个实验室。
• Our laboratory equipment isn't perfect,but we must make do.实验室设备是不够理想，但我们只好因陋就简。

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

13 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

14 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

15 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

16 estimated   

adj．根据估计的

参考例句：

• She estimated the breadth of the lake to be 500 metres. 她估计湖面大约有500米宽。
• The man estimated for the repair of the car. 那人估算了修理汽车的费用。

17 intellectual   

n.知识分子；adj.智力的，理智的，有理解力的

参考例句：

• Thinking is an intellectual process.思维是一个智力活动过程。
• Chess is a highly intellectual game.象棋是需用高度智力的运动项目。

18 journal   

n.日志，日记；议事录；日记帐；杂志，定期刊物

参考例句：

• He kept a journal during his visit to Japan.他在访问日本期间坚持记日记。
• He got a job as editor of a trade journal.他找到了一份当商业杂志编辑的工作。