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Fun STEM Things to Do Over Winter Break
Winter break is just around the corner. We’re here to fill the time with fun projects and outings for all ages! Each of these activities is fun enough to pull your kids off the couch and away from the games.
An educational field trip
Ages: All
Spending a couple of weeks in the house can make anyone crazy. Why not take your kids on an educational field trip? Local children’s museums or science and technology museums will be a hit. These museums provide opportunities for hands-on exploration, so your kids will be able to interact with STEM subjects, instead of just watching them.
Many of them offer discounted tickets on certain days. Read the fine print online to see if you can visit for less.
Science experiments at home
Ages: All
Science experiments aren’t just for school. In fact, your kids could probably spend the entirety of their winter break exploring science with nothing more than objects you’d find around the house. For younger kids, making frozen bubbles is a great way to explore the scientific process. Teens can look to a list of 15 age-appropriate experiments for inspiration.
Start building
Ages: All
There’s no better way to explore engineering principles than to start building! Gather up any number of household objects—plastic cups, LEGO blocks, straws—and start building. If you want some suggestions for what to build and how to build it, Google is your best friend.
Electrical engineering
Ages: 14–18
Light up your holiday season with one of our handy guides. In the past, we showed readers how to create a Tech-o-Lantern costume, and those same principles could be used to create other light-up projects. We also created a simple guide for creating a light-up holiday card and that’s perfect for Christmas.
We hope these fun STEM activities will keep your kids happily occupied over winter break.
1.Who is this passage probably written for?
A.Parents. B.Teachers.
C.Camp organizers. D.School leaders.
2.If you want to make a thank-you card with lights, you may prefer _________.
A.Electrical engineering B.Science experiments at home
C.Start building D.An educational field trip
3.The winter break STEM activities _________.
A.are organized outdoors
B.need to be done with family
C.are free to children of all ages
D.give children hands-on experience
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My family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota last year, where the average winter temperature is around 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Once summer ended, everyone went inside to play ice hockey. I’d been on the ice only a couple of times when I was much younger. When I’d fallen and broken my wrist during my second lesson, I’d decided never to put on ice skates again.
Ben, the friend I made in the new city, volunteered to teach me to skate. Even though he was very patient, I was so embarrassed by my clumsiness that I began to make up excuses for not skating.
One day I discovered a faster route home. It took me past a large frozen pond. I noticed a woman teaching a young girl to skate. The girl was attempting to jump and spin in the air.
Over and over, she pushed off the ground with the toe of her skate. And over and over, she landed hard on the ice.
After I had been watching the girl practice for about a week, one afternoon she suddenly lifted off the ground, spun in the air, and landed on her feet!
The next day I bought myself some brand new skates. Every day on the way home I stopped at the pond and wobbled onto the ice, right next to the girl who had landed her jump. As she perfected her twists and tricks, I taught myself to glide and turn. It was hard being a beginner, and when I fell I had to fight the urge to simply give up. Instead, every time I went down, I just picked myself up and started over again. Soon I was able to keep my balance and skate more confidently. In just a few weeks, I was actually ready to practice the speed skating, fast stops, and quick turns needed for ice hockey. When I was finally ready to show Ben my newfound skating ability, he told me I should join the local hockey league. I tried out and was chosen for a team. By the end of the season, I was part of a winning team.
1.What can we learn about the author?
A.He learned skating from the girl.
B.He preferred ice hockey to skating.
C.He had once given up learning skating.
D.He moved to a new city without summer.
2.Why did the author mention the girl on the pond?
A.To prove the girl was skillful.
B.To suggest the girl inspired him.
C.To show the girl was a quick learner.
D.To explain how he came across the girl.
3.According to the last paragraph, the author’s training was________.
A.easy and basic B.hard but rewarding
C.boring and tiring D.strict but interesting
4.What does the story mainly tell us?
A.All roads lead to Rome.
B.One is never too old to learn.
C.One good turn deserves another.
D.Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.
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A star athlete at the college where I work recently stopped by my office. After committing a few unforced errors during a weekend match, she was riven by self-criticism. “I’m at peak fitness, and I practice hard. How is this happening?” She asked.
This student believes she should be able to control the outcomes of her life by virtue of her hard work. She has a sense that hours on the field should get her exactly where she needs to go. Many students have similar mentality. When they win, they feel powerful and smart. When they fail, they are crushed by self-blame. If my achievements are mine to control, they reason, my failures must be entirely my fault, too.
We talk often about young adults struggling with failure because their parents have protected them from discomfort. But there is something else at play: a false promise that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it.
Psychologists have sourced this phenomenon to a misapplication of “mindset” research, which has found that praising children for effort will increase academic performance. A 2018 analysis found that while praising effort over ability may benefit economically disadvantaged students, it does not necessarily help everyone.
One possible explanation comes from Suniya Luthar, who argued in a research paper that for teens in wealthy, pressure-cooker communities, “it is not a lack of motivation and perseverance (毅力) that is the big problem. Instead, it is unhealthy perfectionism, and difficulty with backing off when they should, when the desire for achievements is over the top.” They push themselves onward in face of impossible goals. A 2007 study found that teens who refused to give up impossible goals showed higher levels of C-reaction protein, a marker of systemic inflammation (全身炎症) linked to heart disease and other medical conditions. A 2014 study showed a connection between the perfectionist tendencies and depression.
The cruel reality is that you can do everything in your power and still fail. Instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way, we adults should help students pursue success in healthier ways in part by redefining failure as a feature, not a bug, of learning. At Smith College where I teach, students are asked to explore how setbacks and missteps made them stronger or more effective. We would be wise to remind our kids that life has a way of sucker-punching (意外打击) us when we least expect it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” who get up the fastest.
1.Why was star athlete trapped by self-blame?
A.She broke down during the match.
B.She didn’t try her best in the match.
C.She believed hard work should pay off.
D.She thought she should have practiced harder.
2.What can we learn from Paragraph 5?
A.Lack of motivation and perseverance leads to teens’ failure.
B.Praising children for effort increases academic performance.
C.Children struggle with failure due to parents’ over-protection.
D.Unhealthy perfectionism causes physical and emotional stress.
3.According to the author, adults should _________.
A.help students learn from failure
B.protect students from discomfort
C.reward students for their hard work
D.explore the cause of students’ failure
4.Which of the following does the author probably agree with?
A.Effort equals achievement.
B.Motivation is the key to success.
C.Success is not always under control.
D.Effort is more important than ability.
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Plants do not listen to the radio. But a team of researchers in Greece recently found a way to turn lemons into very small “radio stations” that can broadcast information about their trees’ moisture content to a smartphone—the first step toward creating what the researchers call an “Internet of plants.”
Scientists had previously attached sensors to trees to measure their water use, but “no other team had created a wireless radio network among plants, sending information while consuming only a few microwatts and costing just a few dollars,” says project leader Aggelos Bletsas, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Technical University of Crete.
The network consists of several basic components: an existing FM radio station, an antenna (天线) attached to a lemon growing on a tree, a humidity (湿度) sensor in the lemon, a transistor connected to an antenna and an FM receiver. First, the antenna picks up the signal from the FM station, and then passes the signal to the transistor, which is modulated by the humidity sensor. The sensor switches the transistor on and off at a rate dependent on the plant’s moisture level: if the soil is wet or if the atmosphere is humid, that rate is lower; if it is dry, the rate is higher. Finally, the antenna broadcasts this information to the radio receiver on a mobile phone.
In this way, plants can tell farmers if they are thirsty. “We can literally ‘listen’ to the moisture of the plant, using our mobile FM radio with a $3.4 sensor,” Bletsas says. “Two of these sensors for every acre on any given farm might change the way we conduct agriculture and ‘understand’ plants.” He notes that more sensors may be needed for the best possible results. Such real-time information could enable better control of air and soil moisture.
Why go through all this trouble and not just use already common wireless technology, such as Bluetooth? “Not only is our technique less complex, as we are just borrowing signals in the environment,” Bletsas says, but “a Bluetooth-based sensor costs about $25. Our final aim is to launch sensors onto the market costing less than $1.”
“Bletsas and his team are completely changing the way of environmental sensing using very simple equipment and surprisingly little power,” says Alexandros Dimakis, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in the research. “Their work could be a transformational Internet of Things technology for agriculture and for monitoring the environment.”
Bletsas and his colleagues have already applied for a patent for their innovative technology in America.
1.The radio network created by Greek researchers _________.
A.consumes much energy
B.can be put in a smartphone
C.uses simple technology at low cost
D.broadcasts radio programs to plants
2.What does the underlined word “modulated” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A.Monitored. B.Adjusted.
C.Measured. D.Connected.
3.What is Alexandros Dimakis’ attitude to the “radio network”?
A.Positive. B.Critical.
C.Neutral. D.Doubtful.
4.What is the purpose of the passage?
A.To discuss methods of studying plants.
B.To assess the efficiency of Internet of plants.
C.To stress the importance of keeping soil’s moisture.
D.To introduce a new way of measuring plants’ water use.
