VOA慢速英語:同學們在史密斯研究院親身體驗科學
Hello and welcome to As It Is from VOA LearningEnglish! I’m Faith Lapidus in Washington.
Do you think learning to play a musical instrumentmakes a child more intelligent? The answer maysurprise you.
But first we hear about a new program at America’sworld-famous Smithsonian Institution. The program isdesigned to get young people interested in science.
Hands-on Science for Students at Smithsonian
It is not just another day in a classroom for somestudents in Washington, D.C. A group of young peopleis volunteering at the Smithsonian National Museum ofNatural History. They are among the first to test a new program at themuseum.
The program has an unusual name – spoken as “Curious” and written as Q-question-mark-r-i-u-s. Q?rius includes hands-on exhibits that teach youngvisitors science through experiments.
Q?rius is so appealing to young people perhaps because students helpeddesign it. Also, the exhibits, or displays, combine science with art. Theexhibits also take a whole body approach to learning that involves all thesenses. Q?rius combines the newest technologies and scientific equipmentwith more than 6,000 museum objects. Objects that are both real anddigital.
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Students at Smithsonian's Q?rius Exhibit |
During their visit, some students explore the mysteries of human bones. Other students examine an insect under a microscope. Many of the studentsalready have their favorites.
Nate Reistetter is 13 years old. He likes using advanced technology to exploredinosaur bones.
“There was a cast of a dinosaur bone and you can scan the QR code[computerized bar code] on the computers and it will tell you all about where it was found and all sorts of stuff about it.”
The “QR Code” that Nate talks about is a computerized bar code assigned to an item in the exhibit. When scanned, this QR code tells a fuller story. Whatis it? Where was it found? When was it found? The questions scientistsask.
Student Ben Werb enjoys an exhibit that lets peopleuse their senses to learn more about objects. Forexample, he realizes that a butterfly smells a little liketea. Who knew?
One of the exhibit’s major goals is to involve all thesenses -- smell, touch, hearing, taste and sight. This is that “whole body” approach to learning that wementioned earlier.
At one display, students recreate the sounds of insects called crickets.
In another display they handle real human bones in a laboratory. The scienceof investigating human remains is called ‘forensic anthropology.’ Forensicanthropology is often used to identify a person who has died and to learn thecause of death.
Olivia Persons is 18 years old. She is one of seven teens who helped developthe exhibit. The laboratory is her favorite display area.
“There’s a lot of digital stuff, there’s a lot of computer screens and touchscreens, but in here they are actually able to touch real human bones.”
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Butterflies at Smithsonian. |
The “Q?rius” museum exhibit is open to only students in the morning. In theafternoon 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 andexperimenting long after they have left the museum.
And I am Faith Lapidus in Washington. You are listening to As It Is from VOALearning English.
Now we go back to the question we asked at the top of the program – doeslearning a musical instrument make you smarter? We turn to educationreporter Jeri Watson for the answer.
Learning Music Makes You Smarter? Not So Fast...
Many people believe that teaching 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 ofyoung people.
An estimated 80 percent of American adults think music classes improvechildren’s ability to learn or their performance in school. They say that thesatisfaction from learning to play a new song helps a child express creativity.
Researchers at Harvard University, however, have found that there is onething musical training does not do. They say it does not make children moreintelligent.
Samuel Mehr is a graduate student at Harvard’s School of Education. He saidit is wrong to think that learning to play a musical instrument improves achild’s intellectual development.
He says the evidence comes from studies that measured the mental ability oftwo groups of four-year-olds and their parents. One group attended musicclass. 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 ofthese tests for the kids who were participating in music classes.”
Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort tolearn whether musical training can make children smarter. He says theresults have been mixed. He says only one study seemed to show a smallpercentage increase in IQ – intelligence scores – among students after oneyear of music lessons.
He says researchers in his study compared how well children in the musictraining group did on mental processing tasks, or projects. Then the resultswere compared to those of children who did not take lessons.
There was no evidence that the musical training group did much better on themental tasks than the other group. The researchers confirmed their resultswith a larger group of children and their parents.
A report on the benefits of music training in children was published in thejournal PLOS ONE. I’m Jeri Watson.
Thank you, Jeri. And thank you for listening to our program. Join us againtomorrow for another As It Is from VOA Learning English. To see more of ourprograms, 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.
I’m Faith Lapidus. Have a great day.
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