2015-01-23

【Aiden in English】

        What is Science? Science is all about asking questions. Why? How? When? Where? However, asking scientific questions means to ask a question of purpose and to ask a question for knowledge. Yet scientific questions aren’t always nerdy ones like formulas and blueprints, but simple, easy questions of normal day life. A dove deep into it can prove to be a great scientific question and may not seem to be as simple as thought on the first glance.

        Montgomery ES has had a Science Night for longer than I’ve been here. Although I usually don’t come, fun and crazy stories always spring up at school about things exploding and kids got something in their eyes. This year was going to be different though. This year I’m determined to go. Why? You might ask why this year out of my six years going to Montgomery. Well, I had two huge reasons. One, this is my final year at Montgomery ES. And two, I had a science project to display. In fact, the sixth grade of Montgomery ES was hosting a Science Fair. Every kid in the sixth grade had asked a simple, everyday life question and made a project about it.

        My question was how I could separate the water in orange juice from the sugar and flavor, while at the same time the water was collected. First of all, I cut a plastic cup in half as a container, placed it in a bowl, filled the bottom of the bowl with orange juice, and covered the top with a plastic food wrap. I put the bowl and its contents on an air vent in my room at home, and waited for the temperature to go up when the heat was turned on. It would feel like I watched grass grow and paint dry as hours went by. The bowl would fog up. When the water vapor began to turn into water droplets, I would put a marble on top of the wrap to make sure the water fall into the cup inside the bowl. My tri-fold poster board was jam packed with construction paper and my hypothesis, procedures, and other required elements of our projects. When the time came for Science Fair, I brought the board, the bowl with the hardened orange or sticky residue, and hand sanitizer for anyone who wished to be brave and touch it. Although the residue was completely fine to touch, I knew some people who were a little to clean, if you know what I mean, and not naming any names, the girls know who they are (even though, I’m sorry to say, a few boys are pretty chicken, too).

        As I walked into the gym of Montgomery ES, I knew this Science Fair was a success. You see, Montgomery has never had a science fair before, so this year’s sixth grade happened to be sort of a Guinea pig. By the looks of this experiment, the results seemed pretty good. The gym was full with tables, and students were slowly trickling in with science projects. It was just a matter of minutes before the crowds struck. I quickly got to my little poster station, placed down my stuff, and let the wait begin. 

        This science fair, like I’d said before, was kinda in a beta stage, looking for problems and trying to troubleshoot for next year. Adults went and came, scanning our projects, but only scanning. The students couldn’t really do anything because their posters really explained it all. The kids were left to wander and socialize, with nothing to do. Occasionally we would leave our own post to see someone else’s poster. Other than our friends, we just walked around. However, at least there was some entertainment located at other projects. One kid’s question was “Can Different Fruits Create Electricity?” My first thought was a person sticking two wires into a watermelon and getting electrocuted. What the kid did was to stick a bent paper clip and a brass wire into different small fruits and veggies. He let people test it by putting the wires on their tongues. When I tried it, a cold tingling sensation came through my tongue. It was nothing I expected. Then, I saw my friend’s poster. It was about the angle of a blade on a windmill and which angle would spin the fastest. I extremely liked the one that was about multitasking because one, it was a competition between boys versus girls, and two, boys won by a lot. I don’t know what happened, but that probably wasn’t true. There was also a project about a penny in soda, and now I’ve got a new New Year’s resolution not to drink soda because the penny was sparking clean after taking it out. The acid burned the rust away, like it would probably do it to my stomach. There were many, many more, but I didn’t bother even looking. 

        The school also had some activities set up and those were pretty cool. However, I really didn’t like the changes after I experienced those activities. I made some fake snow and the big punch stuck. There was a station set up that allowed kids to put Skittles in hot water. The color came off and changed the water’s color. Then, a girl who supervised the station let it rip and said that the color that came off was candle wax. Now I don’t know about you, but I prefer to have my stomach candle-wax-free. I guess that’s another thing on my New Year’s resolution.

        This year’s science fair made a major success. People looked happy, kids were getting grades (although that’s not always a good thing), a perfect turnout. Even though the sixth graders basically talked to each other the whole night, I don’t think that it’s going to change the teacher’s thoughts on doing this again. Not one bit. 

【紅霞譯文】

        科學是什麼? 其實無非就是提問題，原因？方法？時間？地點？好在科學問題都是圍繞考量目的檢驗知識展開的，因此不是總局限於呆板的計算公式和機械的藍圖草案，而是涉及到日常生活中那些簡單不起眼的方方面面，只要深入探究，你就會發現其中的問題帶有科學性，也許不像開始想象得那麼單純。

        自我進入蒙哥馬利小學以來，學校一直設有“科學之夜”，儘管我通常不來參加活動，但可笑的令人抓狂的趣事軼聞時有發生，更有甚者，有人把東西弄進了眼球。今年將有所改變，我決定要親自出馬。為什麼呢？想必你心生疑慮，為什麼六年來偏偏這回非去不可。好吧，讓我來告訴你兩大原因：其一，這是我在本校的最後一年；其二，我要展出自己的研究課題。實際上，我們六年級的學生參與主辦科學博覽會，也就是說，人人必須從喜聞樂見的日常生活中發掘問題並找出答案。

        我的課題是如何將橙汁的水分與糖精香味分離出來，與此同時還要保存好這些水。首先，我把塑料杯切成一半當作容器放到碗裡，然後將橙汁倒入碗底，再用保鮮膜將碗表封嚴並擱在暖氣通風口上面，暖氣啟動以後，我靜候溫度上升。隨着時間推移，我越發感覺如同觀看綠草生長油漆揮干，碗裡開始霧氣蒙蒙。等水氣濃縮成水珠之後，我在保鮮膜正中再放一玻璃球，以確保揮發的水珠能夠集中落到碗裡放的小杯中去。我準備好三折海報板，上面密密麻麻貼滿了假想設計、操作步驟以及其它相關內容。科學博覽會上，我用它和那隻裡面早已干化變硬但仍然粘了巴嘰的橙汁碗，外加洗手液，為那些斗膽前來觸摸驗證的大無畏者提供衛生保障。我知道有些人乾淨得要死，假如你明白我的意思，在這裡省得我指名道姓，女生們清楚這些同伴是誰（儘管如此，我不無抱歉地說，個別男生也縮手縮腳）。

        當一進入蒙哥馬利小學體育館，我立刻察覺到首次科學博覽會舉辦得圓滿成功。正因為史無前例，所以今年六年級才有幸成為試驗品，從效果上看，成績相當可觀。放眼望去，體育館內到處擺滿了桌子，學生們先後各就各位，沒過多久整個會場人山人海。我來到自己的海報前歸置好東西，一切準備就緒。

        與此同時，學校增設不少其它有趣的活動。逐一體驗過後，我真心希望學校繼續保留這些娛樂項目。我自做了人工假雪，末了揮拳重力擊去。大家還把彩虹糖扔進熱水裡，糖色脫落，污染了水的潔白。接着，負責演示的那位女生把糖捏碎並告誡我們，糖外表塗得都是一些蠟燭性的東西。不知你意下如何，反正我要確保胃裡不能含有此種東西，這大概是我另一個新年願望吧。

        正如我前面所說，本次科學博覽會尚處在試驗階段，許多地方有待完善，有助於明年再接再厲。期間，家長們進進出出，大多匆匆掃上一眼；到場的同學沒啥好忙活的，該講的全部羅列在海報上面，大家索性四處溜達，科學博覽會一時成了社交場所。當然我們彼此之間也間或觀摩對方的海報，但若不是朋友的展出，誰都有一搭無一搭。不過有些海報還是挺有意思的，像“不同的水果能產電嗎？”起先我以為僅僅將兩根電線插入西瓜就會觸電，但這位同學卻用彎回形針和銅絲把各種水果和蔬菜串聯一起，並讓人用舌頭進行測試。我試了一下，除有針扎的觸痛之外，別的什麼感覺也發現。另有一朋友講風車的葉片角度，討論什麼角度轉速最快。我特別喜歡這種同時涉及多件事情的話題，理由之一男女生可以相互比試，理由之二男生肯定遙遙領先。不知怎麼搞的，其結果與事先預見的不同。還有一個海報展示蘇達飲料中的硬幣，看過之後立馬引發出我全新新年誓言，決不再喝蘇達飲料，因為經過浸泡後的硬幣鋥明瓦亮，酸水將硬幣上的污泥雜物洗得乾乾淨淨，這酸水同樣可以漂清我的胃囊。海報不勝枚舉，我沒有一一過目。

        今年科學博覽會取得了巨大成功，人人興高采烈，個個獲得好評（雖然並不總是一件好事），十分圓滿。儘管六年級全體學生整場都在拉呱聊天，但我覺得老師毫不介意，重在參與嘛。