Ann: The summer science camp is open. Here is the page my brother sent.
| SUMMER SCIENCE CAMP · For Grade 7 to 9 |
|---|
| Week One: biology, plants and the swans by the lake |
| Week Two: physics, light, sound and simple machines |
| 1,200 each week · total 2,400 · notebook and tools given |
| Senior high school students may join and help |
Ken: Two weeks is 2,400. Can we do only Week Two?
Ann: Yes, each week is separate. But Week One fills up first every year.
Ken: Then let us book Week Two now and decide about Week One later.
Dear students, please read these rules before class.
Put all the tools back on the main table before you leave, and count them. Do not move the furniture; the teacher must keep control of where things are. A missing tool is not a small thing: the next class may use fire beside it without knowing.
The last student must turn off the air conditioner and close the door. The room is also closed on New Year's Eve and for two days after it, so finish any long test before the winter holiday begins.
Dear Miss Chen,
I am writing about the flower test we did on Tuesday. My group wrote down that nothing changed at four o'clock, as you asked, and the next morning the blue color was clear.
My question is about the white rose that did not change at all. We put it in the same water and we cut the lower part the same way. I would like to test it again with two roses, one with a cut lower part and one without, to find out whether the cut is the reason.
May I use the science room at lunch time this week? I do not need any chemical, only water, two glasses and time.
Wang Li, Grade 8
People think of science as the moment somebody shouts that he has found it. Almost all of science is the other part: the weeks when nothing happens and somebody writes that down.
A test that shows no change is not a failed test. It closes one door, and a closed door is information. The trouble is that nobody wins a prize for closing a door, and no newspaper prints it.
This is why waiting well is a skill and not a feeling. A young student who learns to record a boring afternoon honestly has learned more than one who gets a bright result by chance. The bright results belong to the people who stayed through the boring ones.