admin 唐屋中学高年级学生举办STEM TED演讲
近期，唐屋中学高年级STEM学生对六年级同学、来自全校的学者和STEM学科的工作人员进行了一个鼓舞人心的简短谈话之夜。
该活动是八名学生数周研究和准备的高潮，他们都在 A Level 学习 STEM 科目。由唐屋中学的 STEM 负责人 Charlie Littledale 先生组织的超级课程 STEM 短片倡议，基于TED演讲的形式。
学生们面临的挑战是研究、准备和发表 5 分钟的演讲，任何人都可以就个人感兴趣的话题进行演讲——与“可以通过自然灵感解决的现代问题”的主题相关联。
听众聆听了STEM学科的演讲，主题包括牙周炎、镇痛药的未来、超能力科学、使用分形增强 CGI 等等。
Richard James MacCowan 博士很高兴能参加唐屋中学首届 STEM 活动，他就“仿生学以及大自然如何为现代世界提供丰富的解决方案”发表了精彩的演讲。Richard 是从化妆品到超级游艇设计的仿生学、创新和可持续性方面的国际知名演讲者。
当晚取得了巨大的成功，所有的功劳都归功于唐屋中学的学生和主持人，他们找到了简化复杂想法和技术的方法，以便所有人都可以使用。
介绍“镇痛药”的Katie说：“我真的很喜欢这次活动，参加这次活动对我来说是一个绝佳的机会，因为我能够研究一个以前知之甚少的领域。我选择的主题是止痛药，更具体地说是吗啡的作用机制。我在这个过程中学到了很多东西，包括对互联网上无穷无尽的资源的取舍，以及将复杂的信息简化到可以理解的程度。主题种类繁多，从分形维度到超能力和混养农业，该活动非常有趣，并且肯定会激发观众对推进科学研究的不同应用的兴趣。”
Clara的 STEM演讲探讨了使用“槲皮素治疗牙周炎”的可能性，她也发现了这一过程的巨大价值；“这次活动是一个很好的机会，可以从不同的角度进一步研究特别感兴趣的话题，并寻找新的视角来寻找解决方案。这也是提高我的公开演讲和沟通技巧的好方法，我真的很喜欢听到我通常不会遇到的学术领域的消息。”
STEM 负责人 Charlie Littledale 先生解释了该计划背后的理由。“我对 STEM计划的目标是，那些参与其中的学生不仅喜欢更深入地研究他们个人感兴趣的领域，而且还从这个过程中受益匪浅。他们在研究、压缩和简化信息以及在现场观众的压力下进行展示的技能，将使他们在大学面试过程的严格性以及未来的工作世界中处于有利地位，在那里演讲自信将是必不可少的。此外，我的目标始终是激发的学生想要进一步参与STEM。我希望在未来几年看到他们中的许多人展示他们自己的 STEM 成果。”
由 Rebecca 撰写，五年级高11 年级
One of my favourite places to go is our local farm which inhabits a dizzy array of animals such as the ordinary laying hens, cows, sheep and pigs; but it is also houses a pair of gorgeous blue peacocks. The peacock, with its vibrant plumage, is often seen strolling around the enclosure with its tail wide open. Evidently the elaborate eye-shaped patterns and elongated train (tail feathers) will not protect the peacock from being the tiger’s supper, then why does it spend so much of its energy growing such a futile thing? Many people think that the peacock’s plumage is for attracting a mate but surely in the world of natural selection beauty is too luxurious to be its sole purpose. Therefore, what is the real reason for having such an energetically expensive feature?
The tail of the male peacock is a great example of sexual selection. Female peafowl are attracted to male peacocks with the largest and most ornate train. The ability of male peacocks to create a large train is related to their overall fitness. Testosterone is the masculine hormone involved in developing a large plumage, impressive main and significant antlers in male animals but it has a drawback- it suppresses the animal’s immune system. This is also why in almost all species (including humans) males have a lower life expectancy than females and are more susceptible to diseases.
Therefore, the quality of a male’s 'ornaments’ reflects truthfully on the quality of its genes, especially its resistance to prevailing infections. The peacock with the largest tail is effectively saying 'I can afford to grow a colourful tail at the risk of being infected by worms, and yet I am still alive and thriving’. For the quality of his ornaments depends on the level of testosterone in his blood: the more testosterone he has, the more colourful, large, songful or aggressive he will be. If he can grow a great tail despite lowering his immune defences, yet not catch disease, he must be impressive genetically even if he is a bit of a show- off…
以下为译文：
我最喜欢去的地方之一是农场，那里栖息着各种各样的动物，例如普通的蛋鸡、牛、羊和猪；这里也住着一对华丽的蓝孔雀。孔雀羽毛鲜艳，经常张开尾巴在围栏内漫步。显然，精致的眼形和细长的尾羽（尾羽）并不能保护孔雀免于成为老虎的晚餐，那它为什么要花那么多的精力去培育这样一个无用的东西呢？许多人认为孔雀的羽毛是为了吸引配偶，但在自然选择的世界里，美丽太奢侈了，不可能成为它的唯一目的。因此，拥有如此耗费能源的功能的真正原因是什么？
雄孔雀的尾巴是性选择一个很好的例子。雌孔雀被拥有最大和最华丽尾巴的雄孔雀所吸引。雄孔雀制造大尾巴的能力与它们的整体健康状况有关。睾丸激素是一种雄性激素，参与雄性动物长出大羽毛、令人印象深刻的主要和重要鹿角，但它有一个缺点——它会抑制动物的免疫系统。这也是为什么在几乎所有物种（包括人类）中，男性的预期寿命都低于女性，并且更容易患病。
因此，雄性“饰品”的好坏真实地反映了其基因的质量，尤其是对流行感染的抵抗力。拥有最大尾巴的孔雀实际上是在说“我可以冒着被蠕虫感染的风险长出一条五颜六色的尾巴，但我仍然活着并且茁壮成长”。因为他的装饰品的质量取决于他血液中的睾丸激素水平：他的睾丸激素越多，他就会越鲜艳、越大、越悦耳或越有攻击性。如果他能在免疫力下降的情况下长出一条大尾巴，还不染上疾病，那他的基因一定很了不起，即使他有点炫耀……
作者：Millie，11 年级
Sound is very important for humans to function as without it we wouldn’t be able to hear and hence we wouldn’t be able to speak and communicate with others. Without the ability to communicate as we are able to, it would have most likely taken us a lot longer to evolve into the functioning society we are today, but have you ever been in a place which is completely silent? A place which is fully void of all noise? I think it is very unlikely that you have.
No matter how quiet a place is that you have been, there will always have been some background noise, for example the gentle humming noises made by electronic devices which you wouldn’t usually take much notice of. An anechoic chamber is a room which is designed to block out external sound and absorb the reflections of sound and electromagnetic waves within the chamber, so they don’t cause echoes. This means when a person enters, they cannot hear any sound produced by the world outside the anechoic chamber. Anechoic chambers can accomplish this by having multiple layers of steel and concrete surrounding the chamber to block out external noise, and foam wedges lining the walls, ceiling and floor as to absorb any sound inside the chamber and prevent echoes.
But what is it like inside an anechoic chamber? When inside an empty anechoic chamber, you can only hear the noises you produce yourself, the noises you cannot usually hear, for example, you start to be able to hear the sound of your heartbeat, the sound of your bones grinding as you move and a loud ringing noise in your ears. So, how does the silence impact your body, and why?
You may start to lose your balance because there are no sound reverberations, this is an issue as it would result in you struggling to walk, or at least, struggling to walk in a straight line.
You also lose some of your spatial awareness because of the lack of reverberations as we cannot accurately judge how far away something is without sensing the sound waves which bounce off it.
Studies have shown that silence decreases heart rate and blood pressure as there are less stimuli for the body to detect and interact with, so the body can relax more. Silence is also beneficial for when you want to focus on something for this same reason. Silence can be calming and meditative, which is why it is easier to sleep when you are in a quiet area.
So, silence at chosen times can be a healthy choice but, our body has evolved to work with noise, not without it.
以下为译文：
声音对于人类的运作非常重要，因为没有它我们将无法听到，因此无法与他人交谈和交流。如果没有我们能够沟通的能力，我们很可能需要更长的时间才能发展到今天这样的运转良好的社会，但你有没有到过一个完全安静的地方？一个完全没有噪音的地方？我认为有的可能性很小。
无论您所在的地方多么安静，总会有一些背景噪音，例如您通常不会太在意的电子设备发出的轻微嗡嗡声。消音室是一种设计用于阻挡外部声音并吸收室内声音和电磁波反射的房间，因此它们不会引起回声。这意味着当一个人进入时，他们听不到消声室外面的世界产生的任何声音。消声室可以通过在房间周围设置多层钢和混凝土来阻挡外部噪音，并在墙壁、天花板和地板上衬垫泡沫楔来吸收房间内的任何声音并防止回声来实现这一点。
但是在消声室内是怎样的呢？在空荡荡的消声室里，你只能听到自己发出的声音，平时听不到的声音，比如你开始能听到心跳的声音，移动时骨头磨擦的声音，耳边传来响亮的铃声。那么，沉默如何影响您的身体，为什么？
您可能会开始失去平衡，因为没有声音回响，这是一个问题，因为它会导致您难以行走，或者至少难以走直线。
由于缺乏回响，你也会失去一些空间意识，因为我们无法在不感知从物体反弹的声波的情况下准确判断物体的距离。
研究表明，安静会降低心率和血压，因为可供身体检测和互动的刺激较少，因此身体可以更加放松。出于同样的原因，当您想专注于某事时，沉默也很有用。沉默可以让人平静和冥想，这就是为什么在安静的地方更容易入睡。
因此，在选定的时间保持沉默可能是一个健康的选择，但我们的身体已经进化到可以与噪音一起工作，而不是没有噪音。
STEM教育应该主张的不是老师教什么，而是学生学什么，怎么学。
很显然，唐屋中学做到了。
我们从中不仅能看到学生在此次STEM活动过程中的结果论据，同时也能清晰的感受得出论据，学生付出的过程也十分具有逻辑性，同时也产出了一些全新的信息和观点。
在STEM教育中，学校需要注重孩子创造力、创新想法的培养与保护，需要从抽象的讲授的学习形式中进行转变，不单纯地在课堂接受抽象知识，而是让孩子们真正动手实践，将知识运用出来，在合作中解决现实中的问题。
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