23 Together We’re Better

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Together We're Better Scientific collaboration (noun). When scientists work together to strengthen their research projects. This means that they share ideas, not that they take their ideas to the gym. MY VOICE WAS GROWING HOARSE. So many parents, kids, and people had come by to ask me about my Rube Goldberg machine. I answered about a zillion questions. And I loved it. It's like the whole world was suddenly science obsessed. So far three judges had come by—Ms. Daly and our two fifth grade teachers. They all carried tablets as they scored me and asked a lot of questions. With a smile, I glanced over at the rows of tables with everyone's posters set up next to one another. Lights flashed as parents and grandparents took photos. To my left there was no poster. That was where Jeremy was supposed to be set up.

第二十三章一起我们会更好科学合作（名词）。 当科学家们共同努力加强他们的研究项目时。 这意味着他们分享想法，而不是把想法带到健身房。 我的声音越来越沙哑。 很多家长、孩子和其他人都来问我关于Rube Goldberg机器的事。 我回答了无数的问题。 我很喜欢。好像整个世界突然都迷上了科学。 到目前为止，已经有三位法官来过。 戴利和我们的两位五年级老师。 他们给我打分时都拿着平板电脑，问了我很多问题。 我微笑着瞥了一眼一排排的桌子，每个人的海报都贴在一起。 灯光闪烁，父母和祖父母纷纷拍照。 我的左边没有海报。 杰里米本该被安排在那里。

On the other side of Jeremy's empty spot, Dr. Caroline was talking to Phoenix. I elbowed Birdie, whose poster was set up to the right of mine. "Look," I whispered. "See who's coming to me next. Okay, I'm calm." Birdie rolled her eyes. "You're not calm. If you were a crayon, you'd melt." "Okay, fine. But I'm going to act like it's completely normal. I mean, I know I sort of spoke with her before. But this is different. I'm going to be speaking to Dr. Caroline in person about my project. About science!" I smoothed out my lab coat. I hummed. "Just a normal life. Just la dee da." Birdie nudged me. "Kate. Kate! She's here." I glanced up, right at Dr. Caroline. She had on a really pretty silver chain with a double helix that dangled right in front of me. "Oh, you're wearing DNA—deoxyribonucleic acid!" "Yes, I am!" I glanced down at my lucky pink cowboy boots. "We're both wearing pink!" "An amazing color," said Dr. Caroline. "Did you know that anything that has a bluish red to light red color can be considered pink? It can even have slight hints of orange, like in the color salmon, right?" I asked.

在杰里米的空位子的另一边。 卡洛琳在跟菲尼克斯说话。 我用胳膊肘碰了碰伯蒂，她的海报就贴在我的右边。 “看，”我低声说。“看看下一个来找我的是谁。 好吧，我很冷静。”伯迪翻了个白眼。 “你不冷静。如果你是一支蜡笔，你会融化的。” “好,很好。但我会表现得很正常。 我知道我之前跟她说过话。 但这是不同的。我将和。 跟卡洛琳当面谈我的项目 关于科学!”我弄平了我的实验服。 我哼着。“只是正常的生活。 就这么简单。”伯蒂推了我一下。 “凯特。凯特!她是在这里。”我抬起头，正好看了一眼医生。 卡洛琳。她戴着一条非常漂亮的双螺旋银链，就在我面前晃来晃去。 “哦，你戴着dna -脱氧核糖核酸！”“是的，我是！”我低头看了一眼我的粉色幸运牛仔靴。 “我们都穿着粉红色的衣服！”“一种神奇的颜色。” 卡洛琳。“你知道任何蓝红色到浅红色的东西都可以被认为是粉红色吗？” 它甚至可以有轻微的橙色，就像鲑鱼的颜色一样，对吗？”我问。

"That's right." Dr. Caroline said as she leaned forward. "So, tell me about your project, Kate. How did you choose this idea?" "I'm fascinated by batteries," I admitted. Even though my voice was steady, my insides weren't. I was a jumble of nerves. But I bravely plowed on. "As a little kid, I was always taking them out of flashlights. The remote control for the TV. Anything. I was just wowed that a tiny little battery could do so much. So, when I discovered that lemons, limes, and apples—oh, and potatoes!—could be used as batteries, I knew I wanted to learn how to do it." Dr. Caroline smiled and made a note on her iPad. "But I realized I wanted to do more. So I thought about how I could use batteries in a Rube Goldberg machine. I learned from your show that Rube Goldberg was a fascinating person—a cartoonist, an engineer, and an inventor—who liked to make complicated machines that accomplish simple tasks at the end. And I thought that turning on a calculator is a simple task that scientists do all the time. Plus, you can watch kids and adults make Rube Goldberg machines on YouTube. They're fun

“没错。”卡洛琳医生向前倾着身子说。 “那么，跟我说说你的项目吧，凯特。 你是怎么选择这个主意的？”“我对电池很着迷，”我承认。 虽然我的声音很稳定，但我的内心却不稳定。 我的神经一团糟。但我勇敢地继续努力。 “小时候，我总是把它们从手电筒里拿出来。 电视的遥控器。 任何东西。我只是惊叹于一个小小的电池可以做这么多事情。 所以，当我发现柠檬、酸橙和苹果——哦，还有土豆！——可以用作电池，我知道我想学习如何做到这一点。” 卡洛琳医生笑了笑，在她的iPad上做了笔记。 “但我意识到我想做得更多。 所以我想到了如何在Rube Goldberg机器中使用电池。 我从你的节目中了解到，鲁布·戈德堡是一个迷人的人，他是一位漫画家、工程师和发明家，他喜欢制造复杂的机器，最终完成简单的任务。 我以为打开计算器是科学家们一直在做的一项简单的任务。 另外，你可以在YouTube上观看孩子和成年人制作Rube Goldberg机器。 他们是有趣的

and the chain reaction inspires people all over the world to dive into science. And what's better than something that inspires people to become scientists?" I demonstrated the machine (it worked!) and explained the science of every part of it—the geology behind the pebble, the physics behind dominoes, the size and shape of real strawberries and the properties of beeswax, the water displacement and absorption, and the chemistry of my lemon batteries. After that, I admitted some of the failures along the way. Like forgetting to test my batteries before trying the robot. "What did you feel like you learned from your mistakes?" asked Dr. Caroline. "I realized that you learn as much from what doesn't work as you do from what does." Dr. Caroline nodded. "Cognitive science, which is a special branch that studies the brain, shows that making and discussing mistakes makes us learn faster." "That's good. My best friend and I also talked a lot about our mess-ups. And helped each other with ideas. The strawberry looks good because of her," I said, pointing to Birdie. "Well, I'm having trouble not gobbling that strawberry up," said Dr. Caroline. "It looks so

这种连锁反应激励着全世界的人们投身科学。 还有什么比激励人们成为科学家更好的呢？”我演示了机器（它工作了！）并解释了它的每一个部分的科学——鹅卵石背后的地质学，多米诺骨牌背后的物理学，真正草莓的大小和形状，蜂蜡的特性，水的排水量和吸收率，以及我的柠檬电池的化学成分。 在那之后，我承认了自己一路走来的一些失败。 比如在使用机器人之前忘记测试电池。 “你觉得你从错误中学到了什么？” 卡洛琳。“我意识到，你从失败中学到的东西和从成功中学到的东西一样多。” 卡洛琳医生点点头。“认知科学是研究大脑的一个特殊分支，它表明，犯错误和讨论错误可以让我们学得更快。” “那就好。我最好的朋友和我也谈论了很多关于我们的混乱。 并且在想法上互相帮助。 草莓因为她才好看，”我指着小鸟说。 “嗯，我总是忍不住狼吞虎咽地吃草莓。” 卡洛琳。“看起来是这样。

real. Your friend is an amazing artist." Dr. Caroline's eyes lit up as she gazed at the chromatography experiment images and drawings on Birdie's poster. "So, you two worked together?" "Well, we helped each other out," I said. "Nice. Science is all about collaborations." Then Dr. Caroline asked me a few more questions before moving on to Birdie. At first, Birdie spoke in a quiet voice, but once she starting talking about getting to see ink separate, her voice grew more and more excited, more confident. Then she added that chromatography taught her how to catch a crook. Dr. Caroline took more notes, then she went over to the next aisle to look at Rory's cloud project. I could hear Dr. Caroline's voice. She was pointing and nodding and getting all jazzed about Rory's work too. I was proud of my project, but, honestly, I was worried about winning. I realized that a lot of other kids did a great job. And that was a good thing. But it meant I had competition with a capital C.I thought about what Dr. Caroline had said before, that it wasn't about winning. And I suppose it wasn't, but I still wanted to win anyway.

真实的。你的朋友是个了不起的艺术家。” 卡洛琳博士盯着伯迪海报上色谱实验的图片和图纸，眼睛亮了起来。 “那么，你们俩一起工作了？”“嗯，我们互相帮助，”我说。 “好了。科学就是合作。” 然后卡洛琳医生又问了我几个问题然后才开始找伯迪。 一开始，小鸟说话的声音很安静，但当她开始谈论看到墨水分开时，她的声音变得越来越兴奋，越来越自信。 然后她补充说，色谱法教会了她如何抓住骗子。 卡洛琳医生做了更多的笔记，然后她走到旁边的过道去看罗里的云项目。 我能听到卡罗琳医生的声音。 她指指点点，对罗里的作品也很感兴趣。 我为我的项目感到骄傲，但说实话，我担心是否能赢。 我意识到其他很多孩子都做得很好。 这是一件好事。 但这意味着我要和一个大写的c竞争。 卡洛琳之前说过，这和输赢无关。 我猜不是，但我还是想赢。