American Grace Brown is keeping busy during her first year of high school. She studies all the required subjects, such as English, history and mathematics, as well as taking classes in Latin. She also sings in a music group and plays the piano. The school day lasts from about eight o'clock in the morning to three in the afternoon. But because of her many activities, she has no time for a class in physical education, or PE.

So Grace is getting school credit for virtual PE. She wears a fitness tracker called Fitbit that the high school provided. She wears the Fitbit on her arm while doing exercises lasting 30 minutes or longer three times a week. Her computer has a software program that records her activity which she can present for credit.

A PE teacher may not be guiding the Fitbit-wearing students in person. But teachers do lead students’ work by setting goals such as fat burn, using the technology as their eyes and ears. “We certainly exercise more in online PE,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of standing around in regular PE. Online, I do much harder workouts.”

Grace’s mother, Rhonda Brown, remembers how hard PE class and softball games were for her because of blindness in one eye. She would like to see Fairfax County give students permission to avoid PE if they play school sports.

“We’re so stuck in the traditional classroom setting. These kids are burning 2,000 calories (卡路里) during a practice and more at every game.” Rhonda said. “I wish the schools would catch up with the times.”

It is not clear how many schools are supporting the trend. Technology and the collection of any student data always raise the problem of student privacy concerns. “There is a difference between physical activity and physical education,” said Chris Hersl. Physical activity is great for the body. We want everybody to move, but physical education is a class where students are taught how to move their body and the social context in which to do that.”

Rifath Shaarook was 14 when he met Srimathy Kesan, the founder and CEO of Space Kids India (SKI), as a student journalist. What began as a one-off interview soon transformed into the coming together of two minds. The teenager held the idea of sending a student satellite to space. While other grown-ups were quick to dismiss it, Kesan was different. She had laid the foundation for SKI, a private organization committed to promoting innovation among children, particularly in aerospace. She saw potential in Rifath and his idea.

Two other students soon joined Rifath. The two 17-year-olds were in Hindustan University studying aerospace engineering. They chanced upon a notice on their college noticeboard that changed their life. It was about a workshop organized by Space Kids India at the NASA headquarters.

The first project was the SKI-NSLV Kalam 1, a balloon satellite, launched near space to gather data on air quality, altitude, gases and so on. After a two-year-long struggle, Space Kids successfully launched the vehicle, a first for India—with support from educators of NASA and University of Central Florida. Around this time, a third aerospace engineering student was introduced to the team. A biologist followed soon.

Four years of hard work paid off in June with the launch of KalamSat, the world’s lightest satellite. The satellite is so small that you can hold it in your palm (手掌). It is a 3.8-centimetre cube made of 3D-printed carbon fibre polymer (聚合物) and weighs 64 grams. The satellite was in space for 12 minutes and its findings will be published soon. Scientists will be able to study its behaviour and performance in microgravity. The mission also tested the effectiveness of the newly developed carbon fibre polymer in 3D-printing technology.

What are “soft skills”? You may ask. “Soft skills” is the term used for those skills that are not technical or job—related.   【小题1】 These skills characterize your relationships with other people, or how you approach life and work. In the workplace, soft skills are considered to be a complement to hard skills, which refer to a person’s knowledge and occupational skills.

【小题2】 Imagine you are working in a company producing something, let’s say light bulbs. You come up with a new technology. Your light bulbs are suddenly much better than others and your profits go up. But, after a while, your competitors get hold of the technology. Suddenly, the light bulbs are all the same again and your profits are decreasing. At this time, you still need the new technology.   【小题3】

Hard skills are like your technology: anyone can acquire them through formal education, training programs, and concentrated effort, and they are necessary. Without them you will not be able to operate in the workplace. Soft skills are your unique selling point. 【小题4】 Plus, soft sills are regarded as the ability to recognize and manage your own and others’ emotions. However, in reality, they go beyond that, and into the wider areas of how you organize yourself and how you approach life. It has been suggested that a number of professions soft skills may be more important than career skills over the long term.

Like hard skills, soft skills require a lot of practice to make you really skilled at using them. 【小题5】 You measure your success in developing soft skills in how well you manage relationships with those around you. These include family, friends, and co—workers, as well as customers and those who provide you with goods or services.