An impressive invention made by a 17-year-old teenager, called Anna Du, is helping to clean up small pieces of plastic from the ocean.

While walking along her local beaches in Massachusetts, the young student began collecting waste plastic bags and bottles. But what she noticed was a large number of tiny pieces of plastic or microplastics that were impossible to pick up. At just 12 years old, Du set out to solve the problem. After testing a few prototypes(原型)in her backyard, she invented a remotely operated vehicle that uses the infrared camera(红外摄像机)to detect microplastics on the ocean floor. More recently, Du has also created a simulation(模拟)model that uses artificial intelligence to predict where microplastics are located.

Du’s robot invention has earned her awards at top science fairs in the US, and she’s now a nationally recognized advocate for microplastic awareness and pollution prevention. “When I first started doing science fairs, I had no idea that a young girl without lots of money and just a little advanced engineering knowledge could make a difference in the world. I’ve learned that I truly love working on a problem that’s so much larger than me,” Du said.

Du has also released a new book to help spread the word not only about the dangers of microplastics but also about the ways to relieve the problem. Titled Microplastics &Me, the book follows Du’s own story of how she went from worrying about the environment to designing award-winning solutions. Writing for kids her own age, the young girl alerts her readers to the threat of microplastic pollution and urges them to care about the environment. The book hopes to encourage young students to get into science, technology, engineering and math(STEM)subjects and to inspire a new generation of inventors and engineers. What’s more, Du has even raised more than $7,000 to distribute the book free to kids and libraries in high-need communities.

I spent this past weekend exploring Edinburgh, Scotland. I went with my program group, CIS Abroad.

On Friday we took the train from London to Edinburgh and arrived in the evening, with just enough time to see around the High Street and have dinner.

On Saturday we visited different castles in the Highlands. The coolest castle that we saw was Doune Castle. The super great part about this castle is that it has been used for many different films, such as Monty Python, The Holy Grail, Outlander and Game of Thrones. In Game of Thrones it was used as the town of Winterfell, which I thought was great.

After Doune Castle we went to Deanston Distillery, which was built in 1966. We went on a tour of the facilities (设备) and saw how they made Scottish whiskey. It was great to see all of the effort that went into it. They showed us the storage room where they kept all of the casks (木桶), and there may be thousands in that room. One of the casks was from 40 years ago; the tour guide said that this cask would sell for about 4,000 pounds a bottle, which would be about 5,300 American dollars! I thought that was unbelievable.

The last day we had some free time to explore the town and shop for gifts. We also saw the most beautiful view of Edinburgh. It seemed like we climbed a million stairs up a hill to see the view, but let me tell you it was totally worth every step.

Scotland now has a special place in my heart. Two days is not enough to learn the city well, so I will certainly be back to one of the most beautiful places on earth.

High school began with meeting new friends, which was the most exciting part of that period. However, I noticed the difference with middle school right away since students around me were trying their best to get good grades. As for me, I saw these years as our last opportunity to spend time together as a group.

It was surprising for me to find out that my friends, including my best friend, were no longer willing to meet very often after school. This made me realize that perhaps I failed to realize the true meaning of these final years. I should state that it became especially clear after I talked to my best friend. He told me that he was really worried because I seemed to have no plan when it came to preparing for college. To be completely honest, he was right.

Luckily, my best friend was wise and able to explain his point of view to me. Also, he offered to spend time studying with me and getting me ready for the test to make sure I did not miss out on anything meaningful from the textbook. This was surprising for me since I was confident that activities like reading textbooks could not be enjoyable. I was wrong, and this challenge taught me that having fun in high school does not just mean going to parties or spending time in-cafes. Instead, you can have an enjoyable experience that will also be good for your future.

I am glad that I was able to learn from this situation. After sometime had passed, I understood and was able to change my behavior and attitude toward studying in high school just in time. Now, I am studying harder to get more knowledge and try to understand which subjects I am most interested into find out what I want to study in the future.