Object-based Learning

The standard school field trip often includes an outing to a museum, but a new resource provides guidance on how to bring a museum into the classroom. As part of the Mobile Museum Project, the Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens teamed up to help create school museums. The project, which can be used for any age group, turns the traditional understanding of a museum on its head. The primary aim of object-based learning should be to learn from rather than about objects.

Asking questions such as, “What do you want people to learn and why?” and “Who are you hoping to attract and why?”helps students make clear the purpose of the collection of their objects. Collecting the objects for the museum is a learning process in and of itself. Culturally significant objects, such as an old thing passed down through a family or a thing from a student’s home country, can help students build a sense of historical understanding and empathy. Such a process can encourage students to think independently and critically, so this can make their mind quicker and sharper.

When the students are gathered, they can practise thematic grouping by sorting the things into different categories(类别) before organizing the collection for final display. Students might be asked to create an explanatory PPT to show the relationship among the things. For example, a display description might try to discover the evolution( 演 变 ) of an object: wheat seeds to wheat seedings, to flour, and to flour products. Designing and writing labels(标签)provide the way to get storytelling into the learning process.

The museum project is a broad framework that can be used to integrate( 融 合 ) different subjects. At the end of the project, students must be sure to collect advice, even criticism from each other. They can work together to explore what worked and what didn’t work and what might be done differently next time. This gives students an opportunity to critically assess(评估)their own work.

Nowadays, stopping food waste is of great importance.

Over 30 percent of food goes to waste. Supermarkets throw away food that is not sold before its sell-by date, while families throw away food that they can't finish eating. In fact, it's hard for people to realize how much work goes into the food we eat every day. That makes food waste a big problem around the world.

As we throw food away, there are still 820 million people living in hunger around the world. And 3.1 million of them die from hunger each year. The COVID-19 pandemic (大流行) has made the situation even worse. With many countries no longer transporting (运输) food to other countries during this time, 10000 more children are dying of hunger each month.

To stop food waste, some people have come up with great ideas. Take a look for yourself.

Food bank

The world's first food bank was created in the US in 1967. People could donate extra food and also take the food home if they could not afford to buy any for themselves. In Shanghai, there is a "shared fridge" in some communities. It stores (储存) food that is donated by nearby markets and restaurants. It is free for anyone to take.

Pay as you like

A UK company called The Real Junk Food Project says that people still can eat food that has passed its sell-by date. They collect this food from supermarkets and sell it in cafes. You only have to pay as much as you feel is necessary.

If you don't want to spend money, you can volunteer at the cafes instead. There are now 125 Real Junk Food cafes worldwide. And the number is growing quickly.

Buy less

What else can we do to stop food waste? The answer is simply buying less food. There are millions of people around the world who still don't have enough to eat. We should be more careful about how we shop for food.

Share food that you cannot finish and waste less. Saving food can save us all.

3. Many parents think that it’s very difficult to get their children to do chores. But I don’t think so.

For my other two children, the chores are different because they are very young. They both know how to put their empty dinner plates in the dishwasher. My 19-month-old son helps me put the dirty clothes in the washing machine（洗衣机）when I am doing the laundry. They can also help me when I’m working in the yard. They help me pick up the sticks（树枝）and throw them away.