Book Your Field Trip to Pacific Science Center

A field trip to Pacific Science Center is a time-honored tradition for students of all ages across Washington State. Our hands-on exhibits, shows, and creative programs inspire students’ curiosity for science in a day of exploration meant to strengthen your curriculum and fuel lifelong enthusiasm for science, math, engineering and technology.

To schedule your field trip, complete the registration request form available at the link www.pacificsciencecenter.org/field-tripsl/, or call (206) 443-2925 Monday — Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. not less than two weeks ahead of your visit date. We will contact you within two business days to set up your field trip.

Starting September 3, 2019 PacSci will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays except for holidays and weeks during Seattle Public School breaks. We will no longer be booking field trips on those days, as well.

One free adult general admission is covered for every 10 paid students. Free adult admission doesn’t include IMAX documentary. These adults will be charged a $4 IMAX documentary admission. Additional adults outside of the ratio (比例) will be charged the student admission rate. Pacific Science Center Memberships cannot be applied to field trips. Payment is due one week before you visit.

■ Planetarium Shows

■ IMAX Documentaries

■ Science on a Sphere Shows

■ Laser Shows

The band Coldplay has released (发行) a new album called “Everyday Life”. But the group has announced it won’t go on tour until it can figure out how to tour without making the climate worse.

Normally when bands have a new album, they go on tour to promote (推销) the album. They may fly from country to country and drive across countries in buses, performing in concert after concert.

Touring is an important way singers and musicians earn money. But tours are very hard on the environment. Flying is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases. During their last tour, the band flew to five different continents and played 122 shows. They traveled with 109 supporting workers, 32 trucks, and 9 bus drivers. Think about the pollution from Coldplay’s flights as well as the trucks, buses and huge amounts of electricity required to power the shows!

It’s hard to keep track of the pollution a band creates while touring, but most of the environmental cost comes from the fans. During their last tour, Coldplay entertained 5.4 million fans, all of whom had to travel to the concerts and bought “merchandise” like T-shirts, CDs and posters. Some bought food and drinks at the concerts, creating tons of plastic waste.

Instead of touring to promote the new album, Coldplay recorded two videos of the band playing their new songs live in Jordan and has put the videos of their performances up for free viewing on YouTube.

Coldplay, one of whose dreams is to have a show with no single-use plastic and have it largely sun-powered, says it won’t tour again until its members work out how to make their tours help instead of hurt. The decision will cost the band a lot of money in the short run, but it could pay off big for the planet.

Sleep is essential for a person’s wellbeing. Researchers have found that sleep loss increases a person’s risk of developing serious medical conditions. Now, a new study has found that getting enough sleep is also the key to improving academic performance.

Jeffrey Grossman, who led the research, was not trying to find the correlation (相关性) between sleep and grades when he handed out Fitbits to the students in his class. Instead, the professor hoped the popular wrist-worn electronic device (装置), which tracks a person’s activity 24/7, would show a connection between physical exercise and academic achievement.

As part of the research, a quarter of the participants chose a fitness class specially created for the study. After the school term ended, the researchers carefully analysed the data. Much to Grossman’s surprise, they found no measurable difference in test performance between the group that had been physically active and the group that had not.

However, the study presented a surprising viewpoint in the journal Science of Learning. Going through the large amount of data, Grossman noticed an interesting trend (走向) from the participants sleep patterns. There was a straight-line relationship between the average amount of sleep and his/her grade on the exams.

Besides, it was not enough for students to just head to bed early the night before a test. Grossman says: “We’ve heard the phrase ‘Get a good night’s sleep, you’ve got a big day tomorrow.’ It turns out this does not relate at all to test performance. Instead, it’s the sleep you get during the days when learning is happening that matters most.”

The time students went to bed each night was similarly important. Those who went to bed in the early hours of the morning performed poorly, even if the total sleep time was the same as a higher-performing student.

The research does not prove that sleep is the only component that helps improve academic performance. However, Grossman says the results are a strong indication that sleep really matters. Who knew getting A’s just required some extra ZZZ’s?

Academic writing is an important and fixed part of college life at U.S. universities. But writing in a new language can bring special challenges to international students.     11     To be clear, this is something you should never do when studying in the U.S. It is known a “plagiarism” in academia — stealing someone’s work and representing it as your own.

American educational universities support academic honesty, which means that all forms of plagiarism and cheating are forbidden and lead to punishment Failing grades, delayed graduation or expulsion (开除) are the most obvious consequences. Besides, you may lose the ability to think and lose the trust of your teachers and classmates.    12    

Never copy other people’s works, never write essays for other students, and never forget to quote (引述) your sources.     13     While doing this, keep the original meaning but share personal thoughts about it, Use your own writing voice and style.

    14     It’s a list of published works you have used to support the arguments in your essay. You will need to learn how to format it correctly and how to refer to it from the body of your paper.

Before handing in an academic work to your professor, make sure to check upon and edit it. Check quotations and references one more time, double check for spelling and grammar mistakes, and read your essay aloud. This trick will help you see if your writing flows (通顺) and if there are any mistakes you could change to improve it.     15     They can help look through writings and find repeats before you hand in your work to professors.