By Erik Slader and Ben Thompson. Ages 6 to 12.

The first book in the Epic Fails series deals with one of the most ambitious goals humans have pursued to fly. Authors Slader and Thompson focus on life-or-death scenes, such as when the Wright brothers crashed their sailplane over and over on the sandy coast of North Carolina: it took them two more years to get it right.

By Erik Slader and Ben Thompson. Ages 6 to 12.

Today, everyone is familiar with Neil Armstrong’s famous words as he first set foot on the moon, "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. "He made it look easy, but America’s Journey to the moon was anything but simple. Our first attempt was a failure. Still we didn't give up. We tried again. And again. And each time we failed, we failed a little bit better.

By Luke Reynolds.Ages 6 to 12

Teacher Luke Reynolds opens each chapter with a quick, impossibly perfect version of one person's life and then says how that person actually had to face huge challenges to accomplish goals. In this book, Reynolds writes about various common men, women and children.

By Mary Morton Cowan. Ages 6 to 12

In 1853, it took at least a week to relay a message between the United States and Europe because people had to be transported on ships over the Atlantic Ocean. Cyrus Field tried to reduce that transmission ((传送) time to just minutes by laying a long undersea cable. In this book, Cowan describes many failures. Field suffered before he achieved this major breakthrough.

Paying it forward is a concept that involves doing something good for someone in response to a good deed done on your behalf or a gift you received. When you pay it forward, however，you don't repay the person who did something nice for you. Instead, you do something nice for someone else.

Recently, an inspiring note found inside a random book has inspired thousands of people to pay it forward.

Ashley Jost was shopping at Target when a book caught hex eye. The 27-year-old bought the book Girl Stop Apologizing and began reading it when she got home. After a few minutes her dog started barking so she put the book aside. When she got back, she noticed something on the ground. "A five-dollar note fell out, " Jost said.

She looked through the book, and in one of the last pages, there was a note that read, “To the person who buys this book: I am having a tough day. I thought maybe I could brighten someone else’s with this little surprise. Go and buy a coffee, a hamburger or a face mask. Practice some self care today. Remember that you are loved, you are amazing, and you are strong -Lisa”

Jost decided to post a photo of the note and the money on Twitter and it went like a virus. People are promising their own random acts of kindness.

“In that moment，I didn’t necessarily need the pick-me-up，but I feel obligated(有义务的)to share it， and I’m hearing back from people who did,” Jost said. “The ripple effect is pretty unbelievable.

After seeing her Twitter post, Lisa mailed Jost a card. "She said it made her cry in a good way,” Jost said. But Lisa still didn’t give away who she was. She left no return address. Lisa wrote it had been a difficult time in her life and she just wanted "to create something positive-she never really expected this to happen the way it has.”

What will you get if you ask middle schoolers to show you their city through a camera? There may be images of flowers and friends, street scenes and sneakers, and trees and trains. It can also include colorful images featuring their favorite people, places and things. Such photographs made up an exhibition that was the end result of a special citywide photography lesson called “Everyday DC”.

“DC is a place where people can all come together and be free and be with everyone that they love,” said Lauryn Tharpe, one of the four student curators (馆长) who worked with their art teacher at Brookland Middle School to put the exhibition together. “There’s more to DC than big buildings and important people.”

“Everyday DC” was inspired by a popular Instagram feed called Everyday Africa, which was started by two professional photographers who noticed the personal photos of Africa, from their perspective (视角) showing a different story than their professional work. The goal of the online photo “exhibition” was to show viewers what it’s like to live in Africa, as opposed to what people outside of Africa see in the news.

In Washington DC, students took photos to reflect their lives there. Twelve middle schools each submitted about 10 student photographs, from beautiful portraits to action shots and images of the students’ favorite foods. Tharpe and another three students were selected to be curators by their art teacher, Maame Bawuah, who coordinated (协调) the project for DC Public Schools.

“I have a lot of amazing students, although the four of them are quite exceptional,” said Bawuah, who chose the students to be curators because of their interest in both photography and museum management.

A curator is someone who collects, organizes, cares for and displays anything in a collection. To get ready for the exhibition, the curators had to take care of many tasks, including taking their photos according to different themes.

A mind-reading chip that lets you control a computer by just thinking has been made public at a conference in China. Named Brain Talker, the chip could be used to control computers, smart phones and other devices, its creators say. It has been jointly developed by Tianjin University and China Electronics Corporation.

This kind of brain-computer interface (接口) is designed to let a person control a computer, a smartphone or other electronic devices using his/her brainwaves alone-without needing any forms of verbal orders, movements, or button pressing. Brain interfaces would not only allow for the faster operation of various technologies, but also be used to assist people with disabilities, for example by letting an individual drive an electric wheelchair just by thinking.

“Brain-computer interfaces hold a promising future,” said Dong Ming. "The Brain Talker chip advances brain-computer interface technology, allowing it to become more portable, wearable and accessible to the general public.

The brain decoding (解码) chip works by picking out minor neural (神经) electrical signals in the brain and rapidly translating them into a form that the computer can understand. “This brain-computer chip has the ability to identify minor neural electrical signals and decode their information efficiently, which can greatly enhance the speed and accuracy of brain-computer interfaces，” said Dr. Dong.

Recent technology advances have allowed researchers to develop the Brain Talker chip, so it is smaller and operates faster, more precisely and with greater efficiency than existing brain-computer interfaces. Although it is not clear exactly how the device will be worn, most brain-computer interface devices are worn on the outside of the body, rather than being fixed directly into the users’ brain. Cheng Longlong, a data scientist, said that the research team will attempt to improve the performance of the Brain Talker. One day brain-computer codec chips will contribute to medical treatment, education, self-discipline, security as well as games and entertainment.