We’ve all heard people say, “Oh, that person is so creative!” about someone who is great at art. But art is just one area where people can be creative.

Any time you try something different to deal with a problem, you’re being creative. In sports, that might mean trying new moves to score a goal. In engineering, that might mean joining different materials together to make a container that will protect an egg. At home, it could mean working out a shortcut to get to your friend’s house. You are creative every day!

Are some people naturally more creative than others? Maybe, but anyone can get more creative with practice. Here are some methods that work for experts who are creative in very different ways.

Explore and imagine

Shigeru Miyamoto is the brains behind some of the world’s most popular video games, such as Super Mario Bros. He exercised his creativity (创造力) like a muscle (肌肉) when he was growing up near Kyoto, Japan. He spent hours exploring nature and going on adventures (历险) in his mind. As a game designer, he still finds joy in making up new worlds and adventures.

Make wacky mash-ups (混搭)

Dr. Neri Oxman and her team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab combine things that don’t usually go together. They mixed ideas from robots and insects when they invented small robots that spin fibers (结网) the way silkworms (蚕) do. In the future, their work may lead to groups of robots that quickly build many types of buildings.

If you come up with ideas you’re not sure about, don’t worry-you’re not alone. In the Netflix series Abstract, Dr. Oxman said she often doubts her ideas. “My father said, ‘When you create, you must always feel a little bit uncomfortable. And if you’re feeling uncomfortable and alone, you know you’re doing something right. ”

Find pictures in patterns

Have you ever looked for animal shapes in clouds? The artist Leonardo da Vinci looked everywhere for patterns that would spark his imagination. He wrote that artists should look at stone walls and irregular stains (不规则的污渍) to discover landscapes or strange faces and costumes, and an endless variety of objects. You could reduce these to complete and well-drawn forms

Do you know how many kinds of plants and animals there are in the world? Experts believe there are between 8 and 14 million, but right now we only know about 1.5 million. However, scientists are finding new plant and animal species (物种) all the time—and that’s good news for us.

In 2009, a university professor named Christopher Austin and his student Eric Rittmeyer discovered a new animal species. They were in Papua New Guinea, studying the wildlife on the island. One evening, they were in the jungle listening to animal sounds. The most common sound was the noise of frogs croaking loudly. But there was another sound—a much softer, high-pitched one that sounded like it came from something much smaller.

At first, they couldn’t locate the sound, but after some time, they realized it came from the ground. They searched through the grass and dead leaves carefully, but what they found surprised them. It was a tiny frog—just seven millimeters (微米) long. “This frog has a call that doesn’t sound like a frog at all, ”said Austin. The frog they discovered was the smallest in the world!

Researchers believe that frogs are important because they help keep the environment clean. We can also use them to create new medicines. Whenever we find a new species, we learn new things. For that reason, scientists work very hard to find new plants and animals every day. But their jobs are getting more difficult. The forests that these animals live in are disappearing quickly. And, sadly, so are the animals.

5 . Knowing how to stay safe at home is just as important as knowing the family rules. Again, this is something you need to talk over with your mum, dad, or both of them. Go over safety rules for the kitchen if you’ll do any cooking while you’re home alone. It’s a good idea to practise what you would do in a real emergency, just in case something terrible happens.

Kids who are home alone might worry that someone could break into the house and hurt them. The good news is that this is very unlikely. But keeping the doors and windows locked will help you stay safe.

Decide with your mum or dad what to do if the phone rings or someone knocks at the door. It’s never a good idea to tell someone that you’re home by yourself. And when you get home and find the door is open or a window is broken, don’t go inside. Instead, go to a neighbour you trust and ask for help.

Other kinds of emergencies could come up too, like a fire, or you or a brother might get sick or hurt. Just in case, you’ll need to know:

◆how to dial 911

◆your address and phone number

◆the name, address, and the phone number of the place where your mum or dad works

◆the name, phone number, and address of a trusted neighbour

6 . Fraser Island is in Queensland, Australia, about 200 kilometers north of Brisbane. It is about 120 kilometers long and 240 kilometers wide. It is a very important island because it is completely made of sand. In fact, it is the largest sand island in the world. There is no airport on the island, but there is a long beach along the east coast. Planes arrive and leave from here.

The sand makes unusual shapes. There are hills made of sand called sand-blows. Nothing grows on them. They move one or two meters a year from the northwest towards the southeast of the island, getting bigger and bigger. At other places on the island, such as Rainbow Gorge, the Cathedrals and Red Canyon, the sandy rocks have different colors. Sometimes the rocks are so brown that they turn the sea brown, like coffee.

Surprisingly, the sandy island has a lot of different plants and animals. There are dark forests-eucalyptus woods, beautiful flowers and over a hundred lakes. There are many kinds of birds, like owls and curlews. There are many animals there, too, such as crocodiles, flying foxes and wild dogs called dingoes.

About 500, 000 people visit the island every year to see the island’s beauty and nature. People enjoy camping and hiking there. Unluckily, the visitors create problems. They damage plants and frighten animals. Their sun cream (防晒霜) makes the water dirty. So it is necessary to manage the visitors. For example, people may not use motor boats or go fishing in the lakes, and they need official papers to drive there.

7 .

The word “low-carbon” sounds familiar to most of us. But do you know “low-carbon community (低碳社区)”? What is the community like? What benefits (好处) will it bring to our environment? Let’s have a look at Hanbei Road Community of Ya’an, Sichuan Province.

Walking into the community, people can see the hanging environmental slogans (环保标语) at first sight. And the most eye-catching items are idle bins (闲置物品投放箱) around. Many people in the community would give their idle things into the bins. Xu Juan, a mother of two, once put a pair of gloves there. “I think it’s meaningful to help others.”

In order to encourage more people to join in the “low-carbon” activity, the community introduced a reward program. Anyone can get some points if he/she gives idle things or takes part in volunteer activities. With certain points, people can exchange things in the “low-carbon supermarket” in the community.

There is also an “exchange corner” in the community. People can exchange their idle things (except the living things) with others. If he/she is not interested in any idle things in the corner, he/she can donate (捐赠) his/her things to poor families in the community.

“We are trying to make the best use of idle things by free exchange and donation. We hope all the people in our community can live low-carbon life,” said Wang Lu, leader of Hanbei Road Community.