Written By You

Connection Infection – Poetry by Kids

poetry by kids

News scrolling on a bright screen

Eyes scanning down a magazine

Locked up in a daydream

Obsessed by the latest Instagram post I’ve seen

I’m infected with a virus

That I can’t get out of my head

It’s got me going crazy

At least; that’s what the comments said

Hairstyles and creations

‘Urgent’ messages from relations

The latest trends and how to cook

Living life by an electronic book

I’m infected with a bug

That’s connected to my hands

That’s left me solitary

Unware of and blind to the past

We used to talk face to face

Of politics, clothes and space

But then you were replaced

By a cruel-minded interface

My alarm’s a notification

I’m dictated by cold metal parts

My day scheduled on reaching the leader boards

The social media bug has infected my heart

 

 

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Popular, Science, Nature and Tech

Untangling Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation – A Child-friendly Explanation

child friendly explanation of quantum entanglement

You may have heard something on the news recently about an exciting scientific discovery, of Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation. Sometimes it can be quite hard to untangle a news story like this, because it all sounds rather complicated. Our new Science Writer, Samantha Gouldson has ironed out the details and explains Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation in a child-friendly manner.

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Toys and Games

What is Geocaching?

 

What is Geocaching?  It’s like a real-life treasure hunt and is a great way to make a walk in the woods just a bit more interesting!

Julianne Robertson explains what it is and how to do it. 

 

What is it?

Players use a handheld GPS device or a smartphone to look for a set of co-ordinates near to wherever they are and find the geocache (or treasure!) hidden at that location.  These are usually a small container of some kind with a logbook and ‘treasure’ inside – this can be anything, like a little toy, some stickers, a badge, a pretty stone – basically anything small enough to fit inside and be worth finding!

 

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Sounds good!  How do I get started?

Go to the website www.geocaching.com and register – it’s free to sign up.  Then you put in your postcode and you should see a list of all the geocaches near to where you live.  Choose one and you’ll get the co-ordinates you need to put into the GPS, as well as a description of the area and clues about how to find the cache.

 

Are geocaches always hidden in the woods?

No – there are geocaches all over the world and they are usually put in places which are important to the person hiding them.  Some are hidden in forest areas, others are in local parks, or city streets – even underwater!  There are also different sizes of geocache and a range of difficulty – you should probably start with one that’s easy, at least to begin with!

 

What do I do when I find one – can I keep the treasure?!

Yes, but you should replace anything you keep with something of equal or greater value.  You should also write about your find in the logbook and when you get home log your experience on the website too, so that others know the cache is still active.

 

 

 

Can I hide my own cache for others to find?

Yes, once you’ve found a few caches you’ll know what makes a good geocache and hiding place, and you might want to create your own!  There are lots of guidelines on the website about how to do it.

 

Now you know about geocaching – go and try it!  It’s a great activity to do with your family or a group of friends.  Once you’ve found one, you’ll want to find more!

 

 

 

Julianne Robertson is a freelance journalist, based in Dundee. Her background is radio news, and she now writes features and reviews, specialising in parenting, faith and religion, events and lifestyle issues.

 

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Science, Nature and Tech

Cellular Communications

When we talk about ‘cellular communcations’, we are not referring to use of a cell phone, because before mobiles or cell phones there was a time when this only meant cell to cell interaction within an organ or tissue. This important cellular behaviour drives diverse functions from contracting cells in your heart muscle to the cells in your nerves.

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Written By You

Alice Gives Advice – Written By You

Alice M is 10 years old, and has some great advice on being a girl 

 

The Joy about being a girl is you get more opportunities because people mostly trust girls better than boys. I know that it majorly sexist but technically that is what happens in life.

We all know that girls have to go through a HARD time when they are older but it is sometimes worth it, GIRLS are the ones that actually produce the baby, GIRLS are the ones who have super fashion sense and are the ones who are unique with any kind of style Goth, jumpy, and get have any personality they want to and we wear make-up to make ourselves look nice, scary, horrible anything you want, we can style hair, have fun and mess around.

Some people don’t like being girls mostly because their scared, I am too, but if you think about it there generally is nothing to be afraid of. You have people all along the way to help you enter adulthood and become bigger and better, people will help you when it is hard and when you need constant monitoring but after all that has passed, I will guarantee that you will have had the time of your LIFE being a girl.

So what I am trying to say is: enjoy being a girl, enjoy having horrid things done to you (I know that sounds backwards but trust me, it I’ll be worth it) because when that is all over you’ll miss it.

 

 

Featured Image by D Sharon Pruitt 

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