My Science School

Do you like to compete? Are you ready to take on the world?

If you are, try the Olympic Games. In the Olympics, athletes representing countries around the world compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals. And the whole world watches.

Do you like archery, fencing, boxing, or rowing? The Olympics have a competition for you. Many sports are included in the Olympic Games. The Winter Olympic Games feature athletes who ski, sled, and skate. The Summer Olympic Games have swimmers, runners, cyclists, jumpers, and gymnasts.

In some sports, players compete in teams. In others, it’s you against your opponent. In some sports, you might race against the clock to beat the record. Ice skaters, divers, and gymnasts all perform before judges who rate their skills.

In sports, someone wins and someone loses. In the Olympic Games, a world-class skier or swimmer might win a medal by only 0.02 seconds! When you race, you might lose by a hair – or you might win.

Games help you learn to be a good sport – to do your best and enjoy playing, whether win or lose.

After an Olympic event, the top three players or teams are honored with a special ceremony and medals – gold, silver, and bronze.

The lighting of the Olympic flame is a tradition at the Olympic Games. It stands for spirit, knowledge, life, and peace.

You have to be very strong for the weightlifting competition. Some people lift more than 454 kilograms.

The Olympics have many track and field events. Some include running, but others involve jumping or throwing things.

Downhill skiing, or Alpine skiing, can have athletes hurtling down a mountain at speeds of about 97 kilometres per hour.

 

Picture Credit : Google

People are crowding into the Olympic Stadium in Rome. Banners are flying. Flags are waving. Everyone is talking at once.

Th calico champions from Rome and Milan are about to meet. Calico is the Italian name for soccer. Every Sunday, from October to May, teams from big Italian cities play one another.

“Evviva!” (Hurrah!) A great roar echoes through the stadium as the game begins. Soccer is the favourite sport in Italy, and probably throughout the world. In many countries in Europe, South America, and Asia, soccer is the national game.

In Canada, ice hockey is the national sport. This game was first played on Canada’s frozen lakes and ponds. Now, hockey is popular in western Europe, Russia, the U.S.A., and Japan.

Cricket, the United Kingdom’s favourite summer sport, is also popular in Australia, the West Indies, and Pakistan.

Americans play all kinds of ball games, such as football, baseball, and basketball. American children love to roller-skate and ride bikes. In Japan, the favourites are volleyball, baseball, and table tennis. Very large wrestlers compete in sumo wrestling, another popular sport in Japan.

 

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Tired of the same old games of tag? Get some friends together and try these tag games from different countries.

Moon and Morning Stars

The game Moon and Morning Stars comes from Spain. The Moon stands in the shadow of a building or a large tree. He or she must stay in the shadow because the Moon belongs to the night. The other players – Morning Stars – dance in the sunlight but sometimes venture into the shadows and risk being caught. The first star caught becomes the next Moon.

Bow and Curtsy Tag

Try the game Bow and Curtsy Tag – from Sweden. Players stand in a circle, holding hands. The one who is “It” runs around the outside of the circle at least twice, then touches someone’s shoulder. The two then run around in opposite directions. When they meet, they stop and bow or curtsy three times. Then they race in opposite directions to take the vacant place in the circle. Whoever loses the race is “It” next time.

Mubwabwa (Antelope)

Here’s another fun game called Mubwabwa (Antelope) – from Brazzaville, in the Republic of the Congo. Play this game in the field or on a court with set boundaries. One person is the mubwanwa, or antelope. The mubwabwa tries to catch the others, yelling “Mubwabwa!” Each player who is caught yells “Mubwabwa!” too and helps catch the others. Anyone who goes out of bounds is considered caught. The last person caught is the winner.

 

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What do you like to do for fun? Do you like to swim, or ski, or camp? Do you like to read, or draw, or make things?

The ancient Greeks enjoyed running races and going to plays. The children of ancient Rome played blindman’s buff. The people of Greece and China have been flying kites for more than 2,000 years.

Today, people have fun doing all these things – and others too. People skateboard, ski, and snorkel. They watch their favourite sports teams play. They visit zoos, museums, and parks. They play thinking games, and they run, jump, and climb. It’s fun to exercise your mind and your body.

In the playground

Street games are fun! The names may change, but the games are pretty much the same on playgrounds, pavements and parks all over the world.

Do you play hopscotch? Children all over the world play it. In China, hopscotch is called Gat Fei Gei, which means “One-Foot Jumping Flying Machine”. In Italy, it’s called the Bell. In Austria, it’s the Temple. In Myanmar, children squat with hands on their hips as they jump the squares.

Hopscotch games come in all shapes and sizes. Some have 8 squares in a straight line. Others have as many as 20 squares in the shape of a snail’s shell.

Find me, catch me!

It’s Alfredo’s turn to be “blind hen”, Pedro ties a big, red handerchief over Alfredo’s eyes. Then Pedro, Inez, Maria and Juan form a circle around Alfredo. The four of them chant, “Blind hen, blind hen, what have you lost?”

“I’ve lost a thimble and a needle,” says Alfredo.

“Where have you lost them?” ask the others.

“In a haystack,” says Alfredo.

Inez turns Alfredo around three times and steps back. Now the children run up to Alfredo and tease, “Blind hen, blind hen”.

Alfredo tries to catch then. But he is confused from being turned around and blindfolded. The children dart away whenever Alfredo’s handfs come close. Then Juan gets careless – and he is caught. Now it is Juna’s turn to be “blind hen.”

Alfredo and his friends live in Peru. But “find me, catch me” ggames like blind hen are played all over the world.

Children in Rome played this game about 2,000 years ago. They called it murinda. Nowadays, children in Italy call it mosca cieca, “blind fly”. In China, it’s tsoo, tsoo. In Germany, it’s blindekuh. And in the United Kingdom, children call it blindman’s buff. What do you call it?

Many kinds of games have one person chasing and catching the others.

Quick hands, quick eyes

In the U.S.A., a game called jacks requires quick hands and eyes. Jacks, small metal or plastic pieces, are placed on the floor. A player tries to pick up one or more jacks after tossing, but before catching, a small ball.

Filipino children call the game siklot. In India, it is called guttak. Instead of jacks, Indian players use small stones.

Can you crisscross a string into a cat’s cradle? Quick fingers can, in seconds. Within a few more seconds, they can cross the strings again, and another shape appears.

Children everywhere play marbles. In some countries, children play a marbles game called ringer. Players use a big marble called a shooter to knock smaller marbles out of a ring.

Pick up sticks is another world favourite. To play, you toss down a fistful of sticks or straws. Then you try to pick up the sticks one by one, without moving any of the others.

Who’s first?

Ziggeddy, ziggeddy,

Marble stone,

Pointer, pointer, bouff!

Kisskillindy, kisskilindy,

Pa...Pa...poriff!

That’s the rhyme you use to choose who will be “It” in Trinidad, an island in the West Indies. Everyone puts a hand into the circle, and one child says the rhyme while tapping everyone’s hand. The child touched on the last word is “It”.

Almost every game starts with deciding who goes first. Is it the oldest person, the shortest, or the one with the longest hair? Or do you count around a circle saying “Eeeny, meeny, miny, moe” or “”One potato, two potato, three potato, four...”?

In Cuba, it’s:

Little white dove,

Tell me the truth,

Is it this, or this,

Or this, forsooth?

In many Western countries, China, and Japan, children often use the game called Paper, Scissors, Rock to decide who goes first. Each player makes a fist. On the count of three, the players throw their fists open, each showing one of the three items. A flat palm is paper. Two fingers are scissors. A fist is a rock.

Who wins? Rock beats scissors, by crushing them. Scissors beat paper, by cutting it. Paper beats rock, by covering it.

In Indonesia, the game is called Elephant, Man and Ant. The thumb is an elephant, the first finger is a man, and the little finger is an ant. The elephant can step on the man. The man can scoop up the ant. And the ant can beat the elephant by running up his trunk and tickling him.

 

Picture Credit : Google

A date is an oval-shaped fruit covered by tough skin. It may be yellow, orange, red, or green. Its thick, sweet flesh surrounds a single large seed. Dates are a popular treat throughout the Middle East. Make 16 bars.

You will need:

• 225 gms rolled oats, plain or instant


• 112 gms all-purpose flour


• ½ teaspoon baking powder


• ½ teaspoon salt


• 1 teaspoon cinnamon


• 112 gms dark brown sugar


• 225 gms melted butter or margarine


• 2 eggs, beaten


• 225 gms finely chopped pitted dates (cut with scissors)


• 225 gms chopped walnuts, peanuts, or pecans (ptional)


• 112 gms icing sugar for garnish


• A large mixing bowl


• A mixing spoon


• A greased 20-cm square baking dish


• Clean hands

What to do:

• Preheat the oven to 175 degree C


• Put the oats, flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well. In another bowl, put the brown sugar, butter, and eggs.


• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add the dates and nuts.


• Spread the batter into the baking dish and bake in the oven for about 35 minutes, until firm.


• Remove the dish from the oven. While it is still warm, sprinkle the treat with icing sugar, then cut into squares.

Picture Credit : Google

Sweet potatoes and yams are vegetables that grow underground. They are important foods in many countries. In Ghana, fufu is a national dish made with yams. Make 12 to 18 balls.

You will need:

• 4 or 5 skin-on sweet potatoes or yams


• 1.5 litres water


• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg


• 1 teaspoon ground red cayenne pepper, more or less to taste


• Onions, garlic, or peanuts (optional)


• A medium saucepan with lid


• A large mixing bowl


• A potato masher or electric blender


• A mixing spoon


• Clean hands

What to do:

• Put the sweet potatoes or yams in the saucepan with the water. Ask an adult to bring the water to a boil. Then cover the pan and let the water simmer for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.


• Remove the potatoes or yams from the heat and allow them to cool. Peel the potatoes, and then cut them into chunks. Using a potato masher or electric blender, mash the potatoes into a smooth paste. Mix with nutmeg, red pepper, salt, and pepper.


• Wash your hands, then moisten them with water.


• Roll the mixture in the palms of your hands. Shape the mixture into balls the size of golf balls.


• Place the balls side by side on a serving plate. Keep them at room temperature until they are ready to serve. Some people sprinkle their fufu with chopped onions, garlic, or peanuts.


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Picture Credit : Google

Italian people like to eat their meals one course at a time, starting with an appetizer and working their way to the pasta or main dish. They may start their meal with an appetizer like this bruschetta. Make six servings.

You will need:

• 1 loaf of Italian bread sliced together


• 2 or 3 chopped tomatoes


• 3-4 spoonfuls of olive oil


• Salt


• About 12 chopped up basil leaves


• Serving plate


• Medium mixing bowl


• Bread knife


• Serving spoon


• Clean hands

What to do:

• Ask an adult to help toast the bread. Lay the two sides open on the grill for a few minutes until crispy. Then put them on a place.


• Put the tomatoes in the bowl.


• Add the olive oil, a couple pinches of salt, and the basil to the tomatoes. Mix well.


• Spoon the tomato mixture evenly over the toasted bread. Let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes so the flavours can soak into the bread.


• Cut the bread into sections and serve.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Lemons and limes are natural fruity thirst quenchers. Lemon and lime drinks are popular in many places around the world. Makes 10 servings.

You will need:

• ½ litres lemon or lime juice (seeds removed)


• ½ ml corn syrup or to taste (ready-made or frozen lemonade can be substituted for the first two ingredients)


• 2 teaspoonfuls canned apricot juice from the world food section of your grocery shop


• 8 small bottles of clear carbonated water


• Crushed ice to fill 10 glasses


• 10 peppermint sprigs


• A jug or large bowl


• A long-handled spoon


• 10 glasses


• Clean hands

What to do:

• Put the lemon or lime juice in a jug. Add the syrup and apricot juice, then mix well.


• Fill each glass with crushed ice. Add about 60 ml of the juice mixture to each glass and fill to the top with carbonated water.


• Garnish each drink with a mint sprig.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Does your family enjoy eating toad in the hole, heaven and earth, or hush puppies? Millions of people do!

Every country has some foods with funny-sounding names. Check out these examples, then think of some fun food names you know.

Toad in the hole (United Kingdom) is a sausage baked in a batter of flour, milk, and eggs. When cooked, the sausage looks like a toad peeking out of a hole.

Hush puppies (U.S.A.) are small balls of cornmeal deep-fried in fat. A favourite snack in the southern states, they were sometimes fed to dogs to keep them quiet.

Heaven and earth (Germany) is a side dish that combines apples, which grow on trees (heaven), with potatoes, which grow in the ground (earth).

Egg snowballs (Brazil) is a dessert made of beaten egg whites cooked into balls and placed on a pool of lemony sauce.

Bubble and squeak (United Kingdom) is a mixture of bacon and cabbage or other vegetables that gets its name from the noises it makes in the frying pan.

Dragon’s whiskers (China) are made from oolong tea packed in tiny, straw-like bundles and tied with red ribbon. Oolong is from the Chinese word for “black dragon”. The tied up package looks like a Chinese dragon with whiskers.

 

Picture Credit : Google

When guests come for dinner, should you stick your hand in the serving bowl, or use a knife and fork at your own plate? At mealtimes, should you sit on the floor, or sit on your chair at the table?

Well, your table manners will depend on where you are. People in different cultures have different eating customs.

If you are from a Western country, you probably eat from your own plate and use a knife, fork, and spoon. But you probably eat some foods, such as sandwiches, with your fingers.

Many Arab families eat from one serving bowl. They eat with only the right hand, whether they use fingers or spoons. In Ethiopia, people use pieces of bread to scoop up food from a common bowl.

In Japan and China, most people pick up their food with chopsticks. The food is served in small pieces, so knives aren’t needed.

People in Western countries sit on chairs at a table when they eat. In the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, people often sit on the floor or outside, on the ground.

 

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Suppose you were offered seaweed, snails, or frozen fish eyes. Would you turn up your nose in disgust? Or would you say, “Yes, please!”?

Food usually comes from plants or animals in this world. Some types of plants and animals do well in cold cities. Other types thrive only in rain forests. What people eat often depends on the plants and animals that are near them.

In Japan, seaweed is an important vegetable. It is part of many meals. In Wales, seaweed is cooked with oatmeal and eaten with bacon. Maybe you eat seaweed. Some jelly-like stuff that comes from seaweed is used in many ice creams and jellies.

Snails baked in garlic and butter is a famous meal from France. It’s called escargot. Sea urchins – raw – are also popular there. Many Inuit like to eat frozen fish eyes.

Do you want ants? Honeypot ants drink a sugary liquid from plants called honeydew. They drink so much of it that they look like little walking honeypots. In Australia and Mexico, people pop the sweet insects into their mouths or spread them on toast.

Australian Aborigines like witchetty grubs, the larvae of beetles and moths.

Bird’s-nest soup is a special Chinese dish. It is made from the nests together, the birds use their saliva. This makes the soup chewy!

In West Africa, where people eat few cooked desserts, a favourite treat is sugar cane! Children simply chew a piece of the plant, which grows in West African forests.

Certain foods may seem strange to you simply because you have not learned to eat them. But people around the world eat – and like – many different kinds of food.

 

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It’s dinnertime, and delicious smells are drifting through the air.

Some foods you can simply pick and eat, like a peach. Other foods need to be cooked for hours over a hot fire. People in different cultures have discovered many tasty ways to prepare their food. Dinner might be served raw, fried, boiled, or grilled indoors or outdoors.

Tonight, you’re having fish and vegetables. How do you like them? Raw, boiled, fried, baked, grilled, stir-fried, roasted, or stewed?

In China, Wang Kow watches as his mother pours peanut oil into a deep, round frying pan called a wok. When the oil is hot, she adds meat and vegetables and tosses them as they cook. She is stir-frying the food.

Alex helps his father turn the steaks and sausages on their garden grill in Sydney, Australia. They’re having a cookout.

We often cook food to make it taste better. Cooking meat also make it safer to eat. Vegetables are cooked to make them softer. Dough is baked to make cakes, biscuits, and bread. Soups are simmered to blend the flavours of their ingredients together.

 

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Do you have a “sweet tooth”? You do if you like sweets, puddings, and other sugary treats. People everywhere find ways to satisfy a “sweet tooth”.

Children in China like “drawn-wire apple”. The apple is cooked in sweet, sticky toffee. When a piece of apple is lifted from the hot dish, the toffee cools and stretches in thin strips like wire.

In Spain, children eat colorful dragons made of marzipan, a type of sweet made of almond paste and sugar.

Some “main course” foods can be turned into treats. Sweet potatoes are made into sweets in Mexico and camote-cues, a sweet snack for children, in the Philippines.

In Myanmar, children love a chewy treat called khaw pyin, made of rice and seasame seeds. Also in Southeast Asia, many treats are made with coconut.

In North America, maple-tree sap is boiled to make syrup. And everywhere, bees are busy making honey all the time. People add these sweeteners to breads, cakes, and other foods.

 

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Are you meat-eater? If you are, what kind of meat do you like? Beef? Pork? Chicken? Lamb? Where you live might determine what kind of meat you like – and how much meat you eat.

The U.S.A. and Argentina raise lots of cattle, and people eat lots of beef. China raises the most pigs, and pork is popular there. In New Zealand, sheep and lambs are plentiful, including on the dinner table.

The Masai people of eastern Africa live by raising cattle. They get almost all their food from cows. However, they seldom eat meal. They live mostly on the milk and blood of cows.

Your religious beliefs may decide whether you eat meat. In Pakistan, most of the people are Muslims, and they don’t eat pork. Orthodox Jews all around the world choose not to eat pork or shellfish. The Jains, a religious group in India, eat no meat at all.

Everywhere in the world, some people make a personal choice not to eat meat. People who do not eat meat are called vegetarians.

In Pakistan, most people don’t eat pork, but they enjoy lamb. Lamb kebabs are pieces of lamb cooked on a stick with slices of tomato, green pepper, and onion.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Good news for good eaters! The ocean covers more than 70 percent of our planet, and it is filled with plant and animal life. It has something for everyone to enjoy fish of all kinds – sardines, mackerel, salmon, and herring – and other seafood, such as oysters, clam, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, and octopus. What about a shark steak?

How do you like your seafood? In Sweden, you can try pickled herring, smoked salmon, or baked halibut. In Japan, look for thin, cold slices of something pink on your plate. It’s tasty sashimi – raw fish. You also can fill your plate with vitamin-rich sea vegetables. Seaweed is a popular dish in Japan.

For thousands of years, people everywhere have set out to sea in small boats to catch their supper. Today, huge modern fishing fleets have electronic equipment for finding fish.

People catch lobsters in cage-like traps. Shrimps, crabs, and some fish are caught in nets. Oysters are scooped up by machines called dredgers.

 

Picture Credit : Google