Young people are losing touch with once-common household objects that the rest of us grew up with, back in the days before the smartphone. But they might still use words and expressions that relate to those quickly fading artifacts.
For example, why do we say dial up, turn on, spin clockwise, and rewind?
Pretend you are speaking to a 6 year old child who has heard all 4 of the expressions above but never seen the 4 objects in the photos below. Your challenge is to explain to this young person which expression goes with which object and why. Specifically, explain the mechanics involved in these 4 expressions.
Good luck!
Answer:
Scroll down...
Scroll down...
Scroll down...
Answers to give your 6-year-old:
1. This is why we say "spin clockwise": The Mechanical Clock
Well, Youngster, on the face of old mechanical clocks, the hands went sweeping around, always in the same direction, from left to right as they passed the top. This spinning direction became known as "clockwise."
2. This is why we say "dial up": The Rotary Telephone
Once upon a time, people had enormous speaking devices connected by a wire to a wall in your house. A round dial on its face had numbered finger holes that you stuck your finger in and twirled around to call a friend.
3. This is why we say "rewind": The Tape Recorder
Imagine two spinning reels that moved tape from one to the other and kept it from dribbling out all over the floor. If you are confused, so am I. Anyway, to play the tape again from the beginning required winding all the tape back on to the first reel.
4. This is why we say "turn on": The Gas Stove (among other things)
Long ago people had many machines with knobs. You had to turn the knobs to get anything done. One example is a gas stove. To start the burner burning to heat up your porridge, you used your hand to twist the control knob.
Give yourself 25 points for each correct answer. If you scored 100, you are OLD.
For example, why do we say dial up, turn on, spin clockwise, and rewind?
Pretend you are speaking to a 6 year old child who has heard all 4 of the expressions above but never seen the 4 objects in the photos below. Your challenge is to explain to this young person which expression goes with which object and why. Specifically, explain the mechanics involved in these 4 expressions.
Good luck!
Answer:
Scroll down...
Scroll down...
Scroll down...
Answers to give your 6-year-old:
1. This is why we say "spin clockwise": The Mechanical Clock
Well, Youngster, on the face of old mechanical clocks, the hands went sweeping around, always in the same direction, from left to right as they passed the top. This spinning direction became known as "clockwise."
2. This is why we say "dial up": The Rotary Telephone
Once upon a time, people had enormous speaking devices connected by a wire to a wall in your house. A round dial on its face had numbered finger holes that you stuck your finger in and twirled around to call a friend.
3. This is why we say "rewind": The Tape Recorder
Imagine two spinning reels that moved tape from one to the other and kept it from dribbling out all over the floor. If you are confused, so am I. Anyway, to play the tape again from the beginning required winding all the tape back on to the first reel.
4. This is why we say "turn on": The Gas Stove (among other things)
Long ago people had many machines with knobs. You had to turn the knobs to get anything done. One example is a gas stove. To start the burner burning to heat up your porridge, you used your hand to twist the control knob.
Give yourself 25 points for each correct answer. If you scored 100, you are OLD.
Currently many high school juniors take both the SAT and ACT to determine which test is better for them. We usually feel it is beneficial for the students to focus on only one test. In order to accomplish this, we administer a complimentary SAT/ACT diagnostic test to help students determine which test is better suited to their abilities.
1. Code Academy: For budding programmers, or anyone else who wants to pick up some important skills, Code Academy is a great way to learn, create, and share computer code with like-minded folks. Create an account, sign up and learn to code interactively, for free. 
2. Jelly: With its tagline “Let’s help each other,” Jelly lets you ask questions, share your own expertise, search with photos, maps, friends and more. Jelly uses visual imagery to steer people to getting better answers from within and outside their social networks. In particular, it encourages people to use photos to ask questions. 
3. Minecraft: This open-world, “sandbox-style” creative game lets kids play, build, and share no matter what their skill levels. Minecraft enables players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat. Multiple game play modes are available, including survival mode where the player must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health, a creative mode where players have unlimited resources to use when building and the ability to fly, an adventure mode where players play custom maps created by other players and a spectator mode. 
4. Outpour: This app encourages users to share positive comments, letting people anonymously and publicly share messages of gratitude about each other. Recommended for ages 13+ 
6. Path: A maximum of 150 connections is all that’s allowed on this social media app that encourages users to share more selectively with “high-quality” friends and encourages people to contribute at any time. 
7. Vyclone: This video-collaboration tool is ideal for school projects because it lets kids work together on a single video. Vyclone lets users capture about a minute of video at the same time. If multiple people film the same event at the same location, Vyclone automatically edits those videos together to create an edited, multi-camera short documentary of your event. 
8. WordPress: Kids who enjoy writing can’t get much better than this classy, easy-to-use blogging app that lets them write from their phones. 
9. Yoursphere: A solid, safety-minded social-networking app for tweens and teens with a friendly, creative vibe. Yoursphere is a global community that allows anyone to create & connect. You can join spheres centered around the things you like (fashion, animals and pets, sports, performing arts, movies, TV, books, travel, charitable causes, art and photography, food, and health and fitness) or make your own. 
