So you want to be a citizen scientist? The National Science Foundation (NSF) has got you covered. NSF supports citizen science across all areas of science, whether your passion is to scan the night sky, or explore your own backyard.

Join a flock of birders

    eBird is an online platform that allows bird-watchers to go online and record their sightings to a database. With more than 100,000 active users, eBird's system is a treasure of information on bird population, distribution and habitat, which users can explore in real time.

Count every drop

    The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) is the largest provider of daily precipitation observations in the United States. Volunteers set up rain gauges and record data every time a rain, snow or hail storm passes over. Data is organized and shared on the CoCoRaHS website, and used by scientists, farmers and more.

Search for stars with your computer

    Einstein@Home uses your computer's idle time to search for space signals. The project has already had major successes: Volunteers discovered about 50 stars, using data from Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory and Australia's Parkes Observatory. Einstein@Home also searches for gravitational-wave signals using data from NSF's Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory.

Be part of a supercomputer

    To link all those home computers, Einstien@Home uses software called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, better known as BOINC. The software choreographs(安排，筹划) the technical aspect of volunteer computing and helps you use radio telescope signals to search for alien life.

Join the plankton party

    Without plankton, life in the ocean would not exist. These tiny organisms form the base of the food chain, and play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Plankton Portal enlists citizen scientists to identify images of plankton, snapped by the In Situ Icthyoplankton Imaging System (ISIIS), an underwater robot engineered at the University of Miami. ISIIS has taken millions of images in oceans around the world and upload them into a database; classifying the images helps researchers understand plankton diversity, habitat and behavior.

    Have you ever noticed what happens to an idea once you express it? Just talking about it or writing it down causes you to make it clear in your own mind. How can you use this to increase your brain power? Start writing.

    By putting thoughts into words, you are telling yourself the logic (逻辑) behind what you think, feel, or only partly understand. Often, explaining a thought is the process of understanding. In other words, you increase your brain power by exercising your “explain power.”

    Try this experiment. Explain how you'll increase your brain power, even if you have no idea right now. Just start with anything, and create an explanation. For example, start with “I'll learn chess,” or “I'll read an article on the mind every week.” Explain how that will help. You'll be surprised how often this becomes a workable plan, and if you actually do this, you'll have a better understanding of your brain from now.

    Another benefit of writing is that it helps you remember. Many, if not most, highly productive people are always taking notes. You can try keeping it all in your head, but if you keep a journal of your ideas the next time you're working on a big project, you'll probably have more success.

    Want to understand a topic? Write a book about it. That's an extreme example, but if you are learning something new, write a letter to a friend about it, and you will understand it better. Want to invent something? Write an explanation of the problem, why you want to solve it, and why it is worth solving, and you're half-way there.

    Writers don't always write because they clearly understand something beforehand. Often, they write about something because they want to understand it. You can do the same. Writing will help bring you to an understanding. Give it a try.

    "You're going to do WHAT?" I asked my best friend, Julie, in alarm.

    "I'm going to try out for the cheerleading squad (啦啦队)," she said, eyes fixed on the ground. We had been best friends since second grade and we did everything together. We had made many plans about what we would do this year, but now she was going off on her own. I was sure that if she joined the cheerleading squad, she would become best friends with someone else and I couldn't stand the thought.

    "Why are you doing this? Do you really want to hang around with those girls instead of me?" I cried, my voice filled with anger.

    "It's not about the girls," Julie said. "It's about the sport. I want to be on the squad at the high school level because they win scholarships (奖学金) at state competitions, and I have a better chance if I'm on the squad here," she explained. "Besides," she added, "it's not like I'm leaving the country or something."

    "Goodbye," I marched off, leaving Julie standing with a sad look on her face.

The rest of that week I was unhappy, and I avoided Julie in the hall. I planned to watch the first game and ignore Julie. Instead, I was amazed by the enthusiasm and skill of Julie's cheering. Although she was the youngest member of the team, Julie enthusiastically led cheer after cheer. I saw how her face lit up with joy. I was stunned (目瞪口呆) as I realized that she loved the sport. Trying out for the team had nothing to do with me—maybe it was just something she wanted to do.

    I approached her shyly, but Julie smiled immediately. "Hey, you were really great." I began, and then added quickly, "I'm so sorry I've been rude to you about your joining the squad."

    Julie smiled and replied, "A group of us are going for ice cream. Why don't you come along?"

    Julie's quick forgiveness made my eyes burn, but I smiled in return. As I walked toward the cheerleaders, I realized there was room in Julie's life for all of us. We could save the competition for the game.

SuperCamps

    We are a leading provider of childcare in the UK, offering OFSTED registered holiday camps to children aged 4 to 14 throughout the school holidays. Operating at 60＋ locations, we have holiday camps available in London and the South East, as far south as Cornwall and all the way up to North Yorkshire. Whether you are looking for fun holiday clubs and kid activities, a five-day specialist holiday camp for older children or a combination of the two to keep your children entertained throughout the school holidays, we have your childcare covered!

    Our multi-activity holiday camps offer an abundance of fun, age-oriented(导向的)activities(4-5-year-olds, 6-9-year-olds and 10-12-year-olds), from swimming and go-karting to arts and crafts and LEGO workshops. These day camps are a great choice for parents looking for regular childcare service, available as individual days or a week at a time.

    For children looking for a school holiday experience, our specialist holiday camps are the ideal choice. Our Cookery: International Cuisine, a 5-day specialist course is a cookery camp with a difference, where children can really master their cooking skills!

    Bushcraft: Rainforest Adventure is the perfect outdoor adventure camp for children with a passion for bush craft and survival skills, with activities like Laser Tag and making campfires to inspire the interest of young adventurers!

    Meanwhile, our LEGO Play course is a holiday camp focusing on the art of building amazing creations with LEGO bricks. This camp really motivates the imagination of children in a way that only uses LEGO bricks!

    All new for 2019, our Chelsea Foundation FC Camps invite all football fans to take a shot at our Multi-Dimensional soccer camps! Children will receive hours of on-pitch training and competition with Chelsea FC approved coaches, as well as hours of off-pitch sessions around nutrition, recovery and lifestyle!

    To find your nearest holiday camp, simply enter your postcode or town in the box above or choose your camp by county here and BOOK ONLINE TODAY!

    I remember the first time I got on a horse. When I was a little boy aged two, my mom agreed to let me take a short ride and that was it! From then on, I drove my parents crazy begging for a horse.

    When I was four, I had mutism, in which children stop speaking in certain social situations. I went days, weeks, months without a sound at school. At most, I might quietly whisper to a friend. I suffered silently through school until I was ten when a psychologist (心理学家) had an idea. He asked me what I wanted more than anything else in the world. He explained I was going to be given a chance to work for that. And I was permitted to whisper the answer in my mother's ear, "A horse."

    I was to get a pony, but I had to live up to my end of the bargain (讲价). I had a list of weekly tasks I had to finish. I had to answer the phone five times per week, something I had never done before. I had to say one word to my teacher at school and the list went on. For a child with mutism, saying one word to someone can be like climbing Mount Qomolangma. I did everything that was asked of me and the day came. His name was Sequoia, whom I fell in love with immediately. When I was in Sequoia's presence, I forgot all about my problems and felt strong and secure.

    I am a fully participating member of society these days. My horse and I made it through a master's degree. I may have made it otherwise, but I'm not sure. I feel I owe my life to the horse and I try to give it back to him. He has given me the best gift I could ever imagine, my life.

    A man going abroad to work leaves his young lady crying. "Don't worry, I will write to you every day," he said. For years he did write to her. But since he was happy with his job, he had no immediate plans of going home. One day, he received a wedding invitation. His girlfriend was scheduled to be married. To whom? To the mailman bringing regularly the letters of her boyfriend! Indeed, distance does make hearts struggle.

    While presents are important, love demands what is basic: presence of the beloved.

    Martha was busy with her job. She believed she had to work harder because she loved her father who had serious disease. She had to provide for his expensive medicine. Her brothers and sisters meanwhile stayed with their father most of the time. They bathed him, sang for him, spoon­fed him or simply kept him company.

    One day Martha was hurt. She overheard her father telling her mother, "All our children love me except Martha." "How can this be?" Martha thought. "Am I not the one killing myself in my work to earn money to buy for his medicine? My brothers and sisters do not even provide their share in the expenses as much as I do."

    One night, as Martha was as usual late in going home, she peeped for the first time in the room where her father was lying. She noticed that her father was still awake. She decided to come close at his bedside. Her father held her hands and said, "I miss you. I don't have much time. Stay with me." And she stayed with her father holding his hand the whole night.

    The next morning Martha said to everyone, "I have taken a leave of absence. I would like to be with my father. I will bathe him and sing for him from now on." Her father had a beautiful smile. He knew this time Martha loved him.

    As children, we need the assuring presence of our loved ones. Adult people need no less.