Excellent Smartphone Apps

    Space

    Space helps you set goals to be more mindful of your screen usage. When you install（安装）Space, you'll complete a few questions about your smartphone habits and then select a user type that is the best match. The app then sets screen unlock and time-use goals. The app will send notices as screen time increases and reward you with different badges（徽章）when you meet your goals.

    AntiSocial

    AntiSocial is one of the best-known screen-reduction apps available on Android. While it provides many of the standard functions like screen time limits and app blocking, it has an advantages. AntiSocial compares your screen usage data（数据）to other people in your age, so you'll an idea if you're using your phone more than they do.

    Off the Grid

    For those who truly have a problem staying off that phone, Off the Grid may be for you. Off the Grid completely blocks your phone for a length of time you determine. If you want to use your phone after you're turned on Off the Grid, it's going to cost you. The app will charge you $1 each time you end your off-time early.

    The United States is full of cars. There are still many families without cars, but some families have two or more. However, cars are used for more than pleasure. They are a necessary part of life.

    Cars are used for business. They are driven to offices and factories by workers who have no other way to get to their jobs. When salesmen are sent to different parts of the city, they have to drive in order to carry their products. Farmers have to drive into the city in order to get supplies.

    Sometimes small children must be driven to school. In some cities school buses are used only when children live more than a mile away from the school. When the children are too young to walk too far, their mothers take turns driving them to school. One mother drives on Mondays taking her own children and the neighbors' as well. Another mother drives on Tuesdays, another on Wednesday, and so on. This is called forming a car pool. Men also form car pools, with three or four men taking turns driving to the place where they all work.

    More car pools should be formed in order to put fewer cars on the road and use less gas. Too many cars are being driven. Something will have to be done about the use of cars.

    I am Henry Jekyll. I was born in the 1 800s. I inherited(继承) a large fortune, a healthy body and an excellent mind. I was naturally hard-working and soon I was very successful in my job. So the outside world saw a serious, hard-working, successful doctor. Behind this quiet character, however, was a wild, fun-loving, irresponsible young man. Both of them were me. They lived together in the same body.

    “Was it possible," I wondered, “to find a drug that could give each side of my character its own separate face and body?"

    After much thought and careful study I believed I had found the answer. I had read many scientific books and spent many hours in my laboratory, searching for the right mixture of chemicals to make my drug. At last I got everything ready.

    Late one night, I mixed everything together and prepared my drug. I watched the smoke rising from the liquid as its color changed from red to purple and at last to green. Then, bravely, I drank every bitter drop.

    I felt a violent sickness in my stomach and a terrible pain in all my bones. The room seemed to turn round and round and I trembled with fear. Then the fear and pain disappeared and a strange, sweet feeling took its place. Wild thoughts danced through my mind- the wild passions of an evil and cruel stranger. But inside myself I felt younger, lighter, more carefree than ever before. "If this is pure evil," I thought, “I like it.”

    I stood there, enjoying these strange new thoughts and passions and suddenly realized that I was shorter. So I decided to go to my bedroom in my new body and take a look at myself in the mirror there. As I came into my room, I saw Edward Hyde for the first time.

    At that time, the good side of my character was stronger than the evil side. Henry Jekyll had his faults, but he was mostly a good, kind man. I believe that is the reason why Edward Hyde was so much smaller than Henry Jekyll. But that was not the only difference between the two men. Henry Jekyll had a kind, open, honest face. But pure evil stared out of Edward Hyde's eyes. I felt no dislike, however. Indeed, I welcomed him. Edward Hyde was me, young and strong and full of life.

    One of the most important things in the world is friendship. In order to have friends, you have to be a friend. But how can you be a good friend at school？

Listen﹣Listen when they are talking. Don't say anything unless they ask you a question. Sometimes it's not necessary for you to have anything to say; they just need someone to talk to about their feelings.

    Help them﹣If your friend is ever in need of something, be there to help them. You should try to put them first, but make sure you don't do everything they want you to do. Try to take an extra pencil or pen with you to classes in case they forget one. Have a little extra money in your pocket in case they forget something they need.

    Be there for them﹣Be there for your friends to help make them feel better in hard times. Marilyn Monroe, a famous U.S. actor, once said, "I often make mistakes. Sometimes I am out of control, but if you can't stay with me at my worst, you are sure not to deserve to be with me at my best." Always remember this! If you don't want to stay with your friends when they're in hard times, then you don't deserve to be with them when they're having a good time!

    Make plans﹣Try to make plans with your friends. Go shopping, go for ice cream, have a party, go to a movie and so on. Take time to know each other even better by doing something you both enjoy. By planning things together, you both can have a good time. And you'll remember these things when you're all old!

    On average, Americans spend about 10 hours a day in front of a computer or other electronic devices and less than 30 minutes a day outdoors. That is a claim made by David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah. In his 2017 TED Talk, Strayer explained that all this time spent with technology is making our brains tired.

    Using an electronic device to answer emails, listen to the news and look at Facebook puts a lot of pressure on the front of the brain, which, Strayer explains, is important for critical thinking, problem­solving and decision­making.

    So, it is important to give the brain a rest. And being in nature, Strayer claims, helps get a tired brain away from too much technology. More than 15,000 campers from around the world attended an international camping festival in September. That is when friends and family take time off and escape to nature for several days. They take walks, climb, explore, swim, sleep, eat and play. Camping may be just what a tired brain needs.

    Take Carl for example. He lives in West Virginia and enjoys camping. He says that staying outdoors makes him feel at ease. It also prepares him for the work he must do. Kate Somers is another example who also lives in West Virginia. She says she enjoys camping with her husband and two children. She calls it a "regenerative" experience.

    At the University of Utah, David Strayer has studied both short­term and long­term exposure to nature. He found that spending short amounts of time in nature without technology does calm the brain and helps it to remember better. However ,he found, it is the long­term contact with nature that does the most good. He and his research team found that spending three days in nature without any technology is enough time for the brain to fully relax and reset itself.

Emerald Coast Science Center Field Trips

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