Untitled Document
 On
December 7, four kid reports paid a visit to Gwacheon National Science
Museum국립과천과학관 in Gwacheon City. Kim Kyung-rock (Wooam Elementary School),
Hong Joon-lee (Chodang Elementary School), Bae Won-bin (Yangjae Elementary
School) and Kim Ji-won (Bluam Elementary School) had a meaningful time there, experiencing
the fun world of science.
Gwacheon National Science Museum opened in November, 2008. The museum
was established to help children develop an interest in science and technology. It is also playing
an important role for future scientists by providing them
various scientific educational programs. Young
students can learn science in fun ways here.
The museum is made up of a huge main building and some
surrounding buildings. It was too big to look around everywhere in
a day. In the main building, there are five exhibition halls: Korean
Traditional Science Hall,
Basic Science Hall, Children Hall, Advanced Science & Technology
Hall, and Natural History Hall. Outside the building, there
are Aerospace Park, Dinosaur Park and Insectarium.
Each section has a variety of things to see
and experience.
 In addition, the museum offers basic science classes
for children. The kid reporters took part in one of these classes
entitled “A trip to the plant world.” In the class,
they learned about plant cells. Following the teacher’s directions, they took plant
cells from leaves and fruit peels and observed them through the microscope. During the two-hour class,
the kid reporters could take a short trip into the world of plants!
Let’s listen to what they experienced and learned!
 Kim,
Kyung-rock
I went to the Gwacheon National Science Museum which was opened recently. It looked like
a massive airport for spaceships. At first, I went to the science
laboratory to take a biology lesson with other
kid reporters. I observed a pumpkin leaf using a microscope.
I saw thousands of stomas in one leaf through
the microscope. I learned these stomas act like a nose. It was very
interesting to know that plants also have very small noses like animals.
Next, I looked around inside of the museum. There
are many interesting places to explore. I first visited Natural History
Hall because I love nature. I want to be a biologist when I grow up. There, I could see
fossils and bones of old, extinct animals. I also enjoyed
Advanced Science & Technology Hall. I felt as if I were in the future.
I saw robots, future cars, and many electronic inventions. Among them, electronic paper
was really amazing to me. It is flexible like paper, but
it is easy to write on and erase data like a computer.
As we left the museum, I thought Korea is a strong country. It is
because only a few countries in the world have such high technological
power as we have.
 Kim
Ji-won
Wow! I was amazed when I first saw the big building of Gwacheon National
Science Museum! Inside, there were a lot of great things to
learn. While we looked around the animal section, we learned a lot
about plants and animals. In other parts of the museum, we could enjoy
and experience fun science. And the science class was really fun!
But what I liked the most was the playground. It’s not a normal playground. It’s a
very scientific playground. I just loved the museum a lot. It was
super great! I want to go there one more time!
 Bae
Won-bin
We breathe air to live. Without the air, we will
die after about a few minutes. Air is an important substance for us to live.
Then, here comes a question. Do plants breathe like we humans do? The answer is
“Yes.” Plants breathe through tiny holes in their leaves.
The hole is called a “stoma.” Around each stoma, there are cells which
do the role of opening and closing the hole. The cell is named “guard cell.” When guard cells
open, plants breathe. When guard cells close, they stop breathing.
I was amazed after learning that plants breathe and that their breathing
is very similar to ours. When I saw the guard cells through the microscope,
they looked like eyes glaring at me. Actually they scared me a little. On the other hand, it was
cool. Imagine a million eyes staring
at me at once! But why does a plant
needs so many noses to breathe? You might think it doesn’t make sense,
but I found out a plant needs so many noses to make itself stronger,
to get more water and to get air in and out. This was so surprising! I really appreciate stomas as wonderful
noses for a plant.
 Lee
Hong-joon
I went to Gwacheon National Science Museum. Since I had never been
there before, I was very happy when I was selected to join the Basic Science Class.
The main theme of the class was “A
trip to the plant world.” We observed a guard cell through an optical microscope. It was
an amazing experience to see something through a microscope. The guard
cell looked like a mouth. I discussed my observation with other participants and wrote a
report about it. Also, I made a key ornament using dried leaves.
I gave it to my mom, and she was very happy to get it. Through this
class, I got to know that there are amazing things hidden in plants. After the
fun class, I looked around the museum. There were many amazing and
fun places. You can see or experience many interesting activities.
I couldn’t visit all the exhibitions because of the huge size of the
museum. I don’t think it’s possible to see all the exhibitions in
a day. If you want to visit this museum, I’d like to suggest visiting its website
(www.scientorium.go.kr) first. You can make reservations for certain activities on the
website. I hope you all enjoy the museum, too. |
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