TEST YOURSELF: Seeing the light

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A new educational resource brings parents and children together.

Test Yourself is where you can improve your reading skills. Whether it’s for tests like University Entrance Exams or IELTS and TOEFL, or even just for fun, these stories help you to read, understand and improve your English.
You can download a PDF of this story to be used in class or at home. Click the link below.
Read the following story by Yvonne Bohwongprasert from the Bangkok Post. Then, answer the questions that follow.

Lily, a third-grader, has found online learning during the second lockdown in Bangkok stressful. Her weekly routine, which uses a mobile phone to keep up with lessons, has caused her to lose interest in her education.

Working from home, her mother scoured the internet for material that would develop her nine-year-old's interest and curiosity in her lessons, and offer the mother and daughter some bonding time through these activities.

She found Learn to Light, an educational resource created for parents to teach their children about light through fun activities that can be carried out while at home. Learn to Light was recently launched by Nulty, an award-winning architectural lighting design practice.

The initiative, aimed at youngsters between the ages of four and eight, can be used by older children due to the range of topics that are included.

Learn to Light worksheets include play-based learning tasks that introduce young people to key scientific terms such as refraction, reflection, dispersion and shadow play. Led by Nulty's inquisitive owl, each worksheet encourages children to explore their surroundings and question the role that light plays in their day-to-day experiences.

Lily downloaded all six experiments, which are in both English and Thai, for free.

Lily's mother particularly enjoyed worksheets in the Learn to Light series that allowed her to demonstrate to her daughter how to use a light source and objects in the house to carry out creative activities. They showed how to make a rainbow in water, how to create a sundial to understand light and shadow, and how to use a colour mixing wheel to observe the manner in which primary colours disappear to produce white.

Director of Nulty, Spencer Baxter, said that Learn to Light was initially conceived in response to the first Covid-19 lockdown. The firm's guiding principle -- "more than meets the eye" -- is also at the heart of Learn to Light, he said, because it encourages youngsters to be inquisitive, use their imagination, and learn about the science behind light.

"Learn to Light came around through a brainstorming session across London, Dubai, Miami, and Bangkok, it was a collaborative idea and was pushed forward by our team in London," Baxter said. "We originally issued it in English but saw a greater use for it in Thailand because of the complexities of online learning here.

"I visited Thailand 21 years ago and have been a regular visitor since. I’ve spent a lot of time in rural Thailand, and so have a good idea of how society deems rural education. For me, it was very important that we utilise this content in Thailand because it probably has more benefits to Thai society than elsewhere due to the fact that there is a greater lack of online expertise in education here.”

To access the Learn to Light worksheets, go to www.nultylighting.co.uk/blog/learn-to-light-educational-worksheets-thai-children.



Section 1: Write the correct answer in the space provided.
1. How old is Lily? …………….
2. Nulty is an educational business. True or false? …………….
3. Learn to Light is only for learners aged four to eight. True or false? …………….
4. Which language(s) does Learn to Light use? …………….
5. Thai language was added to the site to help the country’s online learning. True or false? …………..
6. How long ago did Spencer first visit Thailand? …………….

Section 2: Write the noun form of the following words in the space provided.
7. develop ……… 8. encourages ……… 9. collaborative ………. 10. originally ……….
       
Section 3: Find words that match the following definitions.
11. searched intensively ……………
12. a feeling of wanting to know more about something ……………
13. a new idea or project ……………
14. an activity where a group of people meet to create new ideas …………

Answers: 1. nine. 2. false. 3. false. 4. Thai and English. 5. true. 6. 21 years ago. 7. developer/development. 8. encouragement. 9. collaboration. 10. original/originality. 11. scoured. 12. curiosity. 13. initiative. 14. brainstorming.