Author: Philip Luo

Today, I am going to tell you about a museum in New York City. It celebrates the people from different countries who came to live in the United States many years ago. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of New York’s smaller museums. It allows visitors to experience what life was like for early immigrants to the United States. The museum occupies a building at 97 Orchard Street. It was built in 1863 by a German immigrant named Lucas Glockner. Before investing his money to develop a property, he worked as a tailor making clothes. His tenement building…

Some people say that the higher you climb, the harder you fall. But they probably wouldn’t be rock climbers. This week, we’re exploring the sport, science and art of rock climbing. It is estimated that nine million people in the United States rock climb. Millions more take part in the activity around the world. Some do it just for personal satisfaction. Others compete. Rock climbing can be dangerous. However, there are many methods and protective devices that can enhance climbers’ safety. Climbing requires strength, control, and good balance. Climbers must pull themselves straight up the face of very high rocks…

Today, we are taking you to one of the most popular and beautiful places in the United States. The Grand Canyon, located in the southwestern state of Arizona. The canyons of the American Southwest are deep, ancient chasms in the earth’s surface. They appear to have formed when the earth split apart. But the canyons did not split open. They were carved by rivers. Over millions of years, the rivers carried dirt and pieces of stone that slowly eroded the surrounding rock. For millions of years, the rivers turned and pushed. They cut deeper and deeper into the earth. They…

Today, we are travelling to New York City to visit one of the world’s most famous museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection spans five thousand years of human culture from around the globe. The museum, also known as the Met, was founded in 1870 by a group of businessmen, artists, and thinkers. Their goal was to establish a world-class museum that would make art and art education accessible to the American people. We will start our visit on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, climbing the many steps to enter the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In…

Today, we are visiting one of America’s great national parks. It is a place of strange and silent beauty. Although this place is beautiful, its name suggests that there is a very real danger here. Join us as we explore Death Valley. It is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. There are mountains that rise more than three thousand metres into the sky. There is a place called Badwater, which is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. If there were water there, it would be 86 metres below sea level.Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter…

You can see a colourful and expressive print called ‘Revolt on the Amistad’ at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. A small sign next to the work states that the artist is Jacob Lawrence. He did indeed design the image. But who made the print? Today, we explore the world of printmaking to answer that question. We will also visit the expert printmaker who created this work of art. To create a print, an artist first makes an original image using a form made of wood, metal, or plastic. They reproduce prints of this original image using liquid…

You might see two cowboy boots at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. They are adorned with a cloud and star design. They look like boots that you could wear. But they are actually made of carefully formed clay. These ceramic pieces were made by the artist William Wilhelmi. How did he create these colourful boots? Today, we explore the world of clay art and answer that question. Clay is one of the most universal materials known to humans. Throughout history and around the world, people have used it to make ceramic objects, or pottery. Clay is made…

Today, we travel far and wide to learn about some of the world’s rarest languages. According to experts, over half of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages are in danger of disappearing. In fact, one language disappears every two weeks. As the last speakers of a language pass away, the valuable information that language contains also disappears. Join us as we explore the cultural significance of language and the importance of protecting endangered languages. What would happen if you were the last person left who spoke your language? Who would you share stories with? Who would you sing songs to? Who…

Our story begins in Britain in 1873. A scientist named James Clerk Maxwell developed a mathematical theory of a type of energy. He called this energy ‘electromagnetic waves’. According to his theory, this kind of energy could pass unseen through the air. However, James Maxwell was unable to prove his theory. Other scientists were unable to prove it either, until the German scientist Heinrich Hertz conducted an experiment around 1887. Hertz’s experiment was very simple. He used two pieces of metal placed close together. He used electricity to make a spark jump between them. He also built a simple receiver…

The auto industry will showcase more than 900 of its latest vehicles at the LA Auto Show in Los Angeles, California. The event will showcase around fifty hybrid, electric and alternative fuel cars that could soon be available in the United States. Join us as we explore these new types of cars and their implications for the future of driving in America. At the beginning of the 20th century, the automobile was a rare sight. Many early models ran on electric batteries. However, it was not until Henry Ford’s petrol-powered Model T that the internal combustion engine and the car…