중학교 영어 2 (동아출판 윤정미) 연계 글

Last summer, Yerin noticed a problem at home. Her grandmother grew tomatoes and peppers in pots on the roof of their apartment building. The weather was very hot, so the plants needed water twice a day. The building had no elevator, so Grandma had to carry a heavy watering can up the stairs every morning and every evening. After a few weeks, her knees began to hurt.

Yerin wanted to help, but she was at school most of the day. One night, she read an article about a simple fact of science. A cotton string can carry water slowly from one place to another, just as a paper towel soaks up spilled juice. Yerin wondered whether a few strings could water Grandma's plants.

That weekend, Yerin started an experiment on the roof. She filled a large bucket with water and placed it on a box, so the bucket stood a little higher than the pots. Then she cut long strips from an old cotton T-shirt. She put one end of each strip into the bucket and pushed the other end deep into the soil of a pot. Her first strips were too thin, and the soil stayed dry. She had to try three times before she found the right size.

The final version worked well. The soil in every pot stayed damp, and the bucket needed water only once a week. Grandma no longer had to climb the stairs twice a day. In October, Yerin's project was chosen for the school science fair. Today, the same idea is used by four other families in the building.

Yerin did not invent a robot or a new phone. Still, she learned something important from her small project. An invention does not have to be big or expensive. It only has to solve a real problem for a real person.