Calls for future family to trial smart home, rent free

The NSW government is calling for volunteers to test a technologically advanced home in Sydney's Newington. The trial is about taking technology out of the lab and testing them in the real world, minister for Energy, John Robertson, said. "We are looking for a family with children because we know that kids will use technology different to their par­ents," he said.

The residents will be able to control devices using an iPod, watch an 'organic' LED television and drive an electric car. The family will have to keep a lively blog and they will need "a good sense of humour and plenty of patience" because things will not always work perfectly, Robertson said. The Smart Home fa­mily featuring a resident writer, would live in a three bedroom home in Newington for 12 months. Interest­ed families can go to www.tqqiderlink.com /energy from today for the selection criteria.

b) What kind of people are they looking for? Why? Would your family take part in a project like this? Why?

3. Work in pairs. Discuss what the following appliances could do in a smart home.

automatic light, climate control, outside cameras, video door phone, motion sensors (detector of movement), door han­dles, trash cans, refrigerators, security system

4. ^ a) You are going to listen to a radio programme introducing a concept of a smart house. What questions do you think the programme will answer?

© b) Listen and check.

Q) c) Listen again. According to the programme what can the appliances in ex. 2 do in a smart home? Take notes while listening.

5. Complete the summary of the radio programme with your own ideas.

All the devices in a smart home can... (1) with each other. Most home automation technology is focused on... (2), securi­ty and... (3). Smart homes definitely make life... (4) and also provide some... (5) savings. As a result you pay less for... (6). Smart home technology... (7) for elderly people, too. On the other hand if you are not comfortable with computers, you may find smart homes... (8). There are still debates whether... (9) is really necessary.

6. a) What technologies will be used in the smart home of the future? Put the predictions below into the right category.

construction (building), entertainment, design, ecology, security, other devices

1. Windows and walls will allow adaptable amounts of sun­light, warmth or cold in. 2. Soundproof rooms and windows. 3. Green (plants) roofs. 4. Computer tracks movements, turns on / off lights, adjusts temperature, etc. 5. Wall size video and au­dio. 6. Interactive mirrors display the latest news, weather and traffic information. 7. Movable furniture hides when not being used. 8. Vehicle refueling station, electric. 9. Cleaning robots.

b) Write your own predictions for each category-

7. a) Work in groups. Prepare to describe your smart home of the future.

b) Present your smart home to the class. Vote for the best presentation.

LESSON 7. I'M A SCIENTIST, GET ME OUT OF HERE!

Communicative area: asking questions 1. Which quotation about science do you prefer? Why?

l.The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he's one who asks the right questions.

Claude Levi-Strauss

2. If it's green or wriggles, it's biology. If it stinks, it's chemistry. If it doesn't work, it's physics.

Handy Guide to Science

3. Science is always wrong. It never solves a prob­lem without creating ten more.

George Bernard Shaw

2. a) What suffix is needed to form adjectives from the nouns below? Write down the adjectives.

Norm, centre, education, globe, origin, vision, nation, poli­tics, profession.

j) Does the suffix mean:

- like?

- of; connected with?

- place for?

3. Read a page from Sophia Collins' blog. What kind of programme is she producing?

By Sophia Collins, producer of the on-line teen science event

"It's hometime but we want to stay and ask questions"

These are the words of a 14-year-old student, at a school in inner-city London. The school has some of the poorest academic results in the school district. And yet a classroom science activ­ity had the students so gripped that when the bell went for the end of the school day, they insisted on staying for another 15 minutes to ask more questions.

The students were having an MSN-style online chat with some scientists. They'd started with fairly simple questions, 'How long have you been a scientist?' and 'Why is the sky blue?'

But then something happens - the immediacy of the chat format, the inventiveness of teenage brains, the unexpected experience of a grown-up seriously answering their questions - and the chat starts getting richer. By the end of the chat this class had moved from a question about whether science could ever stop aging, to discussing what the world would be like if people didn't die.

Live chats like this are part of the event I run, I'm a Scien­tist, Get me out of Here! The scientists are competing for a prize of £500 to communicate their work and the students are voting who gets it.

One scientist told me that this was "the most science-related fun I've had in ages," while a teacher e-mailed to tell me her class was splitting into fan clubs for the different scientists, "with the sort of devotion they've only had for pop stars up un­til now."

4. a) Read some of the questions teenagers asked scientists in "I'm a Scientist, Get me out of Here". Can you answer any of them? Do you think scientists can give the answers to all questions?

1. Do you think that there will be another ice age? 2. Can you make a clone of yourself? 3. Why is it impossible for us to imagine a 4D world? 4. What came first, the chicken or the egg? 5. Do you think we will ever find a way to live forever? 6. Why is ice clear and snow white? 7. Why do you think that humans are the only species on Earth to have advanced in tech­nology? 8. What do you guys actually do? 9. Have you ever in­vented anything or discovered anything new?

b) Match the answers to the questions above.

A. Is it?! We live in one! Time is the 4th dimension. If you can imagine your house last year, there, you've done it.

B. I think some great minds have decided the egg must have come first because the chicken must have evolved from some other egg-laying creature slightly different to a chicken. That could be a reptile. Reptiles almost exclusively lay eggs and I think it's still the consensus view that birds evolved from di­nosaurs (which were reptiles!).

C. There's bound to be another ice age at some point - the Earth's climate is always changing. I'm not sure when it will be though; although some people are arguing that the next one could start in just a few years.

D. Me personally? No - I don't have the expertise. But there are some scientists who claim they can do that. The science and technology are pretty much there to clone humans - the big is­sues are ethical: Is it right to do this? Many people would say that it isn't - partly because there are issues with how healthy clones are, and partly because cloning brings up very important ques­tions of human rights, and what it actually means to be a person.

E. I suspect they aren't. Have you seen the Caledonia crows using tools? Various monkeys also use tools for different tasks. I know our technological advancement is much more obvious but other species have advanced too. You might also suggest that they haven't advanced further because we've been holding them back and oppressing them. We certainly seem to act like bullies in our dealings with the natural world.

F. I think that's to do with how closely packed together the water molecules are. In ice, they're tightly together in a crys- tal-like structure. In snow, there's a lot of little bits of ice just in a kind of pile with lots of air in between; and the air makes it opaque (opposite of clear).

G. No. Unless you mean by creating digital versions of our­selves that survive after the body has died. We'll probably find a way to live longer, but in the end the laws of physics, chemis­try and biology dictate that something that's living can't carry on living indefinitely.

H. Sleep, party, and have lots of fun...

No, sorry - must have been thinking about something else - that doesn't sound like my life at all!

As a professor at a university, I teach people about new technologies and how to use them safely. I carry out research (usually with other people) into doing stuff as safely and as usefully as possible. I write lots of stuff about new technolo­gies - in boring scientific journals and exciting posts on my blog (I'm kidding - they're probably boring as well). And I look after the day to day running of the Risk Science Centre at the University of Michigan.

I. I "invented" a device for collecting very small particles out of the air to study them, when I was doing my Ph.D. But it was never made into a commercial instrument. I've also discov­ered lots of things as a scientist but, to be honest, many of these probably seem quite boring. They're like the bricks that make up a grand building - the bricks are important, but not half so impressive as the overall result of lots of them together. Not that I find my work boring of course.

5. Are the sentences below true or false according to the scientists' answers?

1. Dinosaurs were egg-laying creatures. 2. One of the rea­sons to ban human cloning is health problems of cloned ani­mals. 3. Molecules in ice are closer to each other than in snow. 4. We're going to live in Ice Age in a few years. 5. Scientists are optimistic about humans living forever. 6. If you imagine something you remember from the past, the picture is going to be 4D. 7. Crows in Caledonia use advanced technologies as tools. 8. The work of scientists isn't fun at all. 9. There are three adjectives with suffix -al in ex. 4b.

6. a) Analyze the questions teenagers asked in the I'm a scientist programme.

1. How many questions were personal? 2. In which ques­tions did teenagers ask for the scientists' personal opinion? 3. Which questions required specific knowledge to answer them? 4. How many questions did you know the answer to?

b) What questions would you ask if you were participating in the I'm a scientist programme? Write 3 questions you would like to ask a scientist.

7 Role-play the I'm a scientist interview in real life.

1. Find 3 volunteers to be scientists.

2. Ask your questions in turns.

3. Listen to the scientists' answer the questions.

4. Vote for the best scientists.

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