Educators and business leaders have more in common than it may seem. Teachers want to prepare students for a successful future. Technology companies have an interest in developing a workforce with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills needed to grow the company and advance the industry. How can they work together to achieve these goals? Play may be the answer.
教育工作者和商业领袖之间的共同点比表面上看起来要更多。教师们想让学生做好准备，拥抱成功的未来。科技公司对于培养一支具备STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）技能的员工队伍产生了兴趣，以促进公司发展和行业发展。他们是如何共同努力实现这些目标呢？答案也许就是游戏。
Focusing on STEM skills is important, but the reality is that STEM skills are enhanced and more relevant when combined with traditional, hands-on creative activities. This combination is proving to be the best way to prepare today's children to be the makers and builders of tomorrow. That is why technology companies are partnering with educators to bring back good, old-fashioned play.
注重STEM技能固然重要，但实际情况是，当STEM技能与传统的创造性活动相结合时，这些技能才会得到增强，并且更有意义。事实证明，这种结合是让当今的孩子们成为未来的创造者和建设者的最好方式。这就是为什么科技公司要与教育工作者进行合作，让那些优秀的传统游戏再次回归。
In fact, many experts argue that the most important 21st-century skills aren't related to specific technologies or subject matter, but to creativity; skills like imagination, problem-finding and problem-solving, teamwork, optimism, patience and the ability to experiment and take risks. These are skills acquired when kids tinker (鼓捣小玩意), high-tech industries such as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that their best overall problem solvers were master tinkerers in their youth.
事实上，许多专家都认为21世纪最重要的技能与特定技术或主题是没有关系的，而是与创造力有关。这里所说的技能是指想象力、发现和解决问题的能力、团队合作能力、乐观、耐心以及做实验和冒险的能力等方面。这些技能，都是孩子们在鼓捣小东西时获得的。美国宇航局喷气推进实验室等高科技行业发现，他们中整体最具解决问题能力的人在小时候都是“鼓捣”大师。
There are cognitive (认知的) benefits of doing things the way we did as children—building something, tearing it down, then building it up again. Research shows that given 15 minutes of free play, four-and five-year-olds will spend a third of this time engaged in spatial, mathematical, and architectural activities. This type of play—especially with building blocks—helps children discover and develop key principles in math and geometry.
像我们小时候那样做事有认知上的好处——造东西，要先拆掉它，然后再建起来。研究表明，在15分钟的自由游戏时间内，四、五岁的孩子会把三分之一的时间用于空间、数学和建筑活动。这种游戏，尤其是积木游戏，能帮助孩子们发现和掌握数学和几何学的重要原理。
If play and building are critical to 21st-century skill development, that's really good news for two reasons: Children are born builders, makers, and creators, so fostering (培养) 21st-century skills may be as simple as giving kids room to play, tinker and try things out, even as they grow older; Secondly, it doesn't take 21st-century technology to foster 21st-century skills. This is especially important for under-resourced schools and communities. Taking whatever materials are handy and tinkering with them is a simple way to engage those important "maker" skills. And anyone, anywhere, can do it.
如果游戏和建筑对21世纪所需技能的发展至关重要，那么这确实是个好消息，原因有两个：孩子天生就是建设者、制造者和创造者，所以培养21世纪所需的技能也许很简单，只要给孩子们游戏、鼓捣小玩意和反复尝试的机会就可以，即便他们长大了也要如此。再者，培养21世纪所需技能并不需要21世纪的技术。这对于资源不足的学校和社区十分重要。运用手边的材料，让孩子们自己去鼓捣小玩意儿，这是一个运用重要“制造者”技能的简单方法。无论是谁，无论在哪儿，都能做到。
