VOA常速英语:Young Minds Solve a City's Old Problems

An oyster habitat, abandoned houses converted to gardens, a cart that turns into a homeless shelter, a multi-layered rainwater filtering system — these are some of the products that they build at recent digital fabrication challenge called FabSlam. The inventors are students, from 10 to 17 years old.
牡蛎栖息装置，废弃房屋变花园，货车变流浪人收容所，多层次的雨水过滤系统——这些是最近举办的一场名为“FabSlam”的数字制造挑战赛中的一些作品，发明者是10到17岁的学生。

Sixth grader Sydney Lane-Ryer says her team focused on the dramatically decreasing oyster population in the nearby Chesapeake Bay.
六年级的学生西德尼·莱恩-瑞尔说她的团队聚焦于附近切萨皮克海湾急剧下降的牡蛎数量。

“Our solution was creating an oyster habitat that will sit on the bottom of the ocean, or I guess the harbor in our case, that will be connected to a floating wetland that has a bunch of different plants that will also give nutrients with their roots to the oysters to help them thrive, and it will also help filter out toxins and dirt and other things in the water.”
“我们的解决办法是建一个牡蛎的栖息装置，这一装置可以安放在海底，就我们的情况而言也可放在港口。这一装置将与悬浮的湿地相连，这一湿地有一些不同种类的植物，因而可以通过根茎向牡蛎提供养料，从而保证其成长繁殖，同时湿地还能帮助过滤有毒物质，废物和一些水中的其他东西。”

This high school team wants to tackle a different problem in Baltimore, more than 16000 abandoned homes.
这一高中团队想要解决巴尔的摩的另一个问题——超过1万6千所废弃房屋。

“We wanted to convert abandoned row houses into greenhouses that would serve as community gardens and also would produce food for homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the area.”
“我们想要将废弃的房屋转变为温室，这样不仅能当做社区的花园，还能为无家可归的人提供食物以及成为该区域的流动厨房。”

The Digital Harbor Foundation, which sponsors youth technology programs, hosts the event.
赞助青年技术项目的数码港基金会主办了这一活动。

“The purpose of FabSlam is to give kids a chance to experiment with creative problem-solving. So we present a challenge to them that’s very open, very vague, and we give them an opportunity to come up with their own solution to their own problem that they identify within that sort of constraint.”
“FabSlam的目的是给孩子们一个机会体验创意的问题解决方式。我们向他们提供一项十分开放且模糊的挑战，我们为他们提供机会让他们自己想出办法，解决在规定要求内确定的问题。”

The teams had six weeks to get everything done — from identifying a problem, doing the research, then designing and developing a prototype or a product using a 3-D printer and other digital manufacturing techniques.
每支队伍有六周时间完成项目——从确定问题，进行研究，然后设计和开发原型或者用3D打印机或其他数字化制造技术产生成品。

“A lot of these houses... don’t have gas or water or electricity, so we wanted to make the house self-sustaining. We have solar panels on the roof. ... We also have an irrigation system with rain collection and filtration that automatically waters the plants.”
“很多这种房子都没有天然气、水源或者电源，因此我们想让房子能够自我维持。我们在屋顶安装太阳能板，同时又收集雨水的灌溉系统和自动给植物浇水的过滤系统。”

The teams pitched their project to the judges and presented them to the audience.
各队向评委介绍他们的项目并且向观众展示。

And then the announcement of the winners—“First place goes to the Digital Oyster Foundation.”
然后宣布胜者——“数字化牡蛎栖息装置获得第一名。”

“My favorite part of the Digital Oyster Foundation project is that they essentially showed us something that they could put in the water right now and we can see how well it works.”
“我最喜欢数字化牡蛎栖息装置的部分在于他们基本上向我们展示了他们能够当场就能将装置放在水中，并且我们能够看到它怎样运作。”

“I really learned a good life lesson here. I learned that with the right technology and even with your own hands and your mind and creativity, you really could make something that could change the world.”
“我在这里真的上到了一堂很棒的人生课。我知道了有了良好的技术，有我们自己的双手还有才智和创造力，你真的能够做出一些能够改变世界的东西。”

The middle schoolers say they believe they can make a huge impact locally and globally.
这些中学生说他们相信他们能够在地方上甚至于世界上产生重大影响。

For producer June Soh and Carol Pearson VOANEWS Baltimore, Maryland.
制作人朱·索尔，卡罗尔·皮尔森，马里兰州，巴尔的摩报道。