Tyler DeWitt: Hey science teachers -- make it fun

Translator: Morton Bast Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

Translator: Òscar Aznar Alemany Reviewer: Sonia Redondo

Let me tell you a story.

Us explicaré una història.

Sóc un professor de ciències novell a secundària,

It's my first year as a new high school science teacher,

and I'm so eager.

estic il·lusionat.

I'm so excited, I'm pouring myself into my lesson plans.

I em deixo la pell preparant les classes.

Però poc a poc m'adono que, per desgràcia,

But I'm slowly coming to this horrifying realization

els meus alumnes potser no han après res.

that my students just might not be learning anything.

Resulta que un dia

This happens one day:

I'd just assigned my class to read this textbook chapter

els vaig fer llegir un capítol del llibre

about my favorite subject in all of biology:

sobre el meu tema preferit de la biologia:

viruses and how they attack.

els virus i com ataquen.

And so I'm so excited to discuss this with them,

I estic tan emocionat parlant-ne amb ells

i pregunto: "Algú en pot explicar les idees principals

and I come in and I say, "Can somebody please explain

the main ideas and why this is so cool?"

i dir per què és tan genial?"

Silenci.

There's silence.

Finalment, la meva alumna preferida em mira als ulls

Finally, my favorite student, she looks me straight in the eye,

and she says, "The reading sucked."

i diu: "El text és una merda."

(Laughter)

I llavors va aclarir: "Ja m'entens,

And then she clarified.

She said, "You know what, I don't mean that it sucks.

no vull dir que sigui una merda, sinó que no he entès res.

I mean I didn't understand a word of it.

It's boring, who cares, and it sucks."

És avorrit. A qui li importa? I és una merda."

(Laughter)

Veig somriures còmplices

These sympathetic smiles spread all throughout the room now,

per tota l'aula i m'adono que

and I realize that all of my other students are in the same boat,

tots els meus alumnes pensen el mateix.

Potser han pres apunts o han memoritzat definicions,

that maybe they took notes or memorized definitions from the textbook,

però no han entès els conceptes bàsics.

but not one of them really understood the main ideas.

Not one of them can tell me why this stuff is so cool,

Cap no em dirà per què és tan genial

o important.

why it's so important.

Estic del tot perdut.

I'm totally clueless.

I have no idea what to do next.

No sé què fer ara.

So the only thing I can think of is say,

I l'únic que se m'acut és dir:

"A veure. Us explicaré una història.

"Listen. Let me tell you a story.

The main characters in the story are bacteria and viruses.

Els protagonistes de la història són els bacteris i els virus.

These guys are blown up a couple million times.

Aquests estan ampliats 2 milions de cops.

Els bacteris i virus reals són tan petits

The real bacteria and viruses are so small

que no es poden veure sense un microscopi.

we can't see them without a microscope,

and you guys might know bacteria and viruses

I vosaltres segurament els coneixeu

because they both make us sick.

perquè us han posat malalts.

But what a lot of people don't know

Però el que molts no saben és que els virus

is that viruses can also make bacteria sick."

també posen malalts els bacteris."

Now, the story that I start telling my kids,

La història que explico als meus alumnes

it starts out like a horror story.

comença com una història de por.

"Hi havia una vegada un bacteri petit i feliç.

Once upon a time, there's this happy little bacterium.

Don't get too attached to him.

No li agafeu gaire afecte.

(Laughter)

Potser està flotant en el vostre estómac

Maybe he's floating around in your stomach

or in some spoiled food somewhere,

o en algun menjar podrit

and all of a sudden, he starts to not feel so good.

i de sobte no es troba gaire bé.

Maybe he ate something bad for lunch.

Potser ha menjat alguna cosa dolenta.

I passa una cosa terrible

And then things get really horrible,

as his skin rips apart,

perquè se li estripa la pell i veu tot de virus

and he sees a virus coming out from his insides.

que li surten de dins.

I és més terrible encara

And then it gets horrible when he bursts open

quan explota i un exèrcit de virus

and an army of viruses floods out from his insides.

emergeix de dins seu.

Sí, fa mala pinta.

"Ouch" is right.

Si veus això i ets un bacteri,

If you see this, and you're a bacterium,

this is like your worst nightmare.

és el teu pitjor malson.

But if you're a virus and you see this,

Però si ets un virus i ho veus,

creues aquestes cametes i penses:

you cross those little legs of yours and you think,

"Molem."

"We rock."

Because it took a lot of crafty work to infect this bacterium.

Perquè és una feinada infectar un bacteri.

Així és com es fa.

Here's what had to happen.

Un virus s'agafa a un bacteri

A virus grabbed onto a bacterium

and it slipped its DNA into it.

i li injecta el seu ADN.

Llavors, l'ADN del virus fa coses

The next thing is that virus DNA made stuff

i trosseja l'ADN del bacteri.

that chopped up the bacteria DNA.

I quan s'ha desfet de l'ADN del bacteri,

And now that we've gotten rid of the bacteria DNA,

l'ADN del virus pren control de la cèl·lula

the virus DNA takes control of the cell

and it tells it to start making more viruses.

i li diu que comenci a fabricar virus.

Because, you see, DNA is like a blueprint

Perquè l'ADN és com un plànol

that tells living things what to make.

que diu què s'ha de fer.

Això és com entrar en una fàbrica de cotxes

So this is kind of like going into a car factory

and replacing the blueprints with blueprints for killer robots.

i substituir els plànols per plànols de robots assassins.

The workers still come the next day, they do their job,

Els treballadors vénen l'endemà i fan la feina,

but they're following different instructions.

però segueixen instruccions diferents.

So replacing the bacteria DNA with virus DNA

Per això canviar l'ADN del bacteri

el converteix en una fàbrica de virus.

turns the bacteria into a factory for making viruses --

that is, until it's so filled with viruses that it bursts.

Bé, fins que està tan ple de virus que explota.

Però aquesta no és l'única manera de fer-ho.

But that's not the only way that viruses infect bacteria.

Some are much more crafty.

Hi ha un procés més elaborat.

(Laughter)

When a secret agent virus infects a bacterium,

Quan un virus agent secret infecta un bacteri,

espia una mica.

they do a little espionage.

Here, this cloaked, secret agent virus

Aquí el virus agent secret posa el seu ADN dins del bacteri,

is slipping his DNA into the bacterial cell,

but here's the kicker:

però, alerta! No fa res dolent. No d'entrada.

It doesn't do anything harmful -- not at first.

Instead, it silently slips into the bacteria's own DNA,

Només s'infiltra silenciosament en l'ADN del bacteri

and it just stays there like a terrorist sleeper cell,

i s'hi queda infiltrat com un terrorista

waiting for instructions.

esperant instruccions.

And what's interesting about this is now, whenever this bacteria has babies,

El més interessant és que quan el bacteri tingui fills

the babies also have the virus DNA in them.

aquests també tindran l'ADN del virus.

Així que tenim una gran família de bacteris

So now we have a whole extended bacteria family,

filled with virus sleeper cells.

plena d'agents infiltrats.

They're just happily living together until a signal happens

I viuen feliços fins que hi ha un senyal

and bam! -- all of the DNA pops out.

i BAM! L'ADN s'allibera,

It takes control of these cells, turns them into virus-making factories,

pren el control de les cèl·lules, les converteix en fàbriques de virus

and they all burst,

i exploten.

a huge, extended bacteria family,

Una família de bacteris enorme

all dying with viruses spilling out of their guts,

mor mentre els virus els surten de les entranyes.

the viruses taking over the bacterium.

Els virus vencen els bacteris.

So now you understand how viruses can attack cells.

Ara ja enteneu com els virus ataquen les cèl·lules.

Hi ha dues maneres. A l'esquerra hi ha el que anomenem la via lítica,

There are two ways:

On the left is what we call the lytic way,

where the viruses go right in and take over the cells.

quan els virus prenen el control directament.

On the [right] is the lysogenic way

A la dreta hi ha la via lisogènica,

that uses secret agent viruses.

que utilitza el virus agent secret.

No és tan complicat, oi?

So this stuff is not that hard, right?

And now all of you understand it.

I ara tots ho enteneu.

But if you've graduated from high school,

Si teniu el batxillerat,

I can almost guarantee you've seen this information before.

és quasi segur que ja ho havíeu vist abans,

But I bet it was presented in a way that it didn't exactly stick in your mind.

però presentat d'una manera

que no se us quedava al cap.

So when my students were first learning this,

I per què els meus estudiants d'entrada

why did they hate it so much?

odiaven tant aquest tema?

Bé, hi ha dos motius.

Well, there were a couple of reasons.

Primer, us asseguro que els llibres de text

First of all, I can guarantee you

you that their textbooks didn't have secret agent viruses,

no tenen virus agents secrets ni històries de por.

and they didn't have horror stories.

You know, in the communication of science,

I és que en les ciències

there is this obsession with seriousness.

estan obsessionats amb la serietat.

It kills me. I'm not kidding.

Em supera. De debò.

I used to work for an educational publisher,

Jo vaig treballar per una editorial escolar.

Com a escriptor em prohibien fer servir històries,

and as a writer, I was always told never to use stories

or fun, engaging language,

llenguatge atractiu o res divertit

because then my work might not be viewed as "serious" and "scientific."

perquè llavors no semblava un llibre

"seriós" i "científic".

Ho veieu? Perquè Déu va prohibir que fos divertit

I mean, because God forbid somebody have fun

aprendre ciència.

when they're learning science.

So we have this field of science that's all about slime

I la ciència de debò va de materials viscosos

and color changes.

i canvis de color. Fixeu-vos-hi bé.

Check this out.

I, evidentment, tot bon científic ha de tenir

And then we have, of course, as any good scientist has to have ...

explosions!

explosions!

But if a textbook seems too much fun,

Però si un llibre de text sembla massa divertit,

it's somehow unscientific.

no sembla científic.

Now another problem

El segon problema és que

was that the language in their textbook was truly incomprehensible.

el llenguatge dels llibres de text és incomprensible.

If we want to summarize that story that I told you earlier,

Si volem resumir la història d'abans,

we could start by saying,

podem començar dient:

"Els virus fan còpies d'ells mateixos

"These viruses make copies of themselves

by slipping their DNA into a bacterium."

introduint el seu ADN dins d'un bacteri."

Al llibre de text apareixia una cosa com aquesta:

The way this showed up in the textbook, it looked like this:

"Bacteriophage replication is initiated

"La replicació bacteriòfaga s'inicia

through the introduction of viral nucleic acid into a bacterium."

mitjançant la introducció d'àcid nucleic viral

dins d'un bacteri."

That's great, perfect for 13-year-olds.

Fantàstic. Ideal per a nens de 13 anys.

Aquí hi ha el problema. Un munt de gent

But here's the thing:

There are plenty of people in science education

del món educatiu veuria això i diria

who would look at this and say there's no way

que no es pot donar als estudiants

that we could ever give that to students,

because it contains some language that isn't completely accurate.

perquè no és del tot precís en alguns detalls.

For example, I told you that viruses have DNA.

Per exemple, us he dit que el virus tenen ADN,

Well, a very tiny fraction of them don't.

però una minúscula part no en tenen.

They have something called RNA instead.

Tenen el que s'anomena ARN.

So a professional science writer would say, "That has to go.

I un redactor de ciències professional ho marcaria:

"Canvia això.

We have to change it to something much more technical."

Hem de posar una cosa molt més tècnica."

And after a team of professional science editors

I després un equip d'editors revisaria

aquesta explicació tan simple

went over this really simple explanation,

i hi trobaria pegues a quasi cada paraula

they'd find fault with almost every word I've used,

and they'd have to change anything that wasn't serious enough,

i haurien de canviar tot el que no fos prou seriós

i canviarien tot el que no fos

and they'd have to change everything

100% perfecte.

that wasn't 100 percent perfect.

Then it would be accurate,

Llavors seria precís,

but it would be completely impossible to understand.

però seria del tot impossible d'entendre.

This is horrifying.

I això és terrible.

You know, I keep talking about this idea of telling a story,

Us parlo d'aquesta idea

d'explicar una història,

and it's like science communication has taken on this idea

però la comunicació científica es regeix

of what I call the tyranny of precision,

pel que jo anomeno la <i>tirania de la precisió</i>,

where you can't just tell a story.

que no deixa explicar històries.

It's like science has become that horrible storyteller that we all know

És com si la ciència fos aquell narrador terrible

que dóna detalls de coses que no interessen

who gives us all the details nobody cares about,

where you're like, "Oh, I met my friend for lunch the other day,

com ara "Per cert, vaig dinar amb una amiga

and she was wearing these ugly jeans.

i portava uns texans horribles.

I mean, they weren't really jeans, they were more like leggings,

De fet, no eren texans. Eren més aviat com malles.

Potser eren un tipus de malles texanes,

but I guess they're actually kind of more like jeggings,

però crec que...". I tu penses "Déu meu!

and you're just like, "Oh my God. What is the point?"

On vols anar a parar?"

O pitjor. L'educació es convertirà

Or even worse, science education is becoming

en aquell que sempre diu "De fet..."

like that guy who always says, "Actually."

You want to be like,

Sabeu? Tu dius "Eh, col·lega,

"Oh, dude, we had to get up in the middle of the night

ens hem hagut de llevar en plena nit

i conduir 100 km a les fosques."

and drive a hundred miles in total darkness."

And that guy's like, "Actually, it was 87.3 miles."

I aquell diu "De fet, eren 87,3 km."

And you're like, "Actually, shut up! I'm just trying to tell a story."

I tu penses "De fet, calla!

Intento explicar-te una cosa."

Perquè les bones narracions es basen en la connexió emocional.

Because good storytelling is all about emotional connection.

Hem de convèncer el públic

We have to convince our audience

that what we're talking about matters.

que el que diem és important.

But just as important is knowing which details we should leave out

Però és igual d'important saber

quins detalls podem ometre

i transmetre el concepte bàsic igualment.

so that the main point still comes across.

I'm reminded of what the architect Mies van der Rohe said,

L'arquitecte Mies van der Rohe va dir,

and I paraphrase, when he said that sometimes,

en altres paraules, que de vegades

you have to lie in order to tell the truth.

s'ha de mentir per poder dir la veritat.

I think this sentiment is particularly relevant to science education.

Crec que això és molt rellevant

quan s'ensenya ciència.

Per acabar,

Now, finally, I am often so disappointed

em decep molt quan

la gent creu que defenso

when people think that I'm advocating a dumbing down of science.

baixar el nivell de la ciència.

Això no és pas cert.

That's not true at all.

I'm currently a Ph.D. student at MIT,

Estic fent un doctorat al MIT

and I absolutely understand the importance of detailed,

i entenc la importància dels detalls i la precisió

specific scientific communication between experts,

en la comunicació científica entre experts,

but not when we're trying to teach 13-year-olds.

però no quan s'ensenya a nens de 13 anys.

Que un nen pensi que tots els virus tenen ADN

If a young learner thinks that all viruses have DNA,

no destruirà el seu possible futur en la ciència.

that's not going to ruin their chances of success in science.

Però si un nen no entén res de la ciència

But if a young learner can't understand anything in science

and learns to hate it because it all sounds like this,

i aprèn a odiar-la perquè tot sona com això,

that will ruin their chances of success.

serà impossible que tingui èxit.

Ho hem d'aturar.

This needs to stop ...

I m'agradaria que el canvi vingués de les institucions

and I wish that the change could come from the institutions at the top

al capdamunt, que alimenten el problema.

that are perpetuating these problems,

and I beg them, I beseech them to just stop it.

I els prego, els suplico, que ho aturin.

Però no crec que ho facin.

But I think that's unlikely.

So we are so lucky that we have resources

Per sort, tenim altres recursos,

com l'Internet, amb què podem canviar les coses

like the Internet, where we can circumvent these institutions

from the bottom up.

començant des de baix.

There's a growing number of online resources

Hi ha un nombre creixent de recursos en línia

that are dedicated to just explaining science

que es dediquen a explicar la ciència

de manera senzilla i comprensible.

in simple, understandable ways.

Somio amb una web semblant a la Viquipèdia

I dream of a Wikipedia-like website

that would explain any scientific concept you can think of

que expliqui qualsevol concepte científic

en un llenguatge simple que qualsevol alumne entengui.

in simple language any middle schooler can understand.

And I myself spend most of my free time

Jo mateix dedico el meu temps lliure

a fer vídeos de ciència que penjo a YouTube.

making these science videos that I put on YouTube.

I explain chemical equilibrium

Explico l'equilibri químic utilitzant analogies

using analogies to awkward middle school dances,

amb estranys balls d'escola

and I talk about fuel cells

i parlo de les piles de combustible amb històries

with stories about boys and girls at a summer camp.

de nois i noies de campaments.

The feedback that I get is sometimes misspelled

Els comentaris que rebo sovint tenen faltes

and it's often written in LOLcats,

i estan plens d'icones,

(Laughter)

tot i així,

but nonetheless, it's so appreciative, so thankful

són tan positius i agraïts

that I know this is the right way we should be communicating science.

que sé que aquesta és la manera

com s'hauria de comunicar la ciència.

There's still so much work left to be done, though,

Però encara hi ha molta feina a fer

and if you're involved with science in any way,

i si teniu cap relació amb la ciència,

I urge you to join me.

us animo a fer com jo.

Pick up a camera, start to write a blog, whatever,

Agafeu una càmera, escriviu un blog, el que sigui,

but leave out the seriousness, leave out the jargon.

però no sigueu seriosos, oblideu l'argot.

Make me laugh. Make me care.

Feu-me riure. Feu-ho interessant.

Leave out those annoying details that nobody cares about

Prescindiu dels detallets que no interessen

and just get to the point.

i aneu al gra.

How should you start?

Com hauríeu de começar?

Why don't you say, "Listen, let me tell you a story."

Podríeu dir: "A veure. Us explicaré una història."

Gràcies.

Thank you.

[aplaudiments]