Tyler DeWitt: Hey science teachers -- make it fun

600,918 views ・ 2013-02-05

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Translator: Morton Bast Reviewer: Krystian Aparta
0
0
7000
00:16
Let me tell you a story.
1
16220
1436
00:18
It's my first year as a new high school science teacher,
2
18228
3747
00:21
and I'm so eager.
3
21999
1296
00:23
I'm so excited, I'm pouring myself into my lesson plans.
4
23787
4008
00:28
But I'm slowly coming to this horrifying realization
5
28953
4833
00:33
that my students just might not be learning anything.
6
33810
3531
00:38
This happens one day:
7
38865
1707
00:40
I'd just assigned my class to read this textbook chapter
8
40596
3134
00:43
about my favorite subject in all of biology:
9
43754
3050
00:47
viruses and how they attack.
10
47495
2682
00:50
And so I'm so excited to discuss this with them,
11
50987
2328
00:53
and I come in and I say, "Can somebody please explain
12
53339
3347
00:56
the main ideas and why this is so cool?"
13
56710
3095
01:01
There's silence.
14
61072
1175
01:04
Finally, my favorite student, she looks me straight in the eye,
15
64612
2960
01:07
and she says, "The reading sucked."
16
67596
2548
01:10
(Laughter)
17
70517
1452
01:12
And then she clarified.
18
72785
1295
01:14
She said, "You know what, I don't mean that it sucks.
19
74104
2499
01:16
I mean I didn't understand a word of it.
20
76627
2038
01:18
It's boring, who cares, and it sucks."
21
78689
3563
01:22
(Laughter)
22
82713
1856
01:24
These sympathetic smiles spread all throughout the room now,
23
84593
4866
01:29
and I realize that all of my other students are in the same boat,
24
89483
4809
01:34
that maybe they took notes or memorized definitions from the textbook,
25
94316
3888
01:38
but not one of them really understood the main ideas.
26
98228
5079
01:43
Not one of them can tell me why this stuff is so cool,
27
103331
2650
01:46
why it's so important.
28
106005
1333
01:49
I'm totally clueless.
29
109497
1920
01:51
I have no idea what to do next.
30
111441
2595
01:54
So the only thing I can think of is say,
31
114711
2912
01:57
"Listen. Let me tell you a story.
32
117647
2690
02:01
The main characters in the story are bacteria and viruses.
33
121566
6025
02:07
These guys are blown up a couple million times.
34
127615
2802
02:11
The real bacteria and viruses are so small
35
131091
3142
02:14
we can't see them without a microscope,
36
134257
2254
02:16
and you guys might know bacteria and viruses
37
136535
2110
02:18
because they both make us sick.
38
138669
1564
02:20
But what a lot of people don't know
39
140796
1896
02:22
is that viruses can also make bacteria sick."
40
142716
3762
02:27
Now, the story that I start telling my kids,
41
147319
2476
02:29
it starts out like a horror story.
42
149819
3087
02:34
Once upon a time, there's this happy little bacterium.
43
154147
2993
02:37
Don't get too attached to him.
44
157750
1467
02:39
(Laughter)
45
159241
1692
02:40
Maybe he's floating around in your stomach
46
160957
2666
02:43
or in some spoiled food somewhere,
47
163647
2174
02:45
and all of a sudden, he starts to not feel so good.
48
165845
3604
02:49
Maybe he ate something bad for lunch.
49
169473
2578
02:52
And then things get really horrible,
50
172075
2539
02:54
as his skin rips apart,
51
174638
1597
02:56
and he sees a virus coming out from his insides.
52
176259
3494
03:00
And then it gets horrible when he bursts open
53
180765
3546
03:04
and an army of viruses floods out from his insides.
54
184335
3723
03:09
"Ouch" is right.
55
189896
1937
03:12
If you see this, and you're a bacterium,
56
192903
2524
03:15
this is like your worst nightmare.
57
195451
2814
03:18
But if you're a virus and you see this,
58
198673
2356
03:21
you cross those little legs of yours and you think,
59
201053
3016
03:24
"We rock."
60
204093
1507
03:25
Because it took a lot of crafty work to infect this bacterium.
61
205989
4357
03:31
Here's what had to happen.
62
211430
1246
03:33
A virus grabbed onto a bacterium
63
213247
3182
03:36
and it slipped its DNA into it.
64
216453
2508
03:40
The next thing is that virus DNA made stuff
65
220063
3357
03:43
that chopped up the bacteria DNA.
66
223444
2984
03:47
And now that we've gotten rid of the bacteria DNA,
67
227705
2436
03:50
the virus DNA takes control of the cell
68
230165
3805
03:53
and it tells it to start making more viruses.
69
233994
3476
03:58
Because, you see, DNA is like a blueprint
70
238613
3182
04:01
that tells living things what to make.
71
241819
2349
04:05
So this is kind of like going into a car factory
72
245423
3380
04:08
and replacing the blueprints with blueprints for killer robots.
73
248827
4952
04:14
The workers still come the next day, they do their job,
74
254525
2944
04:17
but they're following different instructions.
75
257493
2563
04:20
So replacing the bacteria DNA with virus DNA
76
260784
3753
04:24
turns the bacteria into a factory for making viruses --
77
264561
4822
04:29
that is, until it's so filled with viruses that it bursts.
78
269407
3754
04:34
But that's not the only way that viruses infect bacteria.
79
274156
3380
04:38
Some are much more crafty.
80
278085
3458
04:41
(Laughter)
81
281567
1150
04:44
When a secret agent virus infects a bacterium,
82
284251
4785
04:49
they do a little espionage.
83
289060
1762
04:51
Here, this cloaked, secret agent virus
84
291495
4101
04:55
is slipping his DNA into the bacterial cell,
85
295620
2763
04:58
but here's the kicker:
86
298407
1595
05:00
It doesn't do anything harmful -- not at first.
87
300026
3873
05:04
Instead, it silently slips into the bacteria's own DNA,
88
304303
5555
05:09
and it just stays there like a terrorist sleeper cell,
89
309882
4698
05:14
waiting for instructions.
90
314604
2124
05:17
And what's interesting about this is now, whenever this bacteria has babies,
91
317474
5698
05:23
the babies also have the virus DNA in them.
92
323196
5119
05:29
So now we have a whole extended bacteria family,
93
329013
3833
05:32
filled with virus sleeper cells.
94
332870
2801
05:36
They're just happily living together until a signal happens
95
336366
4745
05:41
and bam! -- all of the DNA pops out.
96
341135
4444
05:45
It takes control of these cells, turns them into virus-making factories,
97
345603
3642
05:49
and they all burst,
98
349269
1792
05:51
a huge, extended bacteria family,
99
351085
2698
05:53
all dying with viruses spilling out of their guts,
100
353807
3121
05:56
the viruses taking over the bacterium.
101
356952
2992
06:01
So now you understand how viruses can attack cells.
102
361920
3571
06:06
There are two ways:
103
366015
1604
06:07
On the left is what we call the lytic way,
104
367643
2959
06:10
where the viruses go right in and take over the cells.
105
370626
3309
06:14
On the [right] is the lysogenic way
106
374538
3071
06:17
that uses secret agent viruses.
107
377633
2388
06:21
So this stuff is not that hard, right?
108
381204
2254
06:23
And now all of you understand it.
109
383482
1999
06:25
But if you've graduated from high school,
110
385505
1991
06:27
I can almost guarantee you've seen this information before.
111
387520
2786
06:30
But I bet it was presented in a way that it didn't exactly stick in your mind.
112
390806
5007
06:37
So when my students were first learning this,
113
397379
3468
06:40
why did they hate it so much?
114
400871
1738
06:43
Well, there were a couple of reasons.
115
403212
2134
06:45
First of all, I can guarantee you
116
405370
2151
06:47
you that their textbooks didn't have secret agent viruses,
117
407545
3382
06:50
and they didn't have horror stories.
118
410951
2466
06:53
You know, in the communication of science,
119
413940
2706
06:56
there is this obsession with seriousness.
120
416670
4024
07:00
It kills me. I'm not kidding.
121
420718
2102
07:02
I used to work for an educational publisher,
122
422844
2229
07:05
and as a writer, I was always told never to use stories
123
425097
3659
07:08
or fun, engaging language,
124
428780
1888
07:10
because then my work might not be viewed as "serious" and "scientific."
125
430692
4968
07:16
I mean, because God forbid somebody have fun
126
436108
3071
07:19
when they're learning science.
127
439203
1768
07:20
So we have this field of science that's all about slime
128
440995
4838
07:25
and color changes.
129
445857
2343
07:28
Check this out.
130
448224
1204
07:39
And then we have, of course, as any good scientist has to have ...
131
459756
3761
07:44
explosions!
132
464375
1357
07:47
But if a textbook seems too much fun,
133
467163
4666
07:51
it's somehow unscientific.
134
471853
2596
07:55
Now another problem
135
475771
2803
07:58
was that the language in their textbook was truly incomprehensible.
136
478598
5832
08:04
If we want to summarize that story that I told you earlier,
137
484978
2785
08:07
we could start by saying,
138
487787
1286
08:09
"These viruses make copies of themselves
139
489097
2142
08:11
by slipping their DNA into a bacterium."
140
491263
2334
08:14
The way this showed up in the textbook, it looked like this:
141
494263
3341
08:17
"Bacteriophage replication is initiated
142
497628
3214
08:20
through the introduction of viral nucleic acid into a bacterium."
143
500866
4642
08:26
That's great, perfect for 13-year-olds.
144
506225
4071
08:31
But here's the thing:
145
511312
1181
08:32
There are plenty of people in science education
146
512517
2550
08:35
who would look at this and say there's no way
147
515091
2156
08:37
that we could ever give that to students,
148
517271
2417
08:39
because it contains some language that isn't completely accurate.
149
519712
4452
08:44
For example, I told you that viruses have DNA.
150
524926
2833
08:47
Well, a very tiny fraction of them don't.
151
527783
2603
08:50
They have something called RNA instead.
152
530410
1944
08:52
So a professional science writer would say, "That has to go.
153
532725
3302
08:56
We have to change it to something much more technical."
154
536051
2590
08:58
And after a team of professional science editors
155
538665
2728
09:01
went over this really simple explanation,
156
541417
3809
09:05
they'd find fault with almost every word I've used,
157
545250
4404
09:09
and they'd have to change anything that wasn't serious enough,
158
549678
2905
09:12
and they'd have to change everything
159
552607
1715
09:14
that wasn't 100 percent perfect.
160
554346
2482
09:17
Then it would be accurate,
161
557804
1864
09:19
but it would be completely impossible to understand.
162
559692
4373
09:24
This is horrifying.
163
564565
1698
09:26
You know, I keep talking about this idea of telling a story,
164
566813
4869
09:31
and it's like science communication has taken on this idea
165
571706
4571
09:36
of what I call the tyranny of precision,
166
576301
3055
09:39
where you can't just tell a story.
167
579380
2131
09:41
It's like science has become that horrible storyteller that we all know
168
581535
5618
09:47
who gives us all the details nobody cares about,
169
587177
2595
09:49
where you're like, "Oh, I met my friend for lunch the other day,
170
589796
3825
09:53
and she was wearing these ugly jeans.
171
593645
1793
09:55
I mean, they weren't really jeans, they were more like leggings,
172
595462
3000
09:58
but I guess they're actually kind of more like jeggings,
173
598486
2634
10:01
and you're just like, "Oh my God. What is the point?"
174
601144
4313
10:06
Or even worse, science education is becoming
175
606036
3960
10:10
like that guy who always says, "Actually."
176
610020
3000
10:13
You want to be like,
177
613995
1856
10:15
"Oh, dude, we had to get up in the middle of the night
178
615875
3111
10:19
and drive a hundred miles in total darkness."
179
619010
2682
10:21
And that guy's like, "Actually, it was 87.3 miles."
180
621716
4658
10:26
And you're like, "Actually, shut up! I'm just trying to tell a story."
181
626398
4365
10:33
Because good storytelling is all about emotional connection.
182
633731
4809
10:39
We have to convince our audience
183
639270
2527
10:41
that what we're talking about matters.
184
641821
2261
10:44
But just as important is knowing which details we should leave out
185
644805
5231
10:50
so that the main point still comes across.
186
650060
2630
10:53
I'm reminded of what the architect Mies van der Rohe said,
187
653539
2983
10:56
and I paraphrase, when he said that sometimes,
188
656546
3365
10:59
you have to lie in order to tell the truth.
189
659935
2928
11:03
I think this sentiment is particularly relevant to science education.
190
663498
4515
11:10
Now, finally, I am often so disappointed
191
670212
6766
11:17
when people think that I'm advocating a dumbing down of science.
192
677002
4547
11:22
That's not true at all.
193
682208
1150
11:23
I'm currently a Ph.D. student at MIT,
194
683906
2777
11:26
and I absolutely understand the importance of detailed,
195
686707
4982
11:31
specific scientific communication between experts,
196
691713
4869
11:36
but not when we're trying to teach 13-year-olds.
197
696606
3428
11:41
If a young learner thinks that all viruses have DNA,
198
701116
5072
11:46
that's not going to ruin their chances of success in science.
199
706212
4030
11:51
But if a young learner can't understand anything in science
200
711726
3555
11:55
and learns to hate it because it all sounds like this,
201
715305
3935
11:59
that will ruin their chances of success.
202
719264
2969
12:04
This needs to stop ...
203
724025
1306
12:06
and I wish that the change could come from the institutions at the top
204
726378
3794
12:10
that are perpetuating these problems,
205
730196
1762
12:11
and I beg them, I beseech them to just stop it.
206
731982
3420
12:16
But I think that's unlikely.
207
736788
1505
12:18
So we are so lucky that we have resources
208
738769
3539
12:22
like the Internet, where we can circumvent these institutions
209
742332
3134
12:25
from the bottom up.
210
745490
2056
12:28
There's a growing number of online resources
211
748853
2888
12:31
that are dedicated to just explaining science
212
751765
3302
12:35
in simple, understandable ways.
213
755091
2666
12:38
I dream of a Wikipedia-like website
214
758194
2356
12:40
that would explain any scientific concept you can think of
215
760574
3699
12:44
in simple language any middle schooler can understand.
216
764297
3611
12:48
And I myself spend most of my free time
217
768781
3444
12:52
making these science videos that I put on YouTube.
218
772249
3103
12:55
I explain chemical equilibrium
219
775873
2210
12:58
using analogies to awkward middle school dances,
220
778107
3480
13:01
and I talk about fuel cells
221
781611
1706
13:03
with stories about boys and girls at a summer camp.
222
783341
3103
13:07
The feedback that I get is sometimes misspelled
223
787506
3404
13:10
and it's often written in LOLcats,
224
790934
2143
13:13
(Laughter)
225
793101
1214
13:14
but nonetheless, it's so appreciative, so thankful
226
794339
5920
13:20
that I know this is the right way we should be communicating science.
227
800283
6222
13:27
There's still so much work left to be done, though,
228
807333
3047
13:30
and if you're involved with science in any way,
229
810404
3238
13:33
I urge you to join me.
230
813666
2269
13:36
Pick up a camera, start to write a blog, whatever,
231
816356
5360
13:41
but leave out the seriousness, leave out the jargon.
232
821740
3428
13:45
Make me laugh. Make me care.
233
825589
3371
13:48
Leave out those annoying details that nobody cares about
234
828984
3555
13:52
and just get to the point.
235
832563
2349
13:56
How should you start?
236
836309
1183
13:58
Why don't you say, "Listen, let me tell you a story."
237
838174
3712
14:03
Thank you.
238
843323
1151
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7