Tyler DeWitt: Hey science teachers -- make it fun

Translator: Morton Bast Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

翻译人员: Wei Wu 校对人员: Emma Zhao

Let me tell you a story.

我来给大家讲个故事。

我成为高中理科老师的第一年，

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

and I'm so eager.

我非常的积极。

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

非常的兴奋，我全身心的投入到我的教学工作中。

但是我慢慢的认识到一个可怕的现实

But I'm slowly coming to this horrifying realization

我的学生可能什么都学不到。

that my students just might not be learning anything.

有一天，

This happens one day:

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

我安排学生们阅读课本的一个章节，

about my favorite subject in all of biology:

这个章节讲的是我在生物学中最喜欢的主题——

viruses and how they attack.

病毒以及其攻击原理。

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

我很兴奋能够跟他们讨论这个内容

我走进课堂，问：“有没有人能阐述一下本章主要内容，

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

the main ideas and why this is so cool?"

并解释病毒为什么这么酷？

现场一片寂静。

There's silence.

终于，我最中意的学生，她看着我的眼睛，

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

and she says, "The reading sucked."

说道，教材太恶心了

(Laughter)

然后她澄清道：“我的意思是

And then she clarified.

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

我不是说内容恶心，我是说我根本看不懂。

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

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

太无聊了。嗯，管他呢，就是恶心。

(Laughter)

教室里一下子

These sympathetic smiles spread all throughout the room now,

充满了赞同的笑声。

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

我意识到班上所有的学生都是一样的感觉。

他们或许做了笔记，死记硬背了教材中的定义，

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

但没有一个人真正理解了其中意义。

but not one of them really understood the main ideas.

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

没有一个人能告诉我为什么这东西有意思，

为什么它很重要。

why it's so important.

我完全迷茫了。

I'm totally clueless.

I have no idea what to do next.

我不知道接下去要做什么。

So the only thing I can think of is say,

我想到唯一可以做的是说，

“听着，我来给大家讲个故事。

"Listen. Let me tell you a story.

The main characters in the story are bacteria and viruses.

故事的主角是细菌和病毒。

These guys are blown up a couple million times.

现在我手上的这俩家伙是放大了几百万倍的样子，

真正的病毒和细菌太小了，

The real bacteria and viruses are so small

小到我们只能用显微镜才能看到。

we can't see them without a microscope,

and you guys might know bacteria and viruses

你们可能对细菌和病毒并不陌生，

because they both make us sick.

因为它们会让我们生病。

But what a lot of people don't know

但很多人都不知道的是，病毒

is that viruses can also make bacteria sick."

也可以让细菌生病。”

Now, the story that I start telling my kids,

而后，我开始给学生们讲故事。

it starts out like a horror story.

故事的开头有点恐怖。

很久很久以前，有一个快乐的小细菌。

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

Don't get too attached to him.

别太投入了。

(Laughter)

他可能正在你的胃里，

Maybe he's floating around in your stomach

or in some spoiled food somewhere,

或是在一些变质的食物里游荡。

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

突然之间，他开始感觉不大对劲了。

Maybe he ate something bad for lunch.

可能他午饭吃坏肚子了，

然后事情变得非常的可怕

And then things get really horrible,

as his skin rips apart,

它的皮肤裂开了，它看到一个病毒

and he sees a virus coming out from his insides.

从他体内钻了出来。

更恐怖的事情是

And then it gets horrible when he bursts open

它的身体爆炸了，成群的病毒

and an army of viruses floods out from his insides.

从细菌的体内喷涌了出来。

如果——哦，是的——

"Ouch" is right.

如果你是一个细菌而你目睹了这一幕，

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

this is like your worst nightmare.

这将是你最可怕的噩梦。

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

但如果你是一只病毒，此情此景，

你可能就会悠闲地跷着二郎腿心想，

you cross those little legs of yours and you think,

“我们太牛了。”

"We rock."

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

因为病毒需要通过很巧妙的方式来感染细菌。

以下是具体过程：

Here's what had to happen.

一个病毒抓住一个细菌，

A virus grabbed onto a bacterium

and it slipped its DNA into it.

悄悄把自己的DNA注入细菌。

接下来，病毒的DNA生成了一些物质

The next thing is that virus DNA made stuff

破坏了细菌原有的DNA。

that chopped up the bacteria DNA.

现在细菌的DNA已经被破坏了，

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

病毒的DNA控制了整个细胞。

the virus DNA takes control of the cell

and it tells it to start making more viruses.

然后病毒DNA开始复制更多的病毒。

Because, you see, DNA is like a blueprint

因为，你看，DNA像是一个制造图纸

that tells living things what to make.

指示生命体制造指定的物质。

这就像原本是一个造车工厂

So this is kind of like going into a car factory

and replacing the blueprints with blueprints for killer robots.

图纸被替换了，开始造杀人机器人了。

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

工人们第二天照旧来上班开工，

but they're following different instructions.

但他们执行的却是完全不同的指示。

So replacing the bacteria DNA with virus DNA

那么，将细菌的DNA更换为病毒的DNA

就使得细菌自身成为了一间制造病毒的工厂，

turns the bacteria into a factory for making viruses --

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

直到生产的病毒多到把细菌撑爆了为止。

但这并非是病毒感染细菌的唯一途径。

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

Some are much more crafty.

有些方法更加精妙。

(Laughter)

When a secret agent virus infects a bacterium,

当一个病毒“特工”感染一个细菌，

间谍活动随之展开。

they do a little espionage.

Here, this cloaked, secret agent virus

这名潜行的特工不动声色地将其DNA送入细菌细胞，

is slipping his DNA into the bacterial cell,

but here's the kicker:

但秘诀在于：它不会伤害细菌——至少现在不会。

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

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

相反，它默默潜伏于细菌自身的DNA中，

and it just stays there like a terrorist sleeper cell,

犹如一枚定时炸弹，

waiting for instructions.

静静地等待指令。

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

有趣的是，接下来当细菌开始繁殖，有了自己的孩子时，

the babies also have the virus DNA in them.

它的孩子也带有病毒的这段DNA。

于是当细菌繁衍成为一个大家族，

So now we have a whole extended bacteria family,

filled with virus sleeper cells.

每一个家族成员都带有病毒的定时炸弹。

They're just happily living together until a signal happens

他们幸福地生活在一起，直到信号出现。

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

于是，“砰！”地一声，所有的潜伏DNA被唤醒了。

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

病毒DNA控制了这些细胞，将其变为制造病毒的工厂，

and they all burst,

并让它们全部涨裂。

a huge, extended bacteria family,

于是，熙熙攘攘的细菌大家族，

all dying with viruses spilling out of their guts,

就这样被病毒由内而外全部消灭。

the viruses taking over the bacterium.

病毒完全接管了细菌体。

So now you understand how viruses can attack cells.

于是现在大家能理解病毒是如何攻击细胞的了。

总共有两种途径：左边的我们称其为裂解性感染，

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.

病毒一旦进入即掌控整个细胞。

On the [right] is the lysogenic way

右边的我们称其为溶源性感染，

that uses secret agent viruses.

就是病毒特工闪亮登场的情境。

所以这些东西也不是那么难嘛，对吧？

So this stuff is not that hard, right?

And now all of you understand it.

现在大家都能够理解。

But if you've graduated from high school,

只要你高中毕了业，

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

我敢保证几乎每个人都看到过以上的东西。

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

只是这些知识是以其他的形式呈现的，

并没有给你留下什么印象。

So when my students were first learning this,

那么当我的学生们初次学习这些东西的时候，

why did they hate it so much?

为什么他们会这么痛恨这些？

当然，有若干原因：

Well, there were a couple of reasons.

其一，我可以保证他们的课本

First of all, I can guarantee you

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

可没有什么“病毒特工”或是恐怖小故事。

and they didn't have horror stories.

You know, in the communication of science,

在科学界的交流中

there is this obsession with seriousness.

通常有着对内容严肃性的执念。

It kills me. I'm not kidding.

我被“严谨”二字折磨死了，真的。

I used to work for an educational publisher,

我曾在一家教育出版社供职，

作为一名撰稿人，我被告知永远不要用故事体

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

or fun, engaging language,

逗趣笑话或引人眼球的语言风格，

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

因为如果我用了的话，我的作品就不会被视为是

“严肃的”和“科学的”。

对吧？就好像上帝禁止学科学的人

I mean, because God forbid somebody have fun

找乐子一样。

when they're learning science.

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

所以我们的科学领域中充满了黏液

and color changes.

颜色变化等。注意看这个。

Check this out.

然后，当然，我们有优秀科学家必备的

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

爆炸！

explosions!

But if a textbook seems too much fun,

但是如果教材太有意思了，

it's somehow unscientific.

似乎就不科学了。

Now another problem

另一个问题在于，

was that the language in their textbook was truly incomprehensible.

教材中使用的语言真的是无法理解。

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

如果我们要总结我们之前讲的故事，

we could start by saying,

我们可以这么说：

”病毒通过把自己的DNA送入细菌体内

"These viruses make copies of themselves

by slipping their DNA into a bacterium."

来复制自己。”

但如果要是写在课本里的语言，就会变成这样：

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

"Bacteriophage replication is initiated

“噬菌体病毒之复制

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

以病毒核酸向细菌体

之引入而开始。”

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

这个很好，对13岁小孩来说很合适。

但是问题来了。在科学教育领域的

But here's the thing:

There are plenty of people in science education

很多人会在看了这段话之后，说他们

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

不能这么教育学生，

that we could ever give that to students,

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

因为这段话中的措辞并不完全准确。

For example, I told you that viruses have DNA.

比如，我之前告诉大家病毒有DNA。

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

好吧，很小一部分病毒是没有DNA，

They have something called RNA instead.

相对应地，他们体内有另一种称为RNA的物质。

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

于是所谓专业的科学作者估计会把这处圈出来，说，

“这不行

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

得换成更严谨科学的表述。”

And after a team of professional science editors

然后经过专业科学编辑团队

审阅了这段简单的解释之后

went over this really simple explanation,

他们可能会发现我说的每句话都有毛病

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

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

而他们必须要改掉所有不严谨的地方

他们不得不改掉所有不是

and they'd have to change everything

百分百精确的事情

that wasn't 100 percent perfect.

Then it would be accurate,

现在或许是精确了

but it would be completely impossible to understand.

但是已经完全无法让人理解了

This is horrifying.

这太吓人了

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

我一直在说通过讲故事进行教学

的想法

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

但是现在的科学课程教学是基于我称之为

of what I call the tyranny of precision,

精确性至上的教学法

where you can't just tell a story.

这套方法不讲故事。

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

感觉讲故事的人很可怕，会把科学课程变成

传授我们尽人皆知的细碎知识，

who gives us all the details nobody cares about,

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

就像是“哦，一天我跟朋友吃饭，

and she was wearing these ugly jeans.

她穿的牛仔裤不好看。

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

我是说，他们不是真的牛仔裤，而是窄腿裤

但是，我想他们某种意义上更像是紧身裤

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

但是我想——你会类似反应“天哪，

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

到底想说什么？”

或者更糟，科学教育变成了

Or even worse, science education is becoming

一个总是说“实际上”的人。

like that guy who always says, "Actually."

You want to be like,

不是么？想象一下，“哦，伙计，

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

我们要在午夜起床然后

在黑夜中开车走100公里。”

and drive a hundred miles in total darkness."

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

然后一个人说，“实际上，是87.3公里哦”

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

然后你说，“实际上，闭嘴！”

“我只是想说一个故事。”

好的故事需要关注的是情感的联系。

Because good storytelling is all about emotional connection.

我们需要说服我们的听众

We have to convince our audience

that what we're talking about matters.

我们说的话很重要。

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

而重要的是知道

忽略掉无关紧要的细节

重点才会得到突出。

so that the main point still comes across.

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

我记得建筑大师密斯·凡德罗（Mies van der Rohe）说过，

and I paraphrase, when he said that sometimes,

我解释一下，当他说有时候

you have to lie in order to tell the truth.

你必须通过谎言来传达真相

I think this sentiment is particularly relevant to science education.

我想这跟科学教育

有相通之处。

现在，最后，

Now, finally, I am often so disappointed

我时常感到失望

人们会认为我是在鼓吹

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

科学的弱智化.

根本不是这样的。

That's not true at all.

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

我现在是MIT的在读博士，

and I absolutely understand the importance of detailed,

我完全理解细节的重要性

specific scientific communication between experts,

专家之间交流时细节尤其重要

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

但是在教13岁孩子的时候不是那么重要的

如果一个孩子觉得病毒都是有DNA的

If a young learner thinks that all viruses have DNA,

不大可能因此毁掉了他们成为科学家的机会。

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

但是如果一个孩子无法理解科学课程中的知识

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

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

并由于这些枯燥的东西而讨厌这门课程

that will ruin their chances of success.

这真的可能会毁掉他们成功的机会。

这需要改变。

This needs to stop ...

我希望这些改变来自于高层的机构

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

让他们能够意识到问题的存在

that are perpetuating these problems,

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

我祈求他们，祈求他们别再这么教学了。

但是我觉得不太现实。

But I think that's unlikely.

So we are so lucky that we have resources

还好我们很幸运的拥有互联网这样的资源

我们可以撇开这些管理机构，自底向上的

like the Internet, where we can circumvent these institutions

from the bottom up.

进行改变。

There's a growing number of online resources

网上相关的教程越来越多

that are dedicated to just explaining science

他们都尝试用简单和直白的语言

来解释科学原理

in simple, understandable ways.

我希望有一个维基百科一样的网站

I dream of a Wikipedia-like website

that would explain any scientific concept you can think of

解释你能想到的任何科学概念

用一种任何一个中学生都能够理解的语言和方式。

in simple language any middle schooler can understand.

And I myself spend most of my free time

而我自己把我的闲暇时间都投入到了

制作这些YouTube在线课程的事情上。

making these science videos that I put on YouTube.

I explain chemical equilibrium

我用中学舞蹈的古怪动作来类比

using analogies to awkward middle school dances,

化学等价原理。

and I talk about fuel cells

我用夏令营中男孩和女孩的故事来

with stories about boys and girls at a summer camp.

解释燃料电池原理

The feedback that I get is sometimes misspelled

我收到的反馈，经常包含拼写错误

and it's often written in LOLcats,

经常包含各种聊天缩写

(Laughter)

但是撇开这些

but nonetheless, it's so appreciative, so thankful

我很感激这些评论

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

让我知道我的方法是正确的

我们就应该这样传授科学知识

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

虽然还有很多很多的工作要做

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

如果你也有参与科学工作

I urge you to join me.

我请求你加入我的行动。

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

录段视频，写篇博客，怎么都行，

but leave out the seriousness, leave out the jargon.

但是请抛开严谨性，抛开术语口号。

Make me laugh. Make me care.

逗观众开心，吸引他们注意。

Leave out those annoying details that nobody cares about

抛开这些没人关心的恼人的细节

and just get to the point.

直击重点。

How should you start?

如何开场？

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

为什么不尝试说：“来，我给你讲个故事“

谢谢。

Thank you.

(掌声)