Kids + Science = NOTHING

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

One of the most memoriable experiances from 7th grade science club was my teacher blowing up a hydrogen-filled balloon in the middle of the classroom. That was amazing.

Hydrogen-filled Pringles cans are much more fun.

[Kylonicus]

Here is a simple way of promoting science,

 

Show that with science, you can acquire POWER.

 

That's one of the things I find so attractive(irresistable) about science.

 

Only through science, can one man have so much power, without the constant nuisance, and annoyance of others.

 

More shows with mad scientist taking over.

 

More shows with the scientist having the power, or superheroes being scientist, and using their scientific knowledge to get themselves out of problems, when their technology fails. It would be like Macguiver, except the devices built would be much, much cooler.

 

 

Muhahahahahahhahahahaahhahahahaha

 

 

People emulate power. That's why the whole "bad boy" image is considered hot. Even though when they show bad boys beating up other people, the bad boys really don't have that much more power then others(in real life other people could simply shoot the bad boy), the fact that the bad boy is expressing the power that he has, and the fact you can see him dominating others, and having power, that's very attractive to people. That's why terrorist and other jerks of the like can draw followers, because they have power, they make a difference(even though it's an evil difference, and any numbskull can do what they are doing).

 

I remember a sociology study done, where they interviewed former POW soldiers of world war two, who were trapped in German POW camps. The prisoners said that they would frequently break in to the Nazi offices(or armory or supply whatever), and steal Nazi uniforms, and then wear them. Now, the soldiers didn't use them to break out, and when it was seen that they had worn a Nazi uniform, they would be severely punished.

 

The interviewer asked, "Why did you wear the uniform, if it didn't help you any, and you were beaten for it?", the answer was, that the soldiers just liked wearing the uniform.

 

The reason the soldier wore the uniform was that he recognized that the Nazi guards had all the power over him, and although he wasn't willing to compromise his values and fight for them, he desperately on a subconcious level wanted to be them, as well as emulate them, even though he and many other soldiers, despised and hated the Nazis.

 

As long as scientist are shown to be weak, and powerless, and aloof nerds with no real say in society, they will always be uncool.

 

When you show scientist having power, making huge sums of money, influencing the heads of state, controlling how things are done, or wiping out enemy cities and getting revenge on those who ridiculed them, then you will most likely have an increase in the number of people who want to be scientist.

 

That's why nerds started becoming attractive(and are becoming more so) attractive as time goes on. The person with the most wealth(and thus to some degree percieved power), is Bill Gates. He is a MEGA NERD, kinda like me, and because the fact that he's both A) powerful, and B) a mega nerd, and so many other nerds(like Paul Allen) are really rich/powerful/elite, it has made nerds more popular and more sexually attractive to women, due to the association of power.

 

That's why height is considered attractive, because on an instinctive level, height represents power. Our evolutionary software hasn't caught up to the times, and before the invention of the gun(and even a long term afterwords), height was a determining factor in battle, in social status, and in acquiring power. Height was also attractive hundreds of thousands of years ago, as the more advanced of our ancestors started getting taller and taller, thus associating height, with the level of advancedness.

 

The scary part is now, the most powerful person in the United States, is George W. Bush, and subconciously, many people may emmulate him(ACK!).

[pHoToN_gUrL]

(to the original poster ==>)i think u r generalizing a bit here. I don't think curious kids would ever lose thier interest in science. I know a lot, and i mean, A LOT, of kids in my high school who like science, and also, a lot who don't. I think these days all the science educators are doing thier best to make science eye catchy or some thing like that. Most kids start to believe that science is always in color, n that's how they like it. But point is, science is also black n white, meaning it's not alwayz the nice n "cool" experiments involved, it involves hard work, pressure n competition. When some ppl start to see this black n white side of sience, they give up, cuz it no longer interests them.

However i do agree that media is IGNORING science, n alwayz focusing on stupid things like the music blah blah blah or dance or top model stuff. I mean come on, who's the engineer behind that scene? which doctor helped that pop star? they never say these things. That's bit disappointing in my point of view.

[Klaynos]

batman was a scientist...

[Guest_Jim*]

Here's something that other students, and some teachers, at my school like. It's called World Wind and is made by NASA. It's a free open-source 3D globe program with a great many of scientific uses. It comes with six different worlds, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey imagery.

Here's World Wind's homepage

http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

Here are the forums

http://forum.worldwindcentral.com/

Here is a list of some of the add-ons.

http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki/Category:Add-ons

 

If you prefer biology then you might like The Virtual Microscope. This too is free and open-source and lets you examine a great deal of things under either virtual light microscopes of scanning electron microscopes.

Here is the link to where you can get this

http://virtual.itg.uiuc.edu/index.shtml

[GradGrrl]

Exactly what I meant. If science is made exciting (meaning "combustible") then more students will like it.

 

 

I'm all for it. I homeschool my son and I plan on introducing him to my lab next year...Mwoaaaa Haaa Haa Ha

 

J/K

But like most people, science is fun when it does something cool. Remember growing carbon backbones in chem 101? Or that one enzyme reaction where you mix H2O2 with something else to get that big foamy mountain?

 

When I took O chem, I sucked at it big time, but that lab was THE funnest class I ever took. Hooking up all that glassware and sucking powder out of liquid!! :D SO FUN!!! Making eugenol and spilling it all over the jerk in the next hood, not to mention getting my whole row tipsy because I dropped so much hexane. Just good clean fun...minus the clean. And I actually asked the TA if we could do that sodium explosion. He took it with him when he left to use the bathroom. Guess he didn't trust me.

[pHoToN_gUrL]

i blame the media. Media does too little to emphasize on the importance n beuty of science. Who runs the media?

[herpguy]

Maybe websites like this should be made to feature kids more. But that might ruin how professionalism (if that's a word).

 

I think I'm going to make my own forum about science just for kids. It might help a little.

 

 

Edit: In fact

http://youthscientists.smfforfree.com/index.php?board=1.0

 

Heh, this won't work out.

 

 

Edit again: Darn it, I was reading something that said United States of America so I called the forum Youth Scientists of America and I can't change it.

[GradGrrl]

The Young Scientist's Club looks cool. We're gonna subscribe at the end of the summer. I'll let you know how it is.

 

http://www.theyoungscientistsclub.com/introduction2.html

[scicop]

Well, I also think it is important to emphasize CAREER options for people with science backgrounds, especially careers that don't necessarily require a PhD (that can be very intimidating and as time goes on, the PhD is not really a commerically valuable or "prestigious" degree to have).

 

One poster said NASA..that's great! However, there is Law Enforcement, they need science trained people to evaluate not only crime scenes but potential treats for chemcial and biological weapons. FBI is in desparate need of scientist for their special agent position (as told to me the Special Agent in charge for Recruitment at the New York Office, a PhD in english lit by the way).

 

There are also science jobs for our nations's intelligence community, the CIA has its own labs, and so does the DIA/Army Intell, and Navy Intel. Not only that they do use scientist as operatives. The US Armed Forces, such as Army, Navy and Air Force actively recruit scientist as well.

 

In this weeks "science", there is a job posting for a cell biologist/biochemist at the Coca-Cola Corporation in Atlanta, GA.

 

So I think its important to emphasis to kids to day that there are way awesome jobs out there for science training individuals..and I think that will spark interest. I would STRONGLY de-emphasize PhD training.

 

I also think that emphasis combinatorial training is important, science and international politics, science and law enforcement, science and business, this is what's needed today, not just people with absolute and complete science backgrounds.

[chemfreak]

I agree herpguy. I don't know about you but we do nothing in science except read from a book, and when we do that they all slak off. But I go in there and show them a simple experement, and they were totally hooked!!

[chemfreak]

Kids arn't interested in anything useful in 6th grade..........

are u f'n kiding me???

 

If you want an example just look at me or herp!!!

[chemfreak]

Maybe websites like this should be made to feature kids more. But that might ruin how professionalism (if that's a word).

 

I think I'm going to make my own forum about science just for kids. It might help a little.

 

 

Edit: In fact

http://youthscientists.smfforfree.com/index.php?board=1.0

 

Heh' date=' this won't work out.

 

 

Edit again: Darn it, I was reading something that said United States of America so I called the forum Youth Scientists of America and I can't change it.[/quote']

 

why would you do that when we can just hang out on this forum?? I know that there is room for more kids!!

[Guest_Jim*]

why would you do that when we can just hang out on this forum?? I know that there is room for more kids!!

Perhaps a student oriented version with simpler posts could work, I doubt a sixth grader would understand topics like "Aren't exploding black holes negentropic?," but I would bet that some would be interested in finding out what that means. If this were to be done though people would have to post new topics that are simple but would also succeed in interesting kids in them.

[Genecks]

Make them watch MacGyver. If they aren't interested after watching all episodes, then there is no hope left.

 

I enjoyed MacGyver at sixth grade. I also enjoyed The Matrix, Terminator, etc.. People could also be brought up to levels of science by surreptitious methods. Video game design implementing mathematics and physics to create a virtual world would get someone to a certain level of education. The kid would eventually learn forms of science and have fun. There's a lot of manipulative things a person can do to the youth, but is not such a thing a Adolf Hitler tactic?

 

While in secondary education I noticed school is required for two reasons: to save or destroy.

I notice these days that some of the greatest scientists came out during war-time; they were to save or destroy the world.

 

Much learning can be achieved by finding a way to implement science in a virtual world. The ultimate video game: a world where science comes alive due to principles of the real world, and things are "free" there.

 

However, I'm sure the government is stopping people. Yet I'm starting to see things change in this world. The people are creating more realistic games. I'm not talking graphics; I'm talking principles of the real world. Last I knew, some people at the University of Central Flordia understood what I've invisioned since childhood. They created a video game which allows a person to use chemicals to defeat his or her opponent. It works on a chemical versus type of armor concept.

 

I think if they could understand that all the cool stuff they see in cartoons could be achieved be genetic engineering, physics, and other scientific movements, then they would be more interested in learning science.

 

So many people forget what kids like: electronic fighting robots, plants that eat flies, and blowing stuff up.

 

Right there you can knock out microbiology, plant biology, chemistry, electronics, calculus, physics, etc.

I find that growing up and learning about science was annoying in one aspect: I didn't have the money or resources to apply any knowledge; I was lacking guidance; I didn't know how to advance; but most importantly is how I didn't know how to apply the knowledge.

 

Ketchup is thixotropic. I'm sure a kid would learn and understand that quite quickly. He or she could apply such logic quickly, too.

 

I once had to do a presentation in high school. I decided to make a small type of explosive, non-dangerous, made from baking soda, a plastic bag, water, and a paper towel. Maybe there were some other things, I can't remember. I think I used vinegar, actually. Everybody thought this was the coolest thing. Primarily because explosives always seem to catch a person's eye. However, more things than explosives can catch a person's eye. The television show with fighting robots was very popular for a while: battlebots. Many people were hooked.

 

The media has a lot to teach researchers and educators about the general public's interests.

I'm sure a robot that could blow stuff up is a lot more interesting.

 

I think the best way for youth to get more interested in science is by creating more after-school clubs based around different aspects of science and engineering. But the teachers have to help with the resources; students can be broke a good amount of the time. I think many educators complain about the youth and the educational system, but the truth is, they are the educational system. I wonder when that will catch on.