The profound power of deep science on young people | Don Miller | TEDxTemecula

when I was 24 I adopted two delightful

little boys and it was though it was the

the best decision that I ever made and

it was there's a growing process for me

when when Wally turned seven two years

after I adopted them I got a call from

the school it was a bump in the road he

was gonna fail second grade I had no

idea what to do and in a situation like

this

I started thinking through my own

experience this night I had an

incredibly bad memory just I just have a

very poor natural memory and but one

foot of things I had a breakthrough and

I realized that I learned best by

understanding why things worked and why

so I got the idea of teaching Wally just

that and I'm a science guy so I thought

I'm going to teach Wally the just all

kinds of things about science and how

things work and why so I started on this

little by little and day by day six

months later I got a call from the

school and they told me something

astonishing

they said Wally was assessed with an IQ

145 and that he and his little brother

Terry were both admitted into the

advanced gate program of the school and

I just went touchdown isn't but what

happened and I realized

Jerry was tailgating the whole time and

that's why he got in but I didn't know

what I did as I watched him over the

next couple months I went I started to

figure it out I went they've become a

little thinkers little analyzers instead

of just little memorizers and this began

a journey for me of understanding how

kids can be powerfully affected by deep

science now to start I have to define

science science is not what's in the

textbook in science is what is it's it's

like everything that is that science let

me give you an illustration have you

ever been out and just on a summer day

and you've been sitting around and

you've seen a bush with a bunch of

flowers on it

and you suddenly I mean that suddenly

but there's a lot of bees work in that

particular bush have you ever noticed

that they're just a little distance away

from the flowers and they kind of flit

around totally randomly and then they

land and then they get up do it all over

again

well no one on earth knew why they did

that and when scientists figured it out

they were totally astonished they're

reading the electrical fields of the

flowers what why what's going on well

what happens is everything anchored to

the earth has a slight negative charge

because of lightning strikes and other

things it travels up into the buildings

up into the plants and up even into the

flowers and the bees when they're flying

through the air they have a slight

negative they have a they're shedding

electrons so they have a slight positive

charge positive beyond negative flower

changes the charge of the flower they'll

drink for a little bit then they'll take

off and that's now a positive flower and

what it takes about 20 minutes for the

flower to change back to its original

charge and in that same time the plants

being able to refill it with nectar so

what they're looking for is flowers that

have been refilled and they can tell by

their electrical fields isn't that

incredible so this is an example of what

yes and when you get it to merge with

what can be it becomes really powerful I

love science

can you tell very giving your dog one of

those bones like a hamshank

it's got the big white thick bone on it

and they know I did not it not it and

not the word is not at it and they can

it doesn't go away it's still there

that's that's compact bone or cortical

bone inside a rice grain sized volume of

it there's a million tunnels that grow

into place and what's happening is

there's when the bones are alive there's

a moving stream going through those

tunnels I heard this and I went what is

going on and when I learned I was

shocked there's millions of cells that

are buried in your bones alive they're

bone prisoners my kids you know and

they're being fed by the supply stream

of oxygen and food through that dream

that's throwing through that's flowing

through the bones and when I heard this

I went what is going on they're reading

the electrical fields of the stressing

of your bones and they're also reading

the fluid pressures within those tunnels

to determine where the micro fractures

are to fix them

because they coordinated an orchestra

and the fluid pressures as well to

detect where the worthy bones need to be

strengthened

without those living prisoners inside

your bones nothing with bones could live

that's the only thing that's keeping

your life and those the scientists

studying that have developed a

microfiber cloth and you can put it on

bones or experiment with animals so put

it on bones that need to be healed and

it's speeding up the healing speed of

the bones so this is an example of what

is merging with what can't be and to me

it's incredibly exciting now I want to

tell you about two kids that are so

beloved to me and the effect science had

on them and the science didn't have on

them okay I walked into my first science

classroom as a teacher I was really

nervous I stood behind the desk and I

remembered what happened right on the

other side of my desk

the week before there's an attempted

murder and the police came the

ambulances came when everything was

cleaned up and everything taken away the

teacher threw up his hands he said I'm

out of here

and he took off and I was hired to take

his place my first class tough class so

I started trying to teach them and they

were not interested at all especially

what the school was telling me to teach

him and sighs I just kind of abandoned

ship on all all status quo on how to

teach and I just speak the typewriter

approach is what i unban AddThis myself

the turn and all I did was I walked back

and forth and I told him wonder after

wonder exciting thing after that the

things that motivated me in science and

I was amazed at how they responded and I

did this week after week and we had so

much fun they became so beloved to me

and I learned they were smarter than I

was it was really fun and then I'll

never forget today when Sam one of the

big burly gang leaders came up to me and

he had this little teeny flower and he's

like about jumping and he's going look

at this flower mr. Miller look at this

thing and he's pointing out all these

things and there's not a peep out of the

kids in the back because I knew he'd

creamed them if there was he's all

excited and I'm sitting back and I'm

just I'm loving it I'm going this guy's

life has been changed stray

there's a fire that started burning

inside those kids and a incredible fire

began to burn inside me I realized if

kids can know the truth about what's

going on the truth about the world they

can be profoundly transformed Debbie's

situation

Debbie was delightful 17 year old

straight A's across the board girl we

sat down I've known her for a long time

we started chatting she said yeah I took

this AP chem class six months ago

and she said I understand and then as I

kind of asked her some questions I

realized she's already lost 70% of what

she's stuck in her head in order to pass

those classes and then and then I said

she's gonna lose 90% by the time she

graduates you know like what's the point

of this and and then but really bug me

was I realized she doesn't have any

sense of wonder in the world around her

like nothing ten years of acing our

science no wonder at all and I just was

really mad actually and I got something

is really wrong something's really wrong

then I checked it out there are some

things that are really wrong United

States is scoring consistently at the

bottom of international testing science

testing of the heavily industrialized

nations slow tempo only tempers have our

work forces involved in science there's

more jobs there's more good jobs we have

to get in from outside because people

aren't able to tandel the jobs stem

students are like the kids are just go

yes when it comes to science in their

school years 50 to 70% are dropping out

in their college years what what is

going on there's a there's there's their

sister real problem but that's not even

the tip of the iceberg if you ask the

average high school kid you're in

Temecula and you ask them you you you

just say hey kid I wants to talk to you

I want to talk to you I got a question

for you tell me everything you know

about your lungs or tell me about your

less drones you'll be amazed at how much

of them have nothing to say now be great

in a lot of situations but it's not in

this one

there's nothing up there it's like a

vacuum there's big changes coming in the

next 10 years 10 million jobs are gonna

go from labor-intensive up to high

cognitive that translates as a lot of

hurting families if we can make our

sites incredible we can give those kids

a start we can give them an opportunity

to make those kind of trends transitions

excuse me so the cause what's the cause

of this what's the cause of this problem

causes something we all know about

science is compartmentalized in middle

school we do life earth and physical

science in high school we do biology

chemistry and physics this leads to a

massive drop of material out of kids

brains huge amount of science knowledge

completely drops out like I'm talking to

about you about Debbie it leads to the

vacuum it leads to the air space between

between their ears it's it a mile wide

and an inch deep cannot stand the fire

of time it will drop no matter what you

do it's gonna fall but it's even more

than that the compartmental is a

compartmentalization of science what it

does is it makes all science dead and

lifeless and what it does and if your

science do you know exactly what I'm

saying it puts a cage around you and the

teachers bless their hearts they cannot

go outside of that cage and grab the

fantastic and the fascinating and the

wonderful and it's those very things

that give the power to deep science

those very things that make it so life

transforming for kids is there an answer

to all this there is let the choir begin

there is its reorganizing all of science

into global topics that's our word for

it global topics basically there are

things that thread through the sciences

they merge the sciences now I want to

have fun with you I'm getting

to see your faces it's so cool okay so

what I'm gonna do is d-twah not when I

say a science minor I say deep science

I'm talking about what actually goes on

inside of the minds of the scientists

are making all the discoveries that guys

who know what they're talking about and

you can put that into kids if you use

ingenious techniques okay so what I'm

gonna say is I'm gonna say what you

gonna do and you're gonna go go deep you

ready okay

it's audience participation okay okay

what you gonna do a little bit louder

what you gonna do okay good so what

we're gonna do is this is a pot this is

my mr. Miller's pot okay this is gonna

be our global topic pot and this is

gonna be the global topic pot of

electricity so I'm gonna put it right

down here okay so this is gonna be Bill

nice out there's gonna be the big part

electricity okay inside my big pot is

everything about electricity it's a

little bit boring but it'll work okay

so we got it there so what are we going

to throw into to make ourselves a

science - for you sorry it came to me

when I was preparing today so we gotta

put bones in it right so we'll put bones

in there so now we've got transistors

transformers and trabeculae those are

the spongy bone all in the same class oh

no it's cool it keeps our little brains

going variety elves okay so what else

can we put in bees let's go for bees we

know they're involved with lectures II

so what you gonna do oh that was weak

what you gonna do good okay we're gonna

put bees there all kinds of great things

about bees it's less lots of things

there now solar electricity is a

necessity okay but it's really boring

boring okay so we got to do something

with it what you gonna do good we're

gonna put it it up there solar

electricity on the space station that's

hot stuff it's cold stuff actually it's

minus 450 degrees and it's you got the

solar wind radiation coming from the Sun

blowing everything to bits porn ass is

gone what are we gonna do what kind of

chemical innovations what happen what I

see you guys got me okay that wasn't in

the script okay okay we got the

engineering innovations and we got the

physics innovations and that's why it

works

okay what else can we do we got to go to

the great

Tesla Edison Faraday and what you gonna

do okay so wait you know these guys are

so good you want to sprinkle a little

bit you want to go jump in the pool with

them so this is Marta this is some

Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower it's a

hundred and eighty feet tall it's insane

it's supposed to broadcast electricity

around the world complete bomb did not

work

why Tesla was super smart like crazy

smart what went wrong go deep right and

over here we can't do it a little bit

why go deep I'm supposed to do this too

full jump in the pool whoa my time okay

okay so obviously got these you got

these global pots get them all over the

place in different in different global

topic areas and what you do is all the

time you just go into them keep going

deep reviewing the great stuff having a

blast reviewing you know dole reviewing

is this is cool reviewing and then you

have give anyway you get the idea this

is really good for if you know challenge

based learning

it's really really good for that because

the kids are deep in so many different

areas and most real science solutions

happen because they go outside of the

box so our kids will be trained to go

outside the box then so what we've been

doing is we going we're merging the

sciences and they were going deep what

this does

it makes kids thinkers and analyzers

like waling jury instead of just

memorizes it gets we have kids have real

science - it's really fun to have a

science mind another thing is is it

prepares kids for job transitions that

they're gonna encounter later in life

because you know things change in

society right okay and then it strike

this for college you know you got the

light backbone in there inside there and

and it's like when you have a really

boring professor just like ah I can't

stand this you you have delight did you

know I can still press on because I know

what's at the end of the tunnel it

really helps with that a lot and for me

for me it gives kids the eyes to see the

wonders around them that's so incredible

gift to have that for kids for a

lifetime okay

Apple was failing and then Apple rose to

be the most powerful corporation in the

world it didn't happen because they

copied anybody else they dared to be

wildly creative they dared to do it

different it's the way they said it then

everybody else

our science will never reach his

potential as long as we're trying to

copy the world we have to be radically

different why can't we be the most

merged science country in the world why

can't we fight to the light in our

science classes like no other have ever

tried to do why can't we delight the

kids the teachers are getting killed

then they're just it's hurting it's hard

why can't we delight the teachers and

why can't we delight the parents

yuh-huhhh delight the parents how does

that figure in with the kids coming home

going mom dad look at this and they're

so excited we have the opportunity to

launch the kids and the parents on a

journey that we absolutely unforgettable

we can help bond so many beautiful ways

know people know what I'm saying is true

they know it they know it themselves but

the thing is when are we gonna get

courage to do it that's the thing

and I'm thinking of the little Wally's

and Jerry's

I'm thinking of the beloved Sam's that

have never had the chance when you're in

the class with him it's touches your

heart in a powerful way I'm thinking of

the delightful Debbie's I'm totally in

how about you

you