Note: This post appeared May 15, 2007, as “Infotainment, Chemistry, and Apostasy“. I have pulled it up through the mists of time for another go and with a few edits.

In the normal course of things I used to give school chemistry talks or demonstrations a couple of times per year and until recently, I had been giving star talks at a local observatory more frequently.  The demographic is typically K-12, with most of the audience being grades 3-8.  From my grad student days through my time in the saddle as a prof, I was deeply committed to spreading the gospel of orbitals, electronegativity, and the periodic table. I was convinced that it was important for everyone to have an appreciation of the chemical sciences.  I was a purist who knew in his bones that if only more people were “scientific”, if greater numbers of citizens had a more mechanistic understanding of the intermeshing great world systems, the world could somehow be a better place. 

In regard to this ideology that everyone should know something about chemistry, I now fear that I am apostate.  I’m a former believer.  What has changed is an updated viewpoint based on experience.  

Let me make clear what science is not. It is not a massive ivory tower that is jealously guarded ajd intended to be impenetrable by mortal folk. Big science requires big funding and organizational support, so big administrative structure forms around it. At its core, science is concerned with learning how the universe works by observation, constructing a good first guess (theory) on what is happening, measurement (conducting quantitative experiments), analysis (quantitative thinking), documentation and communication. The common understanding is that a scientist is someone who has been educated and employed to do these activities. However, anyone who conducts a study of how some phenomenon happens is doing science whether for pay or not.

What science has learned is that the universe is quite mechanistic in how it works. So much so that it can be described by or represented with math. At the fundamental level of ions, atoms and molecules, constraints exist on how systems can interact and how energy is transferred around. At the nanometer-scale, quantum mechanical theory has provided structure to the submicroscopic universe.

Chemical knowledge is highly “vertical” in its structure.  Students take foundational coursework as a prerequisite for higher level classes.  Many of the deeper insights require a good bit of background, so we start at the conceptual trailhead and work our way into the forest. But in our effort to reach out to the public, or in our effort to protect a student’s self-esteem, we compress the vertical structure into a kind of conceptual pancake.  True learning, the kind that changes your approach to life, requires Struggle.

What I found in my public outreach talks on science- chemistry or astronomy- was the public’s expectation of entertainment. Some call it “Infotainment”.  I am all in favor of presentations that are compelling, entertaining, and informative.  But in our haste to avoid boredom, we may oversimplify or skip fascinating phenomena altogether. After all, we want people to walk out the door afterwards wanting more. We want science to be accessible to everyone, but without all the study.

But I would argue that this is the wrong approach to science.  Yes, we want to answer questions.  But the better trick is to pose good questions.  The best questions lead to the best answers. People (or students) should walk out the door afterwards scratching their heads with more questions.  Science properly introduced, should cause people to start their own journey of discovery. Ideally, we want to jump-start students to follow their curiosity and integrate concepts into their thinking, not just compile a larger collection of fun facts. 

But here is the rub. A lot of folks just aren’t very curious, generally.  As they sit there in the audience, the presentation washes over them like some episode of “Friends”.  I suspect that a lack of interest in science is often just part of a larger lack of interest in novelty.  It is the lack of willingness to struggle with difficult concepts.  But that is OK.  Not everyone has to be interested in science.

Am I against public outreach efforts in science?  Absolutely not.  But the expectation that everyone will respond positively to the wonders of the universe is faulty.  It is an unrealistic expectation on the 80 % [a guess] of other students who have no interest in it. I’m always anxious to help those who are interested.  It’s critical that students interested in science find a mentor or access to opportunity.  But, please God, spare me from that bus load of 7th graders on a field trip. 

What we need more than flashier PowerPoint presentations or a more compelling software experience is lab experience.  Students need the opportunity to use their hands beyond mere tapping on keyboards- they need to fabricate or synthesize. You know, build or measure stuff. 

It is getting more difficult for kids to go into the garage and build things or tear things apart.  Electronic devices across the board are increasingly single component microelectronics.  It is ever harder to tear apart some kind of widget and figure out how it works.  When you manage to crack open the case what you find is some kind of green circuit board festooned with tiny components. 

And speaking of electronics or electricity, I find it odd that in a time when electric devices have long been everywhere in our lives, that so FEW people know even the first thing about electricity. I instruct an electrostatic safety class in industry and have discovered that so very, very few people have been exposed to the basics of electricity by graduation. I spend most of the course time covering elementary electrostatic concepts along with the fire triangle so the adult learners can hopefully recognize novel situations where static electric discharge can be expected. Of course, we engineer away electrostatic discharge hazards to the greatest extent possible. But if there is a hole, somebody will step in it. It’s best they recognize it before stepping into it.

The widespread educational emphasis on information technology rather than mechanical skills ignores the fact that most learners still need to handle things. There is a big, big world beyond the screen. A person will take advantage of their mechanical skills throughout their life, not just at work. Hands on experience is invaluable, in this case with electricity. Computer skills can almost always be acquired quickly. But understanding mechanical, electrical and chemical systems need hands-on experience.