Jake Roper: Hello.
I am Jake Roper from VSauce and I'm fortunate
enough to be here with Bill Nye The Science
Guy.
And we are here because of 92nd Street Y's
7 Days of Genius in collaboration with Big
Think.
Thank you for being here.
Bill Nye: Oh no it is I who must thank you.
It's great to be here.
Jake Roper: How do you see yourself bringing
out genius in youth, in kids because you've
done that for so long?
Bill Nye: Really?
Jake Roper: I think so.
I grew up with you and look at me now.
Here I am.
Bill Nye: A genius.
No, well, you want people to try stuff.
You want people to not be afraid to experiment.
And so I always say about science education
is it's empowering.
When you learn about the world around you,
you learn about nature and then have you fit
in, you'll try things.
And I think that's really – it's kind of
how we got YouTube and Big Think and the Internet
is people just trying stuff.
Jake Roper: Yeah.
Because we're all just, I think, as human
beings just inherently curious.
We want to find out…
Bill Nye: Oh I claim, I'll claim Jake that
our ancestors who were not curious never became
our ancestors.
They got eliminated.
Human curiosity is how you discover things
and that's how we innovate.
That's what keeps humans in the game.
I mean look, we live all over the world.
We're in Manhattan.
I know this is airing in March, was a cold
winter.
Several days you wouldn't want to be outside
without some clothing and so that all comes
from being able to wander because you had
the equipment to try it.
Jake Roper: And do you think at any point
that maybe our curiosity has dwindled a little
bit?
Bill Nye: Well, this is everybody's concern
in science education.
“If we can put a man on the moon, why can't
we whatever it is?
Why can't we address climate change?”
Most of the patents that are issued are issued
to people under 26 years old.
Innovation comes especially when you're young.
I mean the other half are people over 26,
but it's an important thing to get people
excited about science and feeling that they
can create before they're older.
Jake Roper: So when it comes to informing
and educating kids, do you think there is
a divide between discipline and play?
Can they kind of go together?
Bill Nye: Well, you want the right balance.
It's the same old thing.
Let me tell you, you cannot teach elementary
school without recess.
I'm not kidding.
You ask any elementary school teacher if you
take away recess thinking you're saving money
as a school board member or whatever it is,
you're messing up.
No, kids have to have recess.
And so what you want is this balance between
creative time, working on a project, and the
discipline of learning things that you have
to know.
Like it would be really hard in our society
to never learn the alphabet.
To insist that the alphabet – I never really
learned that; it's just wrote memorization.
I mean you might be able to do it but it would
be really hard.
And the example I always give you for the
difference between just trying things and
discipline, three words, algebra.
Wait, that's one word.
Algebra.
So algebra is the single most reliable indicator
of whether or not you'll pursue a career in
math and science.
This is to say it is not clear that it is
cause and effect.
It's not clear that algebra causes you to
accept science as a career or embrace science
as a career.
But apparently, and this is people speculate
this, papers are written, neuroscientist go
crazy for this, thinking abstractly about
numbers with letters, let's say, helps you
think abstractly about all sorts of things.
And to all of you out there who are trying
to learn algebra, you have to practice.
I'm sorry man.
I did too.
I mean I was pretty good at it; I was not
the worlds best.
I'm sorry, when it comes to math you've got
to practice.
You have to memorize the alphabet.
I'm sorry people it's just how it is.
That's the balance you want.
And what I think makes a good instructor,
a good educator, a good teacher is somebody
who has a sense of when to let kids mess around
and when to have them buckle down.
Easy for me to say.
Jake Roper: Well, it's a good point because
an interesting thing with specifically algebra,
even with just with a lot of the sciences,
that it's a physical thing; you're physically
doing things.
Be it typing numbers into a calculator like
writing things down or grabbing a compass
out, like you're actually…
Bill Nye: Using your brain and your hand.
Jake Roper: Using your brain and your hands.
So when you go with practice it is kind of
like learning the violin or playing a sport.
It's that you need to rehearse.
Bill Nye: You have to practice and practice.
And you have to accept as a student and a
teacher and a parent that there's just times
where you have to buckle down and practice.
And there's other times where you have to
mess around.
You have to just try things.
And that's really what has, this is my interpretation,
what has kept the United States in the game
is the education in the United States still,
especially at the top levels, still has this
combination of learning the facts and just
jump in and try it.
And we don't want to lose that.
Nobody in the world wants the U.S. to lose
that by the way.
