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SKEPTOID BLOG:

i.am FIRST and Popularizing Science

by Brian Dunning

August 15, 2011

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Donate This evening my kids and I watchedi.am FIRST-- Science is Rock and Roll. It was a special telecast of Dean Kamen's annual FIRSTrobotics competition for kids, augmented with the contributions of rapper will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, who also works with Intel as a "director of creative innovation" to help identify their technologies with a youthful pop audience. Embedded throughout the broadcast was a whole host of pop music acts, including Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.

First of all, I want to be clear that I give full, mad props to Dean Kamen and to will.i.am. Dean's commitment to science and science education is well established in history, and though I hadn't heard of will.i.am before the show, I did some Googling and became satisfied that his commitment is real too. He appears to be genuinely interested in science and in helping kids to become excited about it, for the betterment of mankind. That these two guys were able to get a primetime special on TV is a great thing for everyone.

Obviously, here comes the big "but". I've invested a lot of time and moneyin trying, without a lot of success so far, to make science and skepticism commercial; trying to find the intersection between what consumers will want and what benefits their brains. The i.am FIRST show has exactly the right motivation and the right idea, and I am doing the cheerleading macarena on tabletop in support of Dean and will.i.am (for whatever value that brings).

I would have made the show differently. i.am FIRST tried to address the problem of commercial appeal by shoehorning Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and a dozen other pop stars into something they've got nothing to do with. I'm sure there are some kids somewhere who watched the show because of those acts. But did they really come away as enriched and excited about science as they could have?

Really, the robotics competition was a Trojan Horse cargo for a Justin Bieber & Miley Cyrus broadcast. Anyone who tuned in for the music probably fast forwarded through the robots.

The students who got 30-second profiles were generally those wearing crazy costumes, colored wigs, or busting out some kind of robot rap. The producers probably hoped that goofy behavior would appeal to kids, and trick them into watching a robot competition.

I think all of those strategies are wrong.

First, it's worthy of repetition that Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, et. al. have nothing to do with science or robots. However, there are plenty of people out there who do have something to do with science, who are equally entertaining for the kids, and who bring something relevant to the table (such as credibility). Adam Savage and the whole Mythbusters crew, Phil Plait from Bad Universe, Brian Cox from Wonders of the Universe,Bill Nye the Science Guy, Neil Degrasse Tyson, etc. etc. This is not a short list. These are people who (a) are at least as entertaining for kids as Justin Bieber, and (b) are actually believable when they encourage kids to be excited about science.

It's insulting to a young audience to show the team with the crazy wig vs. the team with the goofy costume, and then show which robot wins. Instead, have each team give us a 15-second description of one specific strategy or advantage that their robot has, and then show the contest. Wig vs. costume does not show a kid what's cool about science, but algorithm vs. algorithm does.

Instead of having a student spokesman speak directly to the student audience about what's interesting about their particular robot contestant, i.am FIRST gave a brief Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus performance. Kids don't identify with pop stars doing their act, but they do identify with other kids, the same age, showing-and-telling what they just built.

In summary, if I were to remake this show, I'd replace all the irrelevant pop stars with equally fun spokesmen who are actually in the field, drop all goofy wigs and costumes on the cutting room floor, and show why nerds will conquer the world: because they can think the problems through. i.am FIRST was devoid of all thought.

I conclude by expressing that I'm glad to have will.i.am as an ally to all of us who promote science education. I look forward to whatever his next project will be.

by Brian Dunning

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