Science is for everyone kids included Beau Lotto and Amy OToole
so this game is very simple all you have
to do is read what you see right so I’m
gonna count you so we do it all - it all
do it together
okay one two three amazing what about
this one one two three all right one two
three
if you were Portuguese right how about
this one one two three what are you
reading there are no words there I said
read what you’re seeing right literary
says what are eaten right that’s what
you should have said right why is this
is because perception is grounded in our
experience right the brain takes
meaningless information and makes
meaning out of it which means we never
see what’s there
we never see information we only ever
see what was useful to see in the past
right which means when it comes to
perception were all like this frog right
it’s getting information it’s general
behavior that’s useful
Oh
and sometimes when things don’t go our
way we get a little bit annoyed right
but we’re talking about perception here
right and perception underpins
everything we think we know we believe
our hopes our dreams the clothes we wear
falling in love everything begins with
perception
now if perception is grounded in our
history it means we’re only ever
responding according to what we’ve done
before but that creates a tremendous
problem because how can we ever see
differently now I want to tell you a
story about seeing differently and all
new perceptions begin in the same way
they begin with a question
the problem with questions is they
create uncertainty now uncertainty is a
very bad thing it’s evolutionary a bad
thing if you’re not sure that’s a
predator it’s too late ok even
seasickness is a consequence of
uncertainty right if you go down below
in a boat your inner ears are telling
you’re removing your eyes because it’s
moving in register with the boat say I’m
standing still your brain cannot deal
with the uncertainty of that information
and it gets ill the question why is one
of the most dangerous things you can do
because it takes you into uncertainty
and yet the iron is the only way we can
ever do anything new is to step into
that space so how can we ever do
anything new well fortunately evolution
is given us an answer right and it
enables us to address even the most
difficult of questions the best
questions are the ones that create the
most uncertainty they’re the ones that
question the things we think to be true
already right it’s easy to ask questions
about how did life begin or what extends
beyond the universe but the question
what you think to be true already is
really stepping into that space so what
is evolutions answer to the problem of
uncertainty it’s playing now play is not
simply a process experts until in play
will tell you that actually it’s a way
of being play is one of the only human
endeavors where uncertainty is actually
celebrated uncertainty is what makes
play fun right it’s adaptable to change
right it opens possibility
and it’s cooperative it’s actually how
we do our social bonding and it’s
intrinsically motivated what that means
is that we play to play plays its own
reward now if you look at these five
ways of being these are the exact same
ways of being you need in order to be a
good scientist science is not defined by
the method section of a paper it’s
actually a way of being which is here
and this is true for anything that is
creative so if you add rules to play you
have a game that’s actually what an
experiment is so armed with these two
ideas that science is a way of being and
experiments are play we asked can anyone
become a scientist and who better to ask
than twenty-five eight to ten year old
children because they’re experts in play
so I took my be arena down to a small
school in Devon and the aim of this was
to not just get the kids to see science
differently but through the process of
science to see themselves differently
right
the first step was to ask a question now
I should say that we didn’t get funding
for this study because that scientist
said small children could make a useful
contribution to science and the teacher
said kids couldn’t do it so we did it
anyway right of course so here are some
of the questions I put them in small
print so you wouldn’t bother reading it
point is that five of the questions that
the kids came up with were actually the
basis of science publication the last
five to 15 years right so they were
asking questions that were significant
to expert scientists now here I want to
share the stage with someone quite
special right she was one of the young
people was involved in a study and she’s
now one of the youngest published
scientists in the world right she will
now once she comes onto stage will be
the youngest person to ever speak at Ted
right now science and asking questions
about courage now she is the
personification of courage because she’s
going to stand up here and talk to you
all so Amy would you please come up
so Amy’s going to help me tell the story
of what we call the black cotton bees
project and first he’s going to tell you
the question that they came up with so
go ahead Amy thank you babe we thought
that was easy to see the link between
humans and apes in the way that we think
because we look like but we wondered if
there’s a possible link with other
animals it’d be amazing
if humans and bees thought similar since
they seem so different from us so we
asked if humans of bees might sell
complex problems in the same way really
we want to know if bees can also adapt
themselves to new situations using
previous learn rules and conditions so
what if bees can think like us well it’d
be amazing since we’re talking about
insects with only one million brain
cells but actually makes a lot of sense
they should because bees like us can
recognize a good foul regardless of the
time of day the light the weather or
from any angle approaching from so next
step was to design an experiment which
is a game so the kids went off and they
designed this experiment and so that
will game and so Amy can you tell us
what the game was in the puzzle that you
set the bees the puzzle we came up with
was an if-then will we has to be someone
not just to go to a certain color but to
a certain color flower only when it’s in
a certain pattern there were only
rewarded if they went to the yellow
flowers if the yellow flowers were
surrounded by the blue or if the blue
flowers were surrounded by the yellow
now there’s a number of different rules
the basic allowance of the suppose o the
interesting question is which what was
really exciting about this project was
we and though had no idea whether it was
work it was completely new and no one
had done it before including adults
including the teachers and that was
really hard for the teachers it’s easy
for a scientist scoring and not have a
clue what he’s doing because that’s what
we do in the lab but for a teacher not
to know what’s gonna happen at the end
of the day so much of the credit goes to
Dave Strudwick who is the collaborator
on this project okay so I’m not going to
go through the whole details of the
study because actually you can read it
read about it but the next step is
observation so here are some of the
students doing the observations they’re
recording the data of where the bees fly
can you help what good scientist says
that right right so we’ve got our
observations we’ve got our data they do
the simple mathematics averaging etc etc
and now we want to share that’s the next
step so we’re going to write this up and
try to submit this for publication right
so we have to write it up so we go of
course to the pub all right the one on
the left is mine okay now I tell them a
paper has four different sections and
introduction of methods a results a
discussion the introduction says what’s
the question and why methods what did
you do
results what was an observation and the
discussion is who cares right that’s a
science paper basically so the kids give
me the words right I put it into a
narrative which means that this paper is
written in kids speak it’s not run by me
is written by Amy and the other students
in the class as a consequence this
science paper begins once upon a time
the results section it says training
phase the puzzle done done right and the
methods it says then we put the B’s into
the fridge and maybe pie smiley face
right this is a science paper we’re
gonna try to get it published so here’s
the title page we have a number of
authors they’re all the ones in bold are
eight to ten years old the first author
is blackout in primary school because
the forever reference it would be black
Walton at all and not one individual so
we submit it to a public access journal
and it says this it said many things but
it said this I’m afraid the paper fails
our initial quality control checks in
several different ways in other words
this starts off west by the time the
figures in crayon etc so we decided
we’ll get it reviewed so I send it to
Bill Purvis who is the National Academy
of Science when a leading neuroscientist
in the world and he says this is the
most original scientific paper I’ve ever
read and it certainly deserves wide
exposure Larry and Milani
experts in vision says the papers
magnificent the work would be
publishable if done by adults so what do
we do we send it back to the editor they
say no so we asked Larry and Natalie to
hempel to write a commentary situating
the findings for scientists right
putting in the references and we submit
it to biology letters and there it was
reviewed by five independent referees
and it was published
it took four months to do the science
two years to get it published typical
science actually right so this makes Amy
and her friends the youngest published
scientists in the world what was the
feedback like well it was published two
days before Christmas downloaded 30,000
times in the first day right it was
editor’s choice in science which is a
top science magazine it’s forever freely
accessible by biology versus only paper
that will ever be freely accessible by
this journal last year was the second
most downloaded paper by Biology Letters
and the feedback from not just
scientists and teachers but the public
as well and I’ll just read one I have
red black cotton bees recently I don’t
have words to explain exactly how I’m
feeling right now what you guys have
done is real true and amazing curiosity
interests innocence and zeal are the
most basic most important things to do
science who else can have these
qualities more than children please
congratulate your children’s team from
my side so I’d like to conclude with a
physical metaphor can I do it on you
okay okay now science is about taking
risks and this is a credible risk right
for me not for him right because we’ve
only done this once before
and you like technology right alright so
this is the this is a pity me of
Technology right okay
no okay
now we’re gonna do a little
demonstration right you have to close
your eyes and you have to point where
you hear me clapping alright okay how
about if everyone over there shouts one
two three billion now open your eyes
we’ll do it one more time everyone over
there shout where is the sound coming
from
thank you very much
what’s the point the point is what
science does for us right
we normally walk through life responding
but if we ever want to do anything
differently has to step into uncertainty
when he opened his eyes he was able to
see the world in a new way that’s what
science offers us it offers the
possibility to step on uncertainty
through the process of play right now
true science education I think should be
about giving people a voice and enabling
to express that voice so I’ve asked Amy
to be the last voice in this short story
so Amy this project was really exciting
for me because it brought the process of
discovery to life they show me that
anyone and I mean anyone has a potential
to discover something new and that a
small question Kaleem into a big
discovery change in a way a person
thinks about something can be easy or
hard there all depends on the way the
person feels about change it changes way
I thought about science was surprisingly
easy once you’ve played the games and
then started to think about the puzzle I
then realized that science isn’t just a
boring subject and that anyone can
discover something new you just need the
opportunity my opportunity came in the
form of both and the black ottenby
project