Science is for everyone, kids included - Beau Lotto and Amy O'Toole
Summary
TLDRThe video highlights how perception is shaped by past experiences and explores the importance of play in scientific discovery. A speaker emphasizes that stepping into uncertainty is key to seeing the world differently and that play fosters creativity, adaptability, and collaboration. The story showcases a project where children designed a scientific experiment involving bees, leading to a groundbreaking publication. Through this process, the children learned that anyone, regardless of age, can contribute to science and make new discoveries. The talk emphasizes the value of curiosity, play, and embracing uncertainty.
Takeaways
- 😀 The brain creates meaning from meaningless information based on past experiences, leading to perception biases.
- 🤔 Perception influences everything we do, but it’s often shaped by our history, limiting our ability to see things differently.
- ❓ New perceptions start with questions, but asking questions can create uncertainty, which is uncomfortable for the brain.
- 🎮 Play is an evolutionary tool that helps humans embrace uncertainty and adapt to new situations through exploration and creativity.
- 👩🔬 Science is a way of being, similar to play, where curiosity and uncertainty are celebrated, fostering creativity and discovery.
- 👧 Children, as experts in play, can be valuable contributors to scientific inquiry, as demonstrated by the Blackawton Bees project.
- 🐝 The project explored whether bees could solve complex problems using if-then rules, similar to human problem-solving approaches.
- 🧠 The project was groundbreaking, as neither the children nor the adults knew if it would work, creating a sense of genuine discovery.
- 📚 The children’s paper on their bee experiment was initially rejected for its informal tone, but later gained recognition and was published in a scientific journal.
- 🌟 The Blackawton Bees project proved that anyone, even children, can contribute to science if given the opportunity to explore and question.
Q & A
Question 1: What is the main theme of the video script?
-The main theme of the video script is perception and how our understanding of the world is shaped by our past experiences, which limits our ability to see things differently. It also explores the importance of play and experimentation in discovering new perspectives and ideas.
Question 2: How does perception influence our understanding of the world according to the speaker?
-Perception is grounded in our previous experiences, meaning we interpret the world based on what has been useful to us in the past. This limits our ability to see new things or possibilities, as we are conditioned to view the world in familiar ways.
Question 3: Why is asking 'why' considered a dangerous question?
-Asking 'why' is dangerous because it creates uncertainty, which is evolutionarily bad. For example, if someone is unsure whether something is a predator, hesitation can result in danger. However, this uncertainty is also necessary for exploring new ideas and discoveries.
Question 4: What role does play have in addressing uncertainty?
-Play is a way of being that embraces uncertainty, making it enjoyable and adaptable to change. It fosters creativity, cooperation, and exploration, which are essential for scientific discovery and innovation.
Question 5: How did the children in the video contribute to science?
-The children contributed to science by designing an experiment to see if bees could solve complex problems using learned rules. Their question and experiment led to the publication of a scientific paper, showing that even children can make meaningful contributions to scientific research.
Question 6: What was the core question of the children's experiment?
-The core question was whether bees, despite their small brain size, could solve complex problems in a manner similar to humans by adapting to new situations based on previous rules and conditions.
Question 7: How did the scientific paper written by the children get published?
-The paper, initially written in 'kid speak' and structured like a traditional scientific paper, faced rejection from a journal. However, after receiving praise from notable scientists and having a commentary written by experts, it was eventually published in Biology Letters.
Question 8: What challenges did the teachers face during the experiment?
-The teachers struggled with the uncertainty of the experiment's outcome, as it was difficult for them to operate without knowing the end result. Scientists, on the other hand, are more accustomed to dealing with uncertainty in the lab.
Question 9: What message does the speaker want to convey about science education?
-The speakerwants to convey that true science education should empower individuals by giving them the opportunity to discover and express new ideas. It is about fostering curiosity, play, and creativity, rather than just teaching facts or rigid methods.
Question 10: How did the children’s involvement in the experiment change their view of science?
-The children, especially Amy, realized that science is not a boring subject but a dynamic process of discovery. By participating in the experiment, they understood that anyone, including children, can contribute to scientific discoveries given the right opportunity.
Outlines
🎮 Understanding Perception Through Play
The speaker introduces the concept of perception and explains how it is shaped by experience. He uses a playful demonstration, where participants are asked to 'read what they see,' showing that we interpret information based on what has been useful in the past. Perception is grounded in our history and influences everything from falling in love to solving problems. The speaker highlights how our brain processes meaningless data into meaningful insights, but questions how we can see things differently if we only rely on past experiences.
❓ The Power of Asking Questions
The speaker explains that new perceptions and discoveries start with asking questions, but that questions lead to uncertainty, which is often avoided because it can be uncomfortable. He describes uncertainty as an evolutionary problem—facing uncertainty could be dangerous in survival situations. Despite this, the speaker emphasizes that stepping into uncertainty is the only way to make new discoveries. He introduces the idea that play offers a solution to this uncertainty, celebrating unpredictability and encouraging adaptability, cooperation, and creativity.
🐝 The Bee Experiment: Science Through Play
The speaker recounts a project where children used play to engage in scientific discovery. He describes taking a group of children to conduct an experiment with bees to challenge the belief that children cannot make meaningful scientific contributions. The children designed an experiment to see if bees could solve complex problems by learning patterns. This playful, game-like experiment allowed the children to step into uncertainty and discover new things, showing that science is a process of exploration and experimentation rather than following strict methods.
📜 Publishing the Paper: Overcoming Rejection
The speaker describes the challenge of getting the children's bee experiment published. Although initially rejected for not meeting formal standards (due to its child-like narrative and illustrations), the paper received praise from leading scientists for its originality. After revisions and a commentary to provide context, the paper was accepted by a scientific journal, making the children some of the youngest published scientists in the world. This story highlights the challenges and persistence required in scientific publishing, even when the work is innovative.
🎉 Success and Recognition for Young Scientists
The children's experiment was widely recognized and downloaded thousands of times after publication, garnering praise from scientists and the public alike. The speaker shares feedback from readers who were inspired by the children's curiosity and enthusiasm for science. He emphasizes the importance of encouraging children's natural inquisitiveness and giving them the opportunity to participate in discovery. The story concludes with a live demonstration of how science allows us to see the world differently and opens the door to new ways of thinking.
👩🔬 Final Thoughts: Science as Play and Discovery
Amy, one of the young scientists, shares her experience of participating in the bee experiment. She explains how the process changed her view of science from a boring subject to an exciting opportunity for discovery. She emphasizes that anyone, regardless of age, can make new discoveries if given the chance to explore and ask questions. The speaker wraps up the talk by reiterating that science, like play, is about embracing uncertainty, creativity, and possibility. The project gave the children a voice and the chance to see themselves as scientists.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Perception
💡Uncertainty
💡Play
💡Science
💡Experiment
💡Bee puzzle
💡Curiosity
💡Courage
💡Discovery
💡Publication
Highlights
The brain makes meaning out of meaningless information, showing how perception is shaped by past experiences.
Perception underpins everything we believe, including thoughts, hopes, dreams, and even love.
Perception is grounded in history, which creates a challenge for seeing things differently.
All new perceptions begin with a question, and asking questions leads to uncertainty, which can be uncomfortable.
Uncertainty is essential for new discoveries, and play is a key way to embrace uncertainty.
Play fosters adaptability, opens possibilities, encourages cooperation, and is intrinsically motivated, which makes it key to scientific exploration.
Science is not just a method but a way of being, with curiosity and questioning at its core.
Children can contribute meaningfully to science, as demonstrated by 8-10 year-old students generating significant scientific questions.
A student-led experiment involved bees learning complex rules, which raised important questions about problem-solving in animals.
Children designed an experiment based on 'if-then' rules for bees, which had never been done before.
The children's paper was rejected for not meeting 'quality control,' but experts hailed it as groundbreaking and innovative.
Despite the rejection, the paper was eventually published and became one of the most downloaded and widely read papers in its journal.
The project showed that science is about taking risks and stepping into uncertainty to discover new perspectives.
The young scientist, Amy, shared how the project changed her view of science, showing it could be accessible, fun, and for everyone.
The story highlights that anyone, even children, has the potential to make groundbreaking discoveries if given the right opportunity.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
so this game is very simple all you have
to do is read what you see right so I'm
going to count you so we don't all do
all do it together okay 1 two
3 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 it literally says what
read right that's what you should have
said right why is this it's 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 we're
all like this
frog right is getting information is
General Behavior that's useful
[Applause]
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
where 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 un un certainty 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
okay even seasickness is a consequence
of uncertainty right if you go down
below in a boat your inner ears are
telling you you're moving your eyes
because it's moving in register with a
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 irony 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 has 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 to be on the
universe but to question what you think
to be true already is really stepping
into that space so what is Evolution's
answer to the problem of
uncertainty it's
Play now play is not simply a process
experts in 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 play
is 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 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 25 8 to 10 year old children
because they're experts in play so I
took my B 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 the
scientist said small children could make
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
public the last 5 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 who was involved in
this 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 she's going to stand up
here and talk to you all so Amy would
you please come
[Applause]
[Music]
up so Amy's going to help me tell the
story of what we call the black OT bees
project and first she's going to tell
you the question that they came up with
so go ahead Amy thank you B we thought
that it was easy to see the link between
humans and apes in the way that we think
because we look alike 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
and bees might solve 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' be amazing since we're
talking about insect with only 1 million
brain cells but actually makes a lot of
sense they should because bees like us
can recognize a good F regardless of the
time of day the light the weather or
from any angle it approached it
from so the next step was to design an
experiment which is a game so the kids
went off and they designed this
experiment and so the well 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
rule we ased bees can learn not just to
go to a certain color but to a certain
color flower only when it's in a certain
pattern they 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 bees can learn to
solve this puzzle the interesting
question is which what was really
exciting about this project was we and
Bo had no idea where 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 go 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 going to 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 she's finishing off
that so what we're going to do is she
still going up here
yeah so you keep keep track M can you
help me Henry can you help me Henry what
good scientist says that right there
[Music]
right so we've got our observations
we've got our data they do the simple uh
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 told them a paper has four
different sections an 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 written
by me it's written by Amy and the other
students in the class as a consequence
the science paper begins Once Upon a
Time the results section it says
training phase the puzzle d da right and
the methods it says then we put the bees
into the fridge and made be pie smiley
face right this is a science paper we're
going to try to get it published so
here's the title page we have a number
of authors there all the ones in bold
are 8 to 10 years old the first author
is blackon primary school because if it
were ever referenced it would be blackon
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 are
inial quality control checks in several
different ways in other words it starts
off Once Upon a Time the figures in
crayon Etc so we decid we'll get it
reviewed so I send it to Dale pervis who
is a National Academy of Science one of
the leading neuroscientists in the world
and he says this is the most original
scientific paper I've ever read and it
certainly deserves wide exposure Larry
Maloney expert in Vision says the paper
is Magnificent the work would be
publishable if done by
adults so what do we do we send it back
to to the editor they say no so we asked
Larry and Natalie de hemple 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
okay it took four months to do the
science two years years to get it
published typical science actually right
so this makes Amy and her friends the
youngest published scientist 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 the editor's choice in
science which is a top Science magazine
it's forever freely accessible by biolog
is the 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 read black a 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
interest innocence and Zeal are the most
basic most important things to do
science who else can have these quali
more than children please congratulate
your children's team from my side so I'd
like to include with a physical
metaphor can I do it on
you okay yeah yeah come on yeah yeah
okay now science is about taking risks
so this is incredible
risk right for me not for him right
because we've only done this once
before and you like technology right all
right so this is the this is this is the
epitome of Technology right okay now
okay now we're going to do a little
demonstration right you have to close
your eyes and you have to point where
you hear me clapping all
right okay how about if everyone over
there shouts one two three
[Applause]
brilliant now open your eyes we'll do it
one more time everyone over there
shout where's 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 different we
have 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 and it show me that
anyone and I mean anyone has the
potential to discover something new and
that a small question can lead into a
big Discovery changing the way a person
thinks about something can be easy or
hard it all depends on the way the
person feels about change but changeing
the way I thought about science was
surprisingly easy once we played the
games and then started to think about
the puzzle I then realized that science
isn't just a boring subject and then
that anyone can discover something new
you just need an opportunity my
opportunity came in the form of bow and
the black aut B project thank you thank
you very much
[Music]
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