cytherians
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This is Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova of Texas A&M University. Viral sensation and physics doctorate. Several video excerpts below.
Full video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aA0xPpJHdw
Tatiana grew up in Russia, to physics career parents, with lots of physics interested friends. She made her way to the USA where her talents took her far and high.
One of Tatiana's great personality traits is being humble. She reflected on her class of students and decided she'd find a way to captivate their interest, rather than just lecture off of a standard curriculum and be done with it.
And of course, she found that inspiring excitement and interest was even easier with children. Start small and work your way up. She's seeding future scientists by showing how science can be a rewarding journey of discovery and understanding.
Tatiana has since become a TikTok viral sensation and often gets roped into memes. So I wanted to pull things back a bit and call attention to her, who she is, and what she's all about. CBS titled her interview as "The Magic of Physics," but Tatiana is really the magical one here. If only we could have many thousands of teachers like her from grade school up through college to impart knowledge and instill the drive of discovery for knowledge's sake.
Rapbot20
Those the teachers needed and wanted...that energy that excitement is contagious kids want that
usernametakenisthestoryofmylife
"Here Stacey, you hold the butcher's knife, and Wendy, you hold the sulphuric acid, and Jimmy, you light the Bunsen burner..."
Tracendo
U S Public School Teacher here. I would LOVE TO DO ALL OF THIS. It takes money to buy all of this.
g9hvyb4cfj0
The science museum in my city does shows like this that my nephew has loved since he was 2 years old, such a great intro to science
wascallywiddlewabbit
I am so happy for Gru, she seems happier since the transition. Doesn't even need her minions.
StellaMatutina
Minions are all piling into your ma
Shewy92
This vid about the newspaper and ruler is my favorite https://youtu.be/0pJlTzz5pDw
Fiss
Physics is fun. Anyone who's ever watch boobies jiggle already know that.
uziel144
And then it's all fuckin' maths at university.
huuuhhhfffhhhhfffffhuhhhhhhhhhhhfff
bgeezus
Physics teachers are the best scientists. It's all about fucking around to find out.
MyCatsNameIsPotato
Went to A&M ‘13, had a delightful physics prof as well. Not her, but an older goofy German. He couldn’t figure out the projector most days. I did well in lab, but not great on tests. I’d draw out the equations and get like halfway to solving but couldn’t quite complete it. He’d still give me partial credit for “understanding” and the new physics building is very nice! I guess not new anymore, but it was then!!
psstuphere
And you know there is a few kids sitting there thinking "Why the fake euphoria, I can't stand this"
Gerbergerflerberhgher
OK if the Avengers dont sign her up there's something wrong!
loowitslair
This is now illegal under Elon (and Trump, maybe Vance).
hell0
I get a real Ms.Frizzle vibe from her.
amp99
cytherians
It's such a phenomenally instructive way to demonstrate what inertia is all about. 🧑🎓
aslum
It's not fucking magic, it's science.
FlyingButtPliers
Learning is AWESOME! And they are trying to get rid of the department of education?
glovelyday
Every toddler is junior physicist. Does it always fall? Why do balls Roll? Will it break if I drop it? The trick is nurture and expand that natural curiosity.
Level1NPC
My high school physics teacher: "We can spend all year reading dull textbooks or we can play with toys and learn the same things you'd be reading about. I know which one I'd prefer."
AdorkableFembi
Its true of most subjects Id say. Practical teating of theory sticks more, is more engaging and more fun than reading a textbook that says all the answers already.
Technically you could learn it all without ever doing a single practical experiment, itll ger boring and your knowledge'll be incomplete though.
nemocares
I was a physics teacher for a few years. Keeping demonstrations decently fun and interesting isn't terribly hard. Drag out the van der Graff generator and the hard part is getting the kids to leave after class. I suspect it gets even better if you have an actual budget to spend. But knowledge in decent depth for a teenager here tends to mean functions and calculations. Keeping the kids' attention and motivation when you get to that part, well, that's where it starts getting tricky.
TheFastpaws
The right teacher can make or break something for a student for life.
DJThuglifeSupreme
Naramumu
I totally forgot but I think there's another popular science Professor who quits her university and became full time YouTuber, but now she promotes some weird conspiracies or something. She sounds like her. I hope I'm wrong.
cdspace
She needs a show like Nye and Mr Wizard. Keep the young kids engaged and enthralled with science.
Redoneter593
The best teachers try to connect with their students and try to make what they're trying to teach interesting and engaging. Because if the students themselves have no personal motivation to learn the material, they're not going to retain nearly as much, let alone desire to learn more.
HistoricalContext
It's why it breaks my heart when I hear people say that history is boring. It's FASCINATING, you just had terrible teachers.
Redoneter593
It can certainly be quite interesting to see the connections of things that lead to a certain event, but for that desire to know/learn more, the student has be invested enough in the to be willing to do the research.
Such an example unfortunately often only occurs when it just happens to coincide with something else they really enjoy, such as a video game based on and taking heavy elements from the events of a specific point in time, and even then it's usually only mild to moderate interest.
Poppypoppoppop
"When you realize it is important to connect with your students" then every Uni math teachers ever: "keep up or die, bitch"
sleete
Don't gotta make it fun, it is fun.
Luxweaver
It's Phun.
cytherians
Yes, it is... but all a matter of perspective. And what Tatiana does is shift the perspectives of students from dreading something they are prejudiced about as being boring and help them learn to see how it's actually not so dull. Fun even. 😏
laserfrog
Some schools compete to see which can make it the most miserable.
edlvice
It’s all in the delivery
FallingStar7669
But you do have to show them that it's fun. Not everyone is good at that.
Tengenstein
It's not all fun though. Counting colonies ain't fun and my kid the stench if some of them....
AllTheGoodOnesWereGone
Except High School physics with blocks sliding on inclined planes. I feel like we should drop the basic dull mathy physics and teach "intro to science" that does the fun exposure to all the amazing, advanced parts of physics (and the other sciences. Like give kids the NOVA episode on it not the math that feels like you'll never have a use for it. Turns kids off.
InkGoat
I do, in fact, teach a class like this for college sophomores in non-science majors. It's basically six different 5th-grade level science classes in a single semester. Most of the students say it's fu n.
TheUglyGuy
Cool, but making science fun is not nearly as important as instilling a love of learning and truth. Science is the frosting on the cake.
StellaMatutina
Define truth? Is truth ontologically subjective? Or transcendental? Are you 6 feet tall? Or two meters? Thats a lot of work to learn multiple perspectives. Most people are out here chasing love. (Soft sciences matter too)
onepinksheep
Making science fun is how you instill a love of learning.
stonecoldstevebuschemi
Start small and Foster the hobbies and interests of a child. From there, radiate into the questioning and curiosity. And from there radiate out into the science and hard math of it all. But it's that initial curiosity that sparks the intelligence and the growth for a pursuit of knowledge.
ulfgarBentbeak
What else do you think is happening here? Science education is an excellent medium for instilling that love in young kids. It's in the sciences where we can show the greatest revelation to the younger generation, where the unexpected happens and knowledge can show it's power. It's particularly helpful in that it doesn't take skill. You could instill a love of learning with art, but would be hampered by the talent/skill of the participants.
beyondtheutmostboundsofhumanthought
I bet you’re fun at parties.
crateo
Hey, "fun" is merely a chemical reaction in the brain caused by dopamine. We need an objective and deterministic approach to this "fun" you are talking about.