Let me tell you a story.
Da vam ispričam jednu priču.
It's my first year as a new high school science teacher, and I'm so eager. I'm so excited, I'm pouring myself into my lesson plans. But I'm slowly coming to this horrifying realization that my students just might not be learning anything.
Prve godine kada sam počeo da predajem nauku u srednjoj školi, bio sam veoma revnostan. Uzbuđen sam, uživeo sam se u pravljenje nastavnog plana. Ali polako, na moj užas, shvatam da moji učenici možda ipak ništa ne uče.
This happens one day: I'd just assigned my class to read this textbook chapter about my favorite subject in all of biology: viruses and how they attack. And so I'm so excited to discuss this with them, and I come in and I say, "Can somebody please explain the main ideas and why this is so cool?"
Ovo se dogodilo jednog dana: zadao sam svom odeljenju da pročitaju jedno poglavlje iz udžbenika o mojoj omiljenoj temi iz cele biologije: o virusima i kako napadaju. I bio sam uzbuđen da razgovaram sa njima o tome, ušao sam i pitao: "Da li može neko da objasni glavne ideje i zašto je ovo toliko super?"
There's silence. Finally, my favorite student, she looks me straight in the eye, and she says, "The reading sucked."
Tišina. Na kraju, moja omiljena učenica me je pogledala pravo u oči, i rekla: "Čitanje je baš bilo trulo".
(Laughter)
A onda je pojasnila. Rekla je: "Znate šta,
And then she clarified. She said, "You know what, I don't mean that it sucks. I mean I didn't understand a word of it. It's boring, who cares, and it sucks."
ne mislim da je trulo. Mislim da nisam ništa shvatila. Dosadno je. Koga briga za to i trulo je".
(Laughter)
Osmesi razumevanja
These sympathetic smiles spread all throughout the room now, and I realize that all of my other students are in the same boat, that maybe they took notes or memorized definitions from the textbook, but not one of them really understood the main ideas. Not one of them can tell me why this stuff is so cool, why it's so important.
su se onda proširili po celoj učionici i shvatio sam da su svi ostali đaci bili u istoj situaciji, možda su hvatali beleške ili memorisali definicije iz udžbenika, ali niko od njih nije shvatio glavne ideje. Niko od njih nije umeo da mi kaže zašto je to tako super, zašto je tako važno.
I'm totally clueless. I have no idea what to do next. So the only thing I can think of is say, "Listen. Let me tell you a story. The main characters in the story are bacteria and viruses. These guys are blown up a couple million times. The real bacteria and viruses are so small we can't see them without a microscope, and you guys might know bacteria and viruses because they both make us sick. But what a lot of people don't know is that viruses can also make bacteria sick."
Ništa mi nije bilo jasno. Nisam znao šta dalje da radim. Jedino što mi je palo na pamet da kažem bilo je: "Slušajte. Hajde da vam ispričam priču. Glavni likovi u ovoj priči su bakterije i virusi. Ovi likovi su uvećani nekoliko miliona puta. Stvarne bakterije i virusi su tako mali da ih ne možemo videti bez mikroskopa, možda znate za bakterije i viruse jer se od njih razbolite. Ali mnogi ljudi ne znaju da virusi takođe mogu da razbole bakterije."
Now, the story that I start telling my kids, it starts out like a horror story. Once upon a time, there's this happy little bacterium. Don't get too attached to him.
Sada, priča koju pričam svojoj deci, počinje kao horor. Nekada davno živela je mala, srećna bakterija. Nemojte previše da je zavolite.
(Laughter)
Možda pluta po vašem stomaku
Maybe he's floating around in your stomach or in some spoiled food somewhere, and all of a sudden, he starts to not feel so good. Maybe he ate something bad for lunch. And then things get really horrible, as his skin rips apart, and he sees a virus coming out from his insides. And then it gets horrible when he bursts open and an army of viruses floods out from his insides. "Ouch" is right. If you see this, and you're a bacterium, this is like your worst nightmare. But if you're a virus and you see this, you cross those little legs of yours and you think, "We rock." Because it took a lot of crafty work to infect this bacterium. Here's what had to happen. A virus grabbed onto a bacterium and it slipped its DNA into it. The next thing is that virus DNA made stuff that chopped up the bacteria DNA. And now that we've gotten rid of the bacteria DNA, the virus DNA takes control of the cell and it tells it to start making more viruses. Because, you see, DNA is like a blueprint that tells living things what to make. So this is kind of like going into a car factory and replacing the blueprints with blueprints for killer robots. The workers still come the next day, they do their job, but they're following different instructions. So replacing the bacteria DNA with virus DNA turns the bacteria into a factory for making viruses -- that is, until it's so filled with viruses that it bursts. But that's not the only way that viruses infect bacteria. Some are much more crafty.
ili negde u nekoj pokvarenoj hrani i odjednom počne da se loše oseća. Možda je nešto loše pojela za ručak, a onda se dešava nešto stvarno užasno, koža joj se kida na delove i ona vidi virus koji izlazi iz njene utrobe. A onda stvari postaju stvarno užasne kada se pokida i horda virusa ispliva iz nje. Ako - Aauu - da u pravu ste! - Ako vidite ovo, a vi ste bakterija, ovo je vaša najgora noćna mora. Ali ako ste virus i ovo vidite, lepo se zavalite i pomislite: "Mi smo carevi." Jer ste morali biti prilično lukavi da biste zarazili ovu bakteriju. Ovo je moralo da se dogodi. Virus je uhvatio bakteriju i ubacio svoj DNK u nju. Dalje, taj DNK virusa je napravio stvari koje su iseckale DNK bakterije. I sada kada smo uklonili DNK bakterije, DNK virusa preuzima kontrolu nad ćelijom i naređuje joj da pravi još virusa. Jer, znate, DNK je kao šablon koji kaže živim stvarima šta da prave. Nešto kao da odete u fabriku automobila i zamenite njihove šablone šablonima robota ubica. Radnici i dalje dolaze svaki dan, rade svoj posao, ali slede druga uputstva. Znači zamena DNK bakterije sa DNK virusa pretvara bakterije u fabriku za pravljenje virusa - tj. sve dok ne bude toliko puna virusa da pukne. Ali to nije jedini način da virusi zaraze bakterije. Neki su mnogo lukaviji.
(Laughter)
When a secret agent virus infects a bacterium, they do a little espionage. Here, this cloaked, secret agent virus is slipping his DNA into the bacterial cell, but here's the kicker: It doesn't do anything harmful -- not at first. Instead, it silently slips into the bacteria's own DNA, and it just stays there like a terrorist sleeper cell, waiting for instructions. And what's interesting about this is now, whenever this bacteria has babies, the babies also have the virus DNA in them. So now we have a whole extended bacteria family, filled with virus sleeper cells. They're just happily living together until a signal happens and bam! -- all of the DNA pops out. It takes control of these cells, turns them into virus-making factories, and they all burst, a huge, extended bacteria family, all dying with viruses spilling out of their guts, the viruses taking over the bacterium. So now you understand how viruses can attack cells. There are two ways: On the left is what we call the lytic way, where the viruses go right in and take over the cells. On the [right] is the lysogenic way that uses secret agent viruses.
Kada tajni agent virus inficira bakteriju, on se malo bavi špijunažom. Ovde, ovaj maskirani, tajni agent virus ubacuje svoj DNK u ćeliju bakterije, ali evo brilijantnog dela: Ne radi ništa štetno - barem ne na početku. Umesto toga, nečujno se ubacuje u DNK same bakterije i tu ostaje poput neaktivne terorističke ćelije, čekajući na uputstva. I ono što je zanimljivo jeste da kad god ova bakterija ima bebe, bebe takođe imaju DNK virusa u sebi. Sada imamo celu širu porodicu bakterije, punu neaktivnih ćelija virusa. One žive zajedno u sreći dok ne dobiju signal i - TRAS! - sav DNK izbija napolje. Preuzima kontrolu nad tim ćelijama, pretvara ih u fabrike virusa i sve pucaju, ogromna, proširena porodica bakterije, svi umiru sa virusima koji ispadaju iz njih, virusi preuzimaju bakteriju. Sada razumete kako virusi mogu da napadaju ćelije. Postoje dva načina: levo je ono što nazivamo litičnim načinom, kod koga virusi upadaju odmah i preuzimaju ćelije. Desno je lizogeni način koji koristi viruse tajne agente.
So this stuff is not that hard, right? And now all of you understand it. But if you've graduated from high school, I can almost guarantee you've seen this information before. But I bet it was presented in a way that it didn't exactly stick in your mind.
Znači nije toliko teško, zar ne? I sada i vi svi shvatate. Ali ako ste završili gimnaziju, mogu da vam garantujem da ste već čuli ove informacije. Ali mogu da se kladim da su vam bile objašnjene
So when my students were first learning this,
tako da vam nisu ostale u sećanju.
why did they hate it so much? Well, there were a couple of reasons.
Zato kada su moji učenici prvi put ovo učili, zašto su to toliko mrzeli? Postoji par razloga.
First of all, I can guarantee you you that their textbooks didn't have secret agent viruses, and they didn't have horror stories. You know, in the communication of science, there is this obsession with seriousness. It kills me. I'm not kidding. I used to work for an educational publisher, and as a writer, I was always told never to use stories or fun, engaging language, because then my work might not be viewed as "serious" and "scientific." I mean, because God forbid somebody have fun when they're learning science. So we have this field of science that's all about slime and color changes. Check this out. And then we have, of course, as any good scientist has to have ... explosions! But if a textbook seems too much fun, it's somehow unscientific.
Prvo, mogu da garantujem da njihovi udžbenici ne govore o virusima tajnim agentima niti horor pričama. Znate, u naučnoj komunikaciji postoji opsednutost ozbiljnošću. To me uništava. Ne zezam se. Radio sam za izdavača udžbenika i kao piscu, uvek su mi govorili da ne koristim priče niti zabavan, razumljiv jezik. jer se onda moj rad možda neće smatrati "ozbiljnim" i "naučnim." Zar ne? Jer ne daj bože da nekome bude zabavno dok uči nauku. Zato imamo celu ovu naučnu oblast koja je puna ljigavaca i promene boja. Pogledajte ovo. I onda imamo, naravno, kao što svaki dobar naučnik mora da ima, eksplozije! Ali ako udžbenik izgleda kao da je previše zabavan, onda je nekako nenaučan.
Now another problem was that the language in their textbook was truly incomprehensible. If we want to summarize that story that I told you earlier, we could start by saying, "These viruses make copies of themselves by slipping their DNA into a bacterium." The way this showed up in the textbook, it looked like this: "Bacteriophage replication is initiated through the introduction of viral nucleic acid into a bacterium." That's great, perfect for 13-year-olds.
Još jedan problem je bio što je jezik u njihovom udžbeniku bio stvarno nerazumljiv. Ako bismo hteli da sažmemo priču koju sam vam malopre ispričao, mogli bismo da počnemo ovako nekako: "Ovi virusi prave kopije sebe ubacivanjem sopstvenog DNK u bakteriju." Način na koji se o tome govorilo u udžbeniku je izgledao nekako ovako: "Replikacija bakteriofaga započinje uvođenjem virusne nukleinske kiseline u bakteriju." To je divno, savršeno za decu od 13 godina.
But here's the thing: There are plenty of people in science education who would look at this and say there's no way that we could ever give that to students, because it contains some language that isn't completely accurate. For example, I told you that viruses have DNA. Well, a very tiny fraction of them don't. They have something called RNA instead. So a professional science writer would say, "That has to go. We have to change it to something much more technical." And after a team of professional science editors went over this really simple explanation, they'd find fault with almost every word I've used, and they'd have to change anything that wasn't serious enough, and they'd have to change everything that wasn't 100 percent perfect. Then it would be accurate, but it would be completely impossible to understand. This is horrifying.
Ali stvar je u ovome. Ima mnogo ljudi koji se bave naučnim obrazovanjem koji bi ovo pogledali i rekli nema šanse da to ikad damo učenicima, jer sadrži jezik koji nije savršeno tačan. Na primer, rekao sam vam da virusi imaju DNK. Pa, veoma mali procenat njih ga nema. Umesto toga imaju nešto što se zove RNK. Zato bi profesionalni pisac naučnih tekstova to zaokružio i rekao: "To mora da se izbaci. Moramo to da promenimo u nešto mnogo stručnije." I nakon što je tim profesionalnih naučnih urednika prošao kroz ovo zaista jednostavno objašnjenje, našli bi grešku u skoro svakoj reči koju sam upotrebio i morali bi da promene sve što nije dovoljno ozbiljno, i morali bi da promene sve što nije 100 posto savršeno. Onda bi bilo tačno, ali i skoro potpuno nemoguće za razumeti. To je užasavajuće.
You know, I keep talking about this idea of telling a story, and it's like science communication has taken on this idea of what I call the tyranny of precision, where you can't just tell a story. It's like science has become that horrible storyteller that we all know who gives us all the details nobody cares about, where you're like, "Oh, I met my friend for lunch the other day, and she was wearing these ugly jeans. I mean, they weren't really jeans, they were more like leggings, but I guess they're actually kind of more like jeggings, and you're just like, "Oh my God. What is the point?" Or even worse, science education is becoming like that guy who always says, "Actually." You want to be like, "Oh, dude, we had to get up in the middle of the night and drive a hundred miles in total darkness." And that guy's like, "Actually, it was 87.3 miles." And you're like, "Actually, shut up! I'm just trying to tell a story."
Znate, stalno govorim o ovoj ideji pričanja priče i kao da je naučna komunikacija pod nečim što nazivam tiranijom preciznosti, gde ne možete jednostavno da ispričate priču. Kao da je nauka postala onaj užasan gnjavator koga svi znamo, koji vam priča sve one detalje koje nikoga ne interesuju, kada vi kažete nešto poput: "Srela sam drugaricu na ručku pre neki dan i imala je na sebi one ružne farmerke. Mislim, zapravo nisu bile farmerke, zapravo više, znaš, helanke, ali, su zapravo bile nešto između farmerki i helanki, znate, ali mislim -", a u sebi mislite: "Dobro bre, u čemu je poenta?" Ili još gore, naučno obrazovanje postaje nalik onom liku koji uvek govori: "Zapravo." Znate na šta mislim? Želite da mu kažete: "Čoveče, morali smo da ustanemo u sred noći i da se vozimo stotinama kilometara kroz mrkli mrak." A on kaže: "Zapravo bilo je 139,68 kilometara." A vi mislite: "Zapravo, ućuti! Samo hoću da ispričam priču."
Because good storytelling is all about emotional connection. We have to convince our audience that what we're talking about matters. But just as important is knowing which details we should leave out so that the main point still comes across. I'm reminded of what the architect Mies van der Rohe said, and I paraphrase, when he said that sometimes, you have to lie in order to tell the truth. I think this sentiment is particularly relevant to science education.
Za dobro pripovedanje važna je emotivna veza. Moramo da ubedimo našu publiku da je ono o čemu govorimo bitno. Ali podjednako bitno je znati koje detalje treba izostaviti da bi se shvatila glavna poenta. To me podseća na ono što je rekao arhitekta Mis van der Roe, i parafraziram ga, ali je rekao da ponekad morate da lažete da biste rekli istinu. Mislim da je ovaj stav posebno važan u naučnom obrazovanju.
Now, finally, I am often so disappointed when people think that I'm advocating a dumbing down of science. That's not true at all. I'm currently a Ph.D. student at MIT, and I absolutely understand the importance of detailed, specific scientific communication between experts, but not when we're trying to teach 13-year-olds. If a young learner thinks that all viruses have DNA, that's not going to ruin their chances of success in science. But if a young learner can't understand anything in science and learns to hate it because it all sounds like this, that will ruin their chances of success.
Sada, na kraju, često sam razočaran kada ljudi misle da se zalažem za zaglupljivanje nauke. Ne radi se uopšte o tome. Trenutno sam na doktorskim studijama na MIT univerzitetu i apsolutno shvatam važnost detaljnog, konkrentnog naučnog komuniciranja između stručnjaka, ali ne i kada pokušavate nešto da naučite decu od 13 godina. Ako mladi učenik misli da svi virusi imaju DNK, to neće uništiti njegove šanse da uspe u nauci. Ali ako mladi učenik ne razume ništa u nauci i zamrzi je jer sve zvuči ovako, to hoće uništiti njegove šanse da uspe.
This needs to stop ... and I wish that the change could come from the institutions at the top that are perpetuating these problems, and I beg them, I beseech them to just stop it. But I think that's unlikely. So we are so lucky that we have resources like the Internet, where we can circumvent these institutions from the bottom up. There's a growing number of online resources that are dedicated to just explaining science in simple, understandable ways. I dream of a Wikipedia-like website that would explain any scientific concept you can think of in simple language any middle schooler can understand. And I myself spend most of my free time making these science videos that I put on YouTube. I explain chemical equilibrium using analogies to awkward middle school dances, and I talk about fuel cells with stories about boys and girls at a summer camp. The feedback that I get is sometimes misspelled and it's often written in LOLcats,
To mora da prestane, i želim da promena dođe od institucija na vrhu koje ovekovečavaju te probleme, i molim ih, preklinjem ih da jednostavno prestanu s time. Ali mislim da su šanse za to male. Srećni smo jer imamo sredstva kao što je internet, gde možemo da zaobiđemo te institucije od dna na gore. Postoji sve veći broj izvora informacija na internetu posvećenih objašnjavanju nauke na jednostavne, razumljive načine. Sanjam o vebsajtu nalik Vikipediji koji bi objasnio bilo koji naučni pojam koji vam padne napamet jednostavnim jezikom koji može da razume dete u višim razredima osnovne škole. I ja provodim većinu svog slobodnog vremena praveći naučne video klipove koje postavljam na YouTube. Objašnjavam hemijsku ravnotežu koristeći analogije sa neprijatnim školskim igrankama, i govorim o gorivnim ćelijama sa pričama o dečacima i devojčicama u letnjem kampu. Povratne informacije koje dobijam su često nepravilno napisane i često koriste LOLcat internet žargon,
(Laughter)
ali ipak
but nonetheless, it's so appreciative, so thankful that I know this is the right way we should be communicating science.
veoma cene to, zahvalni su pa znam da sam na pravom putu kako treba da predajemo nauku.
There's still so much work left to be done, though, and if you're involved with science in any way, I urge you to join me. Pick up a camera, start to write a blog, whatever, but leave out the seriousness, leave out the jargon. Make me laugh. Make me care. Leave out those annoying details that nobody cares about and just get to the point. How should you start? Why don't you say, "Listen, let me tell you a story."
Ali ima još puno toga da se radi, ipak, i ako se bavite naukom na bilo koji način pozivam vas da mi se priključite. Uzmite kameru, napravite blog, šta god, ali izbacite ozbiljnost, izostavite žargon. Zasmejte me. Neka mi bude stalo do toga. Izbacite dosadne detalje koji nikoga ne zanimaju i pređite na suštinu. Kako da počnete? Probajte da kažete: "Slušaj, hajde da ti ispričam priču."
Thank you.
Hvala vam.