William Sanford Nye

“ And, to me, fundamentally there's nothing more compelling, there's nothing more interesting, there's nothing more charming than science. The world is this wonderful, mysterious place and what we try to do on the show is show our viewers how exciting it can be.
So, the fundamental thing about my show that many people I'm not sure appreciate, is that it is entertainment first. Our show really is—the question about every bit that we do, every segment we do, is, is it going to be entertaining, because it's a television show. ”

“ Then I just want to emphasize also that science is a human endeavor. Science is not something that people were given. Science is not something written down exactly in a book. Science is a human endeavor. ”

“ But the underlying idea in all of life science is evolution. Evolution binds everything together like nothing else. So we have to just reach agreement on that and move on. If you want to study things that are not evolution, just do it outside of science class. ”

“ How do we know that the Earth goes around the Sun? How do we know that Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a result of a virus? These are fundamental things, that the facts are very important, but the way that you come to know the facts is much more important. And this is what is currently called critical thinking, and I think it's the most critical thing that we can teach. And I hope that we can all work together to improve education in this Nation so that the United States is once again the preeminent science and technology community in the world. ”

“ If you ask science teachers who have children who do not have a tradition of academic rigor, who do not have strong family that believes in education, I would say what we have to do is fix the parents. ”

“ So if we have a workforce, for example, that's half women, in my opinion, we have a scientific community that's half women. If we have a workforce that's what used to be called minorities, now sometimes called People of Color and so on, then we have to a scientific community that's a third People of Color. And this gets into something that is sort of a fundamental, at the base of science, that it's made up of people, so the people that conduct it have to represent our society.
And another thing that's very near and dear to me is the metric system. ”

“ Then the last thing, I guess, is the most important thing we can teach, I think now—the knowledge is expanding so fast. There's so much going on in the world, everyday, with the electronic communication and libraries accessible to so many people, human knowledge is expanding faster than anyone could absorb it all. So what we need to teach is the process of science. ”

“ You see, science starts with observation and then it goes through something we often call the scientific method and so on. But it starts with an interest, with being inspired. And so we have to change this. We have to make it easier for science teachers to do their job. ”

“ You see, something has happened where science education has been viewed as a special interest, something that is hardly different from farmers that grow a specific crop in a specific part of the country. ”

“ There's no one in a corporation in the United States who would go to work—really in a big time corporation, expecting to make an executive salary—where the roofs leak. It's inconceivable. There's no one that would go to work where there isn't enough electrical power to run computers, which are, you know, 40 watt devices, barely a light bulb. ”

“ Now, in a classroom, you wouldn't necessarily want to make every moment be entertaining and exciting, but I certainly hope that you have the idea when you show up as a teacher, you've got to have some material, you have something to say, you have something to show the kids, show to your students, that's interesting and exciting.
So, to me, in science education, we have a tremendous advantage over many other disciplines, with all due respect to people who for some reason didn't choose science for a profession, is that we have props. ”

“ Something is wrong with No Child Left Behind and it is not in anyone's interest to not fix it.
The thing that has happened is science teachers have to be held accountable in exhausting ways. They have to administer tests. They have to do assessments. They have to file reports for officials. And they cannot do the one thing, the one thing that made me go into science, and certainly my science teachers, they do not have time right now to inspire. ”

“ To have this country to be actually the last nation on Earth—the Azores, which is a string of islands, they're converted to the metric system also. We're the last nation in the world, and we're expecting to do business, expecting to carry on commerce with everybody else. It's hard to imagine, really. So, science class is where the metric system can start. ”

“ And I will just tell you right now national standards have to include evolution. The underlying idea in all of geology, the fundamental idea, the big discovery in all of geology is plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is a great idea. ”

“ And another thing along the classroom venue, the classroom environment, where I don't work full-time, just now and then. The classroom, in my opinion, should be a beautiful place. It should be a gleaming place. It should be a place that everyone wants to be. The schools, in my opinion, should be the most striking architecture, the most handsome buildings, in the community. And that is the way, in my view, to attract good people to become teachers. ”

“ So we have to make it so that someone graduating from, let us say, engineering school, instead of choosing to go to work for a very good software company might instead choose to become a science teacher. In order to do that, you have to pay people. ”

“ The way humans have come to understand the world is by doing experiments, by observing things—making observations in particular. And to this end, I look around the end, look at every single thing in this room, and you'll see that it's wooden, those are all shaped by people. The flag, the metal, the little engraved name tags that everybody has, are all shaped by humans who understood the world. Humans who took the time to figure out the way things work. So we have to provide, in my opinion, we have to provide means for every teacher to do these demonstrations for her or his students. ”

“ And I admit we have to cut the dead wood. There are certain teachers that are not holding up their end of the bargain. And I know we have to negotiate with teaching unions and so on, but that has also got to be done. ”