Pitching science to high school students

...is not an easy task. Pitching some specific branch, like, say, polymer science, is even worse. When you've got 20-30 minutes to make an impression, every minute counts, you just might be what Shakespeare referred to as "shit out of luck". You have no idea about the level they're at - they might be light years ahead of you when you were a senior in high school (not unrealistic, I might add), or they might be completely ignorant. Approximately 99.9999% of this depends on the science teachers at the high school in question. If the teachers are competent (both within their subject and pedagogically) and motivated, it's actually possible to learn stuff in high school science class. Or so I've heard. The flip side is that if your high school science teachers are troglodytes, you might end up as a lawyer or a realtor, and we wouldn't want that.

Gym teachers have had a bad rep for as long as I can remember, but the emerging trend is very well conserved in the following saying: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach, teach high school science." So I wasn't too enthusiastic about giving a presentation to high school students today.....

I have to say it went pretty well, though. The 10 or so students and their teacher were cool enough, asked questions and stayed awake, despite the fact that I was the last post on their program. The teacher was laid-back, and not at all the questions-guy I anticipated based on previous experiences. You know the type - the kind of guy who sits up all night the day before the visit, leafing through a whole year's worth of Scientific American and Illustrert Vitenskap with a shit-eating grin, looking for material to ask about for him to appear smart. This dude was cool - a bit too much of the obsessive picture-taking kind for my taste, but cool nonetheless.