Making Science Fun and Accessible for Teens and Kids, a guest post by Jorge Cham

True fact: When I was a teenager, I went out with a girl I met at a physics competition. Mind you, this wasn’t a local high school competition. It was the National Physics Olympiad in Panama, the country where I was born and raised. And the stakes were high–whoever won would go on to compete in the International Physics Olympiad, to be held the following year in Spain. So, romance, national fame, and a free trip to Europe were all on the line, thanks to Physics.

Whoever told teenagers science isn’t exciting clearly wasn’t running in the right circles.

For some reason, science is a hard sell for many teens and middle schoolers. How many would say that a science course is their favorite class, if they take one at all? This is odd considering that science affects the lives of young people everywhere. Quantum physics, general relativity, material science, and computer science make possible the cell phones and computers they are constantly glued to. Biology, chemistry and medicine affect the myriad moods they cycle through daily. Perhaps more important, science connects them to the universe around them, giving them context about our existence here on Earth. Knowing science helps you understand why things are the way they are, and it gives you confidence that we can find solutions to whatever problems lie ahead of us.

And for me, at least, it did lead to some romance. I ended up dating the girl I met at that Physics competition. Plot twist: she won the whole thing.

Just imagine if everyone had a scientific mindset. What would our society be like if more of us thought more rationally and based our opinions more on established facts and not hearsay. Would we be so prone to believe everything we see on our social media feeds? 

All kids are born with a natural curiosity about the world and how it works. Some might say it’s their primary job to be little scientists. To survive, babies and little kids need to figure out the rules, and quickly. They test, probe and experiment to learn how gravity works and how forces and motion are related. They poke, throw, spill and crash to figure out density, fluid dynamics and tensile strength. They bang on pots to analyze how sound is generated, and they jump on the bed to explore the interchange between kinetic and potential energy.

And they do it with glee. There is a joy to asking questions and learning new things. It’s fun to explore, and to find the answer to a question. It’s exciting to learn that the world works in ways we did or did not expect.

At some point, though, many of us seem to lose that curiosity about science. Maybe as we grow older, we feel society’s pressure to worry about other things, like fitting in, making a living, and planning for the future. For many kids, science questions take a back seat to social questions. It’s admittedly hard to worry about science when, as a middle schooler or teen, your whole world hangs on whether someone will go to the dance with you or not.

This is why I have tried to make the non-fiction books I’ve co-authored about science (We Have No Idea, Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe, and the upcoming Out of Your Mind) both scientifically accurate and funny. I use cartoons to illustrate and illuminate topics in Astrophysics, Quantum Physics and Neuroscience.

For middle-schoolers and early teens, though, I knew I needed something extra: a good story. What if, I thought, I wrote a book that had accurate science content delivered by a fun story that kept readers wanting to see what happened next? But how? There are many pitfalls to this approach. If you make the story too fantastical (for example, with kids flying through space or talking to aliens), young readers might not be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction. Also, they can spot an adult lecturing a mile away, so the book can’t be too obvious with science exposition.

Inspiration finally struck one day when my young son, Oliver, announced over dinner that he wanted to become an astrophysicist when he grew up. “Fantastic!” his mother and I thought. Then we asked if he knew what an astrophysicist does, and he confidently answered, “No.” I thought that was hilarious, and that’s how the Oliver’s Great Big Universe series was born. A kid like Oliver would know what kids his age think is interesting, and he could use stories from his own life to make the topics relatable and funny.

For instance, the time the cafeteria was super crowded with kids, and then someone yelled “Did someone just fart?” And the kids all disperse. Well, Oliver says, that’s just like what happened during the Big Bang.  Or the way the ingredients in a boba drink float to different levels in a cup?  Well, Oliver explains, that’s the same reason the inside of the earth has different layers and why tectonic plates move around (they float on top like ice cubes).

So far, it seems to be working. The first Oliver book was named a “best science book for kids” in several lists, including Science Friday and the Children’s Book Committee. I’ve heard from parents and teachers how the books have been read multiple times by their kids, and I’ve heard from librarians how the books are in constant rotation at libraries.

So, if you have a middle-grader or young teen, or know one, that could use a dose of wonder and awe, tempt them with one of my books. The Oliver’s Great Big Universe series is great for kids and teens (and adults, too!).

And don’t worry, the real Oliver definitely knows the value of learning about science. After all, his mother—my wife—was the Panamanian national Physics champion. Double plot twist!

Meet the author

Jorge Cham is the bestselling, Emmy Award–nominated creator of . . . many things: from the hit PBS show Elinor Wonders Why to the hit nonfiction book for adults called We Have No Idea, along with the hit podcast Daniel & Jorge Explain the Universe and the popular webcomic PHD Comics. He is, without a doubt, an expert on explaining things about the world in interesting and fun ways. He obtained his PhD in robotics from Stanford University and was an instructor and research associate at Caltech from 2003 to 2005. He is originally from Panama.

About Volcanoes Are Hot! (Oliver’s Great Big Universe #2)

“Mind-expanding and hilarious! I got smarter reading this!”
—Jeff Kinney, author of the international bestselling series Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Earth sciences meet Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Oliver’s Great Big Universe: Volcanoes Are Hot!, second in an original illustrated middle-grade fiction series that blends science with narrative from bestselling author-artist Jorge Cham, the Emmy Award–nominated creator of PBS’s Elinor Wonders Why

After writing his first book, eleven-year-old Oliver is kind of a celebrity around school—no big deal. But when he gets caught in a cafeteria catastrophe, he quickly goes from being the “funny science kid” to one of the “Epic Barf Kids”, the result of too much explosive cherry pie in the lunchroom. Oliver is desperate to restore his reputation—and winning the science fair sounds like the perfect way for everyone to forget about the whole barf thing. There’s just one obstacle standing in his way: Ana Lía Quintero, who wins the science fair every year.

Luckily, Oliver has the help of his geoscientist aunt, even though she’s a little, um, quirky (scratch that: really quirky). If Oliver has any chance of defeating his archnemesis, he’ll have to learn all about volcanic burping and bacteria farts, how Earth’s layers are basically like boba tea, and how school cliques and the solar system have a lot in common.

With laugh-out-loud humor and cartoon-style illustrations from bestselling writer and the creator of PHD Comics Jorge Cham, Oliver’s Great Big Universe is a STEAM-themed, diary-style series following one kid who’s taking on the whole universe—if he can survive middle school first.

ISBN-13: 9781419764103
Publisher: Abrams Books
Publication date: 09/17/2024
Series: Oliver’s Great Big Universe #2
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years

Filed under: Guest Post