This Teacher Wants To Excite Your Inner Scientist
Ainissa Ramirez
Imagine a space shuttle speeding toward Earth at 17,500 miles per hour, the friction outside heating the vessel up to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it enters the atmosphere.
Those kind of temperatures normally melt metal. So what protects NASA's space shuttles?
That's just the kind of question award-winning scientist Ainissa Ramirez can't wait to answer. In fact, she's done it in this YouTube video. Hint: It involves sand.
"I always target everyone's inner smart 12-year-old," says Ramirez, who has a gift for explaining complicated science to people like you and me.
She's got patents and has written dozens of technical papers, but her ability to simplify is what makes Ramirez a great teacher. And as a self-described science evangelist, she's trying to reach the world by writing books, giving TED Talks and producing online videos to explain scientific concepts.
She's jumping on the podcast bandwagon too, with a new show called Science Underground. "Our first episode is about killer asteroids. There are about 4,000 or so asteroids that are big enough to take out a city," she says. "NASA is working on it ... sort of. So we think people ought to know about that."
Ramirez used to reach a much smaller audience, teaching mechanical engineering and materials science at Yale for a decade before going out on her own a few years ago. The world has taken note.
Recently the American Institute of Physics gave Ramirez the Andrew Gemant Award for what one member of the selection committee called "a brave thing" — something many scientists don't do: going beyond research and encouraging everyone to think about science in their own lives.
And the award is nothing to sneeze at. Past winners include Stephen Hawking, Brian Greene, who wrote The Elegant Universe, and one of Ramirez's heroes, Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams.
When people ask her if she misses teaching at Yale, Ramirez admits academic life just wasn't for her. But teaching always was.
"I am the product of great teachers. They can show you something that you have never seen before. And awaken that little something inside of you that you've never seen before."
Ice Cream Chemistry Explained
Yale University YouTubeMagical metals, How Shape Memory Alloys Work
TED Ed YouTubeAwakening that little something in young people, especially young people of color, is Ramirez's true passion. As a 4-year-old kid in Jersey City, N.J., Ainissa knew she wanted to be a scientist, but she says there weren't many, if any, African-American scientists for her to imagine herself as.
So in her lectures now she's talking a lot about the importance of STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math.
"STEM is a superpower, but it has a kryptonite," she said this summer at a lecture in College Park, Md. "And that kryptonite is this word 'can't.' See, the brain is this beautiful machine; whatever you tell it, it will do. So if you say, 'I can do this,' your brain will say 'OK, we can do this.' "
Jeremy Poindexter heard that message loud and clear. As an undergrad in Ramirez's introduction to materials science course at Yale, he was hooked. Now he's a Ph.D. student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology working on solar energy.
"It can be lonely in materials science," he says. "You know, especially as a minority, and I think that people like Ainissa are really important as role models."
Because no matter how big an audience you're shooting for, sometimes being a teacher boils down to just that — making students feel a little less lonely.
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Transcript
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Not all teaching happens in the classroom.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AINISSA RAMIREZ: Here's a space shuttle tile, and here's a blowtorch. I'm going to heat up the space shuttle tile, and you're going to see that it gets red-hot.
SIEGEL: Meet scientist and author Ainissa Ramirez. That's a clip of one of her many online videos. She explains things like why space shuttles don't explode when they enter the atmosphere. Acacia Squires from the NPR Ed team profiles Ramirez for our series, 50 Great Teachers.
ACACIA SQUIRES, BYLINE: You could look at it this way - for some teachers, the classroom is just too small. Ainissa Ramirez is one of them. She's trying to get the world excited about science through lectures, TED talks and videos, like this one, where she sets a sparkler on fire.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RAMIREZ: So what's going on inside? Well, inside of the element are atoms, and inside of the atom are electrons. And the electrons get really excited with all of the heat - woo-hoo (ph). But what happens is...
SQUIRES: Her gift is explaining complicated stuff - how elements like strontium, barium and copper give fireworks and the universe color.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RAMIREZ: So astronomers use this to their benefit. What they do is, with their special telescopes, they look at planets. They can see different colors.
SQUIRES: Ramirez is an award-winning material scientist. She taught at Yale for 10 years. But now she's out in the world talking to regular people about science. So I started with a pretty obvious question, what is material science?
RAMIREZ: Ah, material science - you know, people ask me that. My mom doesn't know what material science is.
SQUIRES: More on that in just a second. One thing she says her mom does know is that Ramirez wanted to be a scientist ever since she was a little girl.
RAMIREZ: She actually said the first thing I wanted to be was a clown, and then after that it was a scientist. And my brothers would probably say I'm both, so...
SQUIRES: OK, back to material science.
RAMIREZ: It's people who are interested in how atoms interact, how they bond, and then from that information we can decide what is the best material for different applications. I call it atom whispering. So what'd I just say? A material scientist...
SQUIRES: She does that a lot - circling back, slowing down the ideas, re-explaining. It's part of what makes her a great teacher, a science communicator.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: On behalf of the American Institute of Physics...
SQUIRES: And recently, the science world recognized her for it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: For bringing the excitement of physics and its cultural aspects to the public. Congratulations.
RAMIREZ: Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
SQUIRES: Lots of influential scientists have won the Andrew Gemant Award - Stephen Hawking, also Brian Greene, author of "The Elegant Universe."
RAMIREZ: Alan Lightman, I got to have lunch with him.
SQUIRES: He's a physicist, professor and writer.
RAMIREZ: I mean, he's huge in my eyes.
SQUIRES: And the committee that chose Ramirez says she's not only a great scientist - she's written more than 50 technical papers and has six patents - but that she's doing a brave thing, something many scientists don't do - going beyond research, encouraging everyone to think about science in their own lives. Ramirez writes books, she's given TED talks. And she's got a new podcast, called Science Underground.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "SCIENCE UNDERGROUND")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Look out - she's Ainissa Ramirez.
RAMIREZ: And this is...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: ...Science Underground.
RAMIREZ: Our first story is on killer asteroids. There's about 4,000 or so asteroids that are big enough to take out a city, and they're kind of heading our way. NASA's working on it - sort of - so I think people ought to know about that.
SQUIRES: But if you ask Ramirez what she's really passionate about, it's young people, especially getting young people of color interested in science. Growing up in Jersey City, she said they were few, if any, African-American scientists she could look up to. And in her lectures now she's talking a lot about STEM - that's Science, Technology, Engineering and Math - like one this summer.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RAMIREZ: STEM is a super power, but it has a kryptonite, and that kryptonite is this word - can't. See, the brain is this beautiful machine. Whatever you tell it, it will do. So if you say, I can do this, your brain will say, OK, we can do this.
JEREMY POINDEXTER: It can be lonely in material science, you know, especially as a minority.
SQUIRES: Jeremy Poindexter took Ramirez's introduction to material science course at Yale as an undergrad, and he was hooked. Now he's a Ph.D. student at MIT working on solar energy.
POINDEXTER: And I think that people like Ainissa are really important as role models.
SQUIRES: And Poindexter hopes to be a role model like her one day too. As for Ramirez, she says people are always asking her if she misses life at Yale.
RAMIREZ: I miss a couple of things. There's some people that I really miss. The copier was really awesome. The cookies were really awesome. Interfacing with students was also great. But that's about it.
SQUIRES: For now, she says, she's having a lot more fun. Acacia Squires, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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