Past Event Highlights
An Evening with Bill Nye: the Science Guy - educator, author, Emmy Award winner and CEO of the Planetary Society in conversation with Nicole Ardoin and Bryan Brown
May 5, 2016
Memorial Auditorium
Humanity is changing the Earth's heat balance faster than ever in the planet's history. Climate change threatens our survival, and the solution depends on how this generation responds. What can teachers and schools do to give young people the scientific knowledge and analytical skills to meet this challenge?
Bill Nye is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society. Making science accessible is something Nye has been doing most of his life. His fascination with science led him to Cornell University and a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1977. Soon after, Boeing recruited him as an engineer. In Seattle, Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. In 1993, “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born, earning 19 Emmys in five years. Nye wrote his first book for a general audience, Undeniable - Evolution and the Science of Creation, featured on the New York Times Bestsellers List, in 2014. Nye is the CEO of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of space science and exploration.
Nicole Ardoin holds a joint appointment with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Her scholarship examines the role of education in engaging communities in productive dialogue about sustainability.
Bryan Brown is Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the GSE. Brown's research explores the relationship between student identity, discourse, classroom culture and academic achievement in science education.