The Taste of Science

“That was fascinating,” Kenzie said as we stepped onto W. 21^st Street.  She had to speak above the din of the Manhattan afternoon. 

“Really?”  I wondered if my teen was being facetious.  “You seemed to be staring at your iPod the whole time.”

“I was playing Temple Run.  It’s mindless, so I can stare at it without having to think.  That way I can listen.”

Of course! How could I have forgotten the meetings at the start of each school year from kindergarten through 6^thgrade, when I would explain to the new teacher that my daughter would seldom look their way during lessons, would appear to be staring out the window or at the floor, but would be fully aware of what was happening.  Why had I expected this to change just because she is older and more socially aware?   Of course it wouldn’t have changed.  So while I was interviewing the founder of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Real World STEM, and my daughter appeared to be playing a game on her iPod, she was in fact listening intently.

“It seemed like it wasn’t going that well at first,” Kenzie said.

“Yeah.  Some interviews are like that. I had to really draw her out.   But what did you find so fascinating?”

“I guess what she said about whole foods.”

The interviewee had a lot to say about whole foods, versus fractionated food.  She was drawing a connection between quantum physics and food.  I had booked the interview expecting to find out the science behind taste, and learned something completely different.

Kenzie and I chatted a bit more about the interview and how it would connect to the mushroom experiment that she and her friends in the Real World STEM teen corps had conducted at our shoot in June.   

I’ll begin editing the footage in the next few weeks.  The experiment video and the follow-up interview will be live on the Real World STEM website later this fall.

Video production is expensive, and so is website development.  There are people to pay; materials to purchase in order to conduct the experiments; and travel expenses to get to interviews, like the two we did in Manhattan last week.  Every contribution makes a difference and goes toward creating an awesome curriculum supplement for teens in need of a little educational boost.

Wondering what you’ll get in return?

If the warm, fuzzy feeling of being helpful isn’t enough, check out all the goodies available to you for supporting theReal World STEMindiegogo campaign!  There are only 40 days left to contribute at www.indiegogo.com/RealWorld, so please don't delay.

Thanks!

Rebekah, Kenzie & the Real World STEM teen corps