The Synergistic Pen

ok...so I teach science and have a particular appreciation for all scientists out there...

I purchase the ocassional pbs documentary on a science topic and show it to my students. I make a point of trying to find something with some people with color in their skin for my kids to see... I don't care how much color...just some color...

well, lately, mah boy over here...Neil Degrasse Tyson... has been a media darling. He's one of the commentators on the "Universe" series and has done a few PBS "Nova" docs...he even sat down on the Daily Show... yanno...just making the rounds...

and to top all that off...he's still holding down his regular gigs as the director of the Hayden Planetarium and research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in the nyc...

busy man....


after a long week of post Hurricane Ike rain and local flooding/Indiana State Testing/visitors in the building...(sigh) I threw one of his dvd's in the machine Friday for my freshmen biology class ...

I mentioned what the show was about and went to my desk to attempt to find the top of it...

someone said..."whoa" so I looked up. Neil was talking, nothing in particular so I looked in the direction of the exclamation...

"what's wrong?"
"he's....he's... a scientist?"
I looked at the screen. "yeah."
"what kind?"
"astrophysicist."

a couple of people ran to the computers to google astrophysics. (I don't give definitions, I provide the materials to find definitions)

"so... where's he from?"
"New York."
"Brooklyn?"
"the bronx I believe, not sure"....
"so... he's like.... us?"
I stopped, looked at Neil talk about time and space and how vast the universe is and I smiled...
"yeah, he's like us."
"cool."

I watched the show a bit, noticed a few people actually taking a few notes. One got up and googled his name (after asking me who he was) and went to his website. I sighed and went back to work.

I think I love you Neil Degrasse Tyson.... thank you.