colleges and I worked as design a
science researcher and teacher in this
University and I’m not going to have
anything about biology today but I’m
happy about these three rules right
Socrates three books because I want what
would how are you in the next sixteen
minutes actually fit all three books I
love you
so um the top before me by Suzanne what
was great wasn’t it
his philosophy on how to make children
grow up with love and care my talk is
actually forward with the same same same
thing essentially about education and
curiosity in Florida I’m Technium
learned from Susannah’s talking to the
same thing in and the setting is for you
to close your eyes for one second
was it one second times I will ever
close your eye and emergency with moment
in your life that happened to you in the
past I don’t know I don’t know you but
I’m guarantee that that thing has
happened to you sometime in the past so
who’s Ryan I mean today you are small
smokey few years or five years or five
years or that you are wasn’t it I’m
gonna get working really anything in the
world around you is Nemo and you’re full
of questions and and there are adults
around you and they are all very keen on
answering your questions and whatever
you ask because I think Italy for
example you know what is reaches for and
then immediately your father Terry Otis
wishes for that lamb over there and what
is a cabinet in the kitchen
is a fridge and a lot of good stuff
inside where a baby come from and all
the oil fell from the sky I want you to
babysit now he’s actually you came up
with a question and that question just
like all the hundreds of question you
asked before to you is just another
question and you should you should want
to know something why is water wet
why all the remote control designers say
why they all black for example but but
on that day something is different the
person you ask this question either he
or she’s in benwood or he’s a bad person
or it’s just a long time this time you
get you didn’t get the answer that
person probably your parent but almost
certainly a teacher is answering a
question you say that you shouldn’t ask
this question this question is a waste
of time I think you should focus on
something more important for example
your study instead of wasting or
too small and there are people like
scientists they very clever and they
will figure them out for you in future
so you don’t worry about it now please
go back and do whatever you want to do
maybe especially doing exercise and you
want you because you want to pass
examination that’s the moment I want you
to think about it I don’t know you but
personally I think this woman is where
accompany this purpose movement is
probably one of the most important
moment in your life so this one we know
that this moment happen to almost
everyone because we should show that as
children we are born with the ability of
asking
question you know in a classical study
this publishing 2007 of Rob psychologist
they barely be crazy and they actually
analyzed the transcript meaning that
everything for children from the angel
little more than one year old just after
they learned how to speak chew about
little more than five years called own
in this four years they actually
recorded every single conversation made
by these four children with their
mothers and the analyze the they spend
years and years analyzing the content of
the dialogues and if I know that on
average they asked more than 100
question every hour but in time they
will find years old an hour’s more than
10,000 questions different questions
right not repeating the same questions
there’s amazing isn’t it right so we’re
all born with questions or the ability
of asking other questions
oh it’s something happening something
serious happened what is what this
children including yourself when you
were young grow anything older more than
60 years old
something amazing subtle but significant
has happened today
so first on board is in innovate in
every report the psychologists were
measuring social curiosity meaning that
a question or even a look or a statement
that point out you didn’t understand
something from kind of we asked for more
information episode curiosity before hit
when when a kid when kids were in
kindergarten they recorded two hour
period they showed us a number of Kiros
cue Kira’s episodes but when the same
kids were in the fifth grade the number
of evidence evidence of curiosity has
dropped by five times so it doesn’t make
sense right when you’re older you’re
exposed to more
new things and you a little bit more
knowledgeable you should have it was
even more question isn’t it
but is that no you stop asking questions
by the time these people become young
adults um they don’t give me an aspirin
at all basically it’s really um to me
what anesthetist and most significant
observation for childhood for in
education when the kid was young whether
whether it is see you see a door closed
door and there’s a room behind it
the kid always want to open the door
they want to over the door they want to
push over they even the doors lock they
don’t kick the door and trying to open
the door and then because they’re
curious about what’s inside but when
they older they think here great and
numerous closed door in at home and in
school they didn’t care was behind at
all and they even over such as me so
this change of this little change of
this was a change of things to me is
very very important why why is it
happened something between game the
Cardinals fifth grade what happened well
one of the things that we can we can
imagine is take those children went to
school right so whether it were they in
school they are even in one room and the
teachers were supposed to enhance their
curiosity right all of every single
education research paper on education
that I’ve read and thousands and
thousands of them stains with concluded
beyond any doubt that porosity is the
most is the most important modified
modified Multi multi patient factor for
learning the universal
every single picture I talked to said he
or she we spend a whole life steamer
they didn’t curiosity in English humans
but what they did was precisely opposite
because they quickly find out that
Kyra’s kids are difficult curious
children ask too many questions when
they asked remain question in class
they’re disrupting the class right
disrupting the syllabus and in wasting
the bus it’s just like that it’s just a
liber8 script to a standard examination
and any challenge or the image from the
variation from that screen is to be
punished stigmatized and discouraged
children love to sing at those humans
and and their approval so very quickly
we learn that those choose to student
who shut up and listen and to the whole
world we’re gonna we get all the brownie
points and the student who asked
questions about why the sky blue and
things like that will be asked to shut
up of course we we all learn to shut up
the incentive of being approved is so
strong that we have to bear it out
hurrah s’ti under the under the carpet
we we destroy it our own curiosity I
teach in the university so then
University students right the student
who can tell cuz they they affected the
enter think they could enter university
is a proof that these people are not
with time-waster they’re not
troublemaker they are champions of
conformity they are the people who get
all the brownie points they’re the
people who learn how to shut up
because they didn’t wear in sent
examination and came to our University I
one of them hobbies I want to talk to
students and chat with students and and
the few years ago has got to have a
hobby and the hobby is
I can see that they have zero curiosity
they just didn’t hear right if my
teacher lecture computers there’s not
supposed to be right because these are
young people there is a nineteen twenty
years old people they should make
curious about everything under the sign
so I start a conversation with them and
I thought she asked them what they live
and their childhood and I find that
whenever I ask them to imagine that
moment just like one when I asked you to
do a few minutes ago that moment that
you asked the questions but then can
answer to you or the woman you ask the
question when your child and you got
punished
whenever a house that bring them out the
student become very very interested in
engaging so a few years ago it become a
whole being and then it turned out to be
to become my mission to talk to as many
university students as possible and
collect the question they asked about
silence when they when they were
so these questions I’m aspect
engineering people worry so they’re real
people
Socrates rule number one in the real
these questions are very interesting
right when we look at this question and
three observations the first
observations is this questions that are
calling the hundreds of them are very
precious evidence are evidence of a very
precious moment of this young people’s
life when they were a kid and they’re
full of curiosity the second observation
is this is also a scent can the well
it’s kind of a poetry of sadness because
this question represent some when they
lost when they grew up
the third observation is being a
scientist when I look at this question
in some depression where by laughable to
me deeply profound these questions
are actually quite interesting to me as
a scientist and they are anyways to me
birth cycle of discovery but this person
that asked by three or four years old
so um Phil years ago about three years
ago I started to ask these students not
only about the question but the
following question would you like to
look for answers to this question right
if the answer did exist would you like
to become a scientist yourself and
answer your own questions
most of the students said oh come on
you’re crazy I’m busy
exploration to do it don’t don’t
please don’t call me but they always
some of them or if they’re always
helpful then who said yes I would like
to find out for example what make up and
move I would like to find this out so we
organized a program research program and
this vision program is called addicted
to discovery so the program is where the
idea is very simple right the idea is if
you are essentially within yourself is
our website there are deities
if you are if you are kid when you’re
here and some teacher told you to shut
out and don’t waste your time if you
have a time machine and travel back in
time and talk show yourself as a little
kid what would you have tell him or her
right
so of course you would say that well
first of all you would say that it’s
okay or it’s a great question second of
all nobody knows the answer isn’t matter
because most scientific discovery came
from questions
we can answer so this was to me a gift I
allow students to give themselves when
they are younger right so time-traveling
there and take it to discover it because
maybe we think if we as a university
fully endorse these students allow them
to go and find our answer to their own
questions even though sometimes in their
nature to do that it’s almost like a
revenge right do that to those
insensitive pictures and we want to do
that we want to arrange and if we have
them arranged if the student can go back
to the earlier curious time when they
can ask me more questions but now they
can ask me we’re crashing as students as
treacherous as people who are
contributing to this society maybe we
can change our society in some small way
by doing that so we have this program
launched in 2013 and is fantastic the
students when there are a little to
answer their own questions the question
becomes whether when they are killed
with what we weren’t workshop then teach
them how to read scientific literature
to determine which part of the question
has been answered previously which is
the existing knowledge gap so that they
can do and design experiment to answer
the part that the ones that you
so we funded when you allow the student
to do that think they change into
monsters so one day we have a workshop
on time teaching students how to read
cycle engine and then a girl came up to
me and the girl is actually the girl who
asked the question what make up I move
so she said I’m interested in Pride
movement have you seen a plant that wave
and you when you talk to it I said I
planned that wave and you when you talk
to it say it again apply that wave and
you when you talk to me that is
impossible
no sensation to sound let alone movement
and then say go gentlemen
and then she went home in a mix Monday
she show me his cape right I’m gonna pay
I would like to ask you to watch me with
about 10 seconds long and not only
watched the cream maybe the creep is not
so interesting but I want to listen to
the audio even you can understand what
what do you know the first scientist who
ever study how movement it was as a
child starving who happened to it’s
when upon in 1880 with his son and the
PDF of the Pope is available on the
website and I read it last week is not
my plant that student is in her first
year student she’s not even a biology
student is that if the Cornish professor
who have difficulty asking my students
women even the one thing for page of
lecture notes the thirst of confusion to
know what his plan is is unstoppable she
would she read their own book she
created her own education and then I
told her that well I don’t know what
species and the way to do that is to do
something quality and they bound holding
but you look at the DNA and the sequence
of DNA and then you know what species I
want to do that well you know about a
student into DNA barcoding you first can
go to second year and run genetics and
be fortunate if you need to learn ok the
chemistry to study DNA chemistry and
then you also need to learn with the
conjurer and the rate of mutation I
can’t wait for two years she said I have
to do it now because thinking about this
plant she did bathe a barcoding
um she went to the lab she learned
everything PCR she did the experiment
herself she is in a country pub she went
we now know what species live and she’s
still working on this project
friend who’s demonstrating these things
she’s he’s interested in how virtual
where it is help encouraging people to
do more exercise in two months he
learned how to build the whole thing the
whole thing was built by him of Robotics
hero cooked to make virtual real made by
him we did fishing anything the
incentive is our allow him to do that
he’s another another students working on
albanism coastline mode it’s like movie
crawl to the food right but if they give
give them three different types of food
with different flavor which one will he
choose this that’s the experiment and
she did the time-lapse movie by herself
the students start shoot this is from
the from the guy who asked to go what we
won’t make insects attracted to delight
they write magazine articles we didn’t
tell them to do that right and they’ve
read so much that they became experts in
this field they discover in Chinese
Chinese newspaper they discover
anti-cancer compounds in vegetables they
got reported in magazine education
magazine basically called Hong Kong’s
educational overall this okay this is
really a great experience for me is
almost like it changed my life
right I know I don’t believe that
there’s something wrong with our
education
if you remember one thing in my talk I
want I want you to remember this our
education systems celebrate answers we
are all we are we have to stop now right
but then the questions I think is more
important right we should award student
who asked the right questions and and
not the one who come up with the
expected answer so I’m sorry about this
two minutes over run but thank you very
much for the attention [Applause]