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This virtual lab will revolutionize science class

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    Today I am going to show you
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    how this tablet and this virtual
    reality headset that I'm wearing
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    are going to completely
    revolutionize science education.
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    And I'm also going to show you
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    how it can make any science teacher
    more than twice as effective.
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    But before I show you how
    all of this is possible,
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    let's talk briefly
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    about why improving
    the quality of science education
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    is so vitally important.
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    If you think about it,
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    the world is growing incredibly fast.
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    And with that growth comes
    a whole list of growing challenges.
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    Challenges such as dealing
    with global warming,
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    solving starvation and water shortages,
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    and curing diseases,
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    to name just a few.
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    And who exactly is going to help us
    solve all of these great challenges?
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    Well, to [varying degrees]
    it is these young students.
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    This is the next generation
    of young, bright scientists
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    and in many ways,
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    we all rely on them
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    for coming up with new, great innovations
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    to help us solve all
    these challenges ahead of us.
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    And so a couple of years back,
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    my cofounder and I were
    teaching university students,
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    just like these,
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    only the students we were teaching
    looked a little bit more like this here.
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    (Laughter)
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    And yes, this is really
    the reality out there
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    in way too many universities
    around the world.
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    Students that are bored, disengaged
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    and sometimes not even sure why they're
    learning about a topic in the first place.
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    So we started looking around for new,
    innovative teaching methods,
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    but what we found was quite disappointing.
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    We saw that books were being
    turned into e-books,
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    blackboards were being turned
    into Youtube videos
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    and lecture hall monologues
    were being turned into MOOCs:
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    massive online open courses.
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    And if you think about it,
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    all we're really doing here
    is taking the same content
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    and the same format,
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    and bringing it out to more students.
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    Which is great --
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    don't get me wrong.
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    That is really great,
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    but the teaching method
    is still more or less the same,
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    no real innovation there.
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    So we started looking elsewhere,
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    and what we found
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    was the flight simulators
    had been proven over and over again
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    to be far more effective
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    when used in combination with real,
    in-flight training to train the pilots.
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    And so we thought to ourselves:
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    why not just apply that to science?
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    Why not build a virtual
    laboratory simulator?
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    Well, we did it.
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    We basically set out to create
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    a fully simulated, one-to-one,
    virtual reality laboratory simulator,
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    where the students
    could perform experiments
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    with mathematical equations
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    that would simulate what would
    happen in a real-world lab.
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    But not just simple simulations,
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    we would also create advanced simulations
    with top universities like MIT,
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    to bring out cutting-edge cancer
    research to these students.
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    And suddenly the universities
    could save millions of dollars
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    by letting the students
    perform virtual experiments
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    before they go into the real laboratory.
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    And not only that,
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    now they could also understand --
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    even on a molecular level
    inside the machine --
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    what is happening to the machines.
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    And then they could suddenly perform
    dangerous experiments in the labs as well.
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    For instance also here,
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    learning about salmonella bacteria,
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    which is an imporant topic
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    that many schools cannot teach
    for a good safety reasons.
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    And we of course quiz the students
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    and then give the teachers
    a full dashboard,
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    so they fully understand
    where the students are at.
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    But we didn't stop there
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    because we had seen just
    how important [meaning] is
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    for the students' engagement in the class.
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    So we brought in game designers
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    to create fun and engaging stories.
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    For instance here in this case,
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    where the students have to solve
    a mysterious CSI muder case
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    using their core science skills.
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    And the feedback we got
    when we launched all of this
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    was quite overwhelmingly positive.
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    Here we have 300 students
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    all passionately solving CSI murder cases
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    while learning core science skills.
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    And what I love the most about this
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    is really when the students
    come up to me sometimes afterwards,
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    and they're all surprised
    and a little confused,
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    and say, "I just spent
    two hours in this virtual lab
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    and I didn't check Facebook?"
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    (Laughter)
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    That's how engaging and immersive
    this really is for the students.
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    And so to investigate
    whether this really worked,
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    a learning psychologist
    did a study with 160 students
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    [that were] from Stamford University
    and a technical university in Denmark.
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    And what they did is they split
    the students into two groups:
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    one group would only use
    the virtual laboratory simulations
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    and then the other group would
    only use traditional teaching methods,
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    and they had the same amount of time.
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    Okay?
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    Then interestingly,
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    they gave the students a test
    before and after the experiments,
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    so they could clearly measure
    the learning impact of the students.
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    And what they found
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    was a surprisingly high 76 percent
    increase in the learning effectiveness
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    when using virtual laboratories
    over traditional teaching methods.
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    But even more interestingly,
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    the second part of this study
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    investigated what the teacher's
    impact was on the the learning.
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    And what they found
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    was that when you combined
    the virtual laboratories
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    with teacher-led coaching and mentoring,
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    then we saw a total 101 percent
    increase in the learning effectiveness,
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    which effectively doubles
    the science teacher's impact
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    with the same amount of time spent.
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    So a couple of months back,
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    we started asking ourselves --
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    we have a wonderful team now
    of learning psychologists
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    and teachers and scientists
    and game developers --
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    and we started asking ourselves:
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    how can we keep ourselves
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    to our promise of constantly
    reimagining education?
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    And today I am really excited
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    to be presenting what we came up with
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    and have been working
    incredibly hard to create.
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    And --
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    I will explain briefly what this is.
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    Basically I take my mobile phone --
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    most students already have these,
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    smartphone --
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    and I plug it into this virtual
    reality headset.
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    A low-cost headset.
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    And now what I can effectively do is,
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    I can literally step
    into this virtual world
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    and we'll have some of you
    in the audience also get to try this
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    because it is really something
    that you have to try
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    to fully feel how immersive it really is.
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    It literally feels like I just stepped
    inside this virtual lab.
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    Do you see me up on the screen?
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    (Yes)
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    Great, awesome, very good.
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    So basically,
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    now I have just turned my mobile phone
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    into a fully-simulated, million-dollar,
    Ivy League laboratory
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    with all this amazing equipment
    that I can interact with.
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    I can, for instance here,
    pick up the pipette
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    and I can do experiments with it.
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    I have my [E-gel],
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    my PCR,
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    and oh, look there I have my Next
    Generation Sequencing machine,
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    and oh, [there I even have]
    my electron microscope.
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    I mean, who's carrying around
    an electron microscope in their pocket?
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    And here,
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    here I have my machine,
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    I can do different experiments
    on the machine,
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    and over here I have the door,
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    I can go into other experiments,
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    I can perform in [other] laboratories.
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    And here I have my learning tablet.
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    This is an intelligent tablet
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    that allows me to read
    about relevant theory.
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    And as you can see,
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    I can interact with it,
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    I can watch videos
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    and see content that is
    relevant to the experiment
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    that I'm performing right now.
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    And then over here I have Marie.
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    She is my teacher --
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    my lab assistant --
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    and what she does is she guides me
    through this whole laboratory,
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    and very soon,
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    the teachers will be able
    to literally teleport themselves
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    into this virtual world
    that I'm in right now
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    and help me --
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    guide me through this whole experiment.
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    And now before I finalize this,
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    I was want to show you
    an even cooler thing, I think --
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    something you cannot
    even do in the real laboratories.
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    This is a PCR machine
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    and I'm now going
    to start this experiment.
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    And what I just did
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    is I literally shrunk myself
    a million times
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    into the size of a molecule --
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    and it really feels like it,
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    you have to try this.
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    So now it feels like
    I'm standing inside the machine
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    and I'm seeing all the DNA,
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    and I see the molecules,
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    I see the polymerase
    and the enzymes and so forth --
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    and I can see how in this case,
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    DNA is being replicated millions of times,
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    just like it's happening
    inside your body right now
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    and I can really feel and understand
    how all of this works.
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    Now I hope that gives you
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    a little bit of a sense
    of the possibilities
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    in these new teaching methods.
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    And I want to also emphasize
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    that everything you just saw
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    also works on iPads and laptops
    without the headsets,
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    and I say that for
    a very important reason.
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    In order for us to really
    empower and inspire
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    the next generation of scientists,
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    we really need teachers
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    to drive the adoption of new
    technologies in the classroom.
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    And so in many ways,
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    I believe that the next big,
    quantum leap in science education
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    lies no longer with the technology,
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    but rather with the teacher's
    decision to push forward
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    and adopt these technologies
    inside the classrooms.
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    And so it is our hope
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    that more universities,
    and schools and teachers
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    will collaborate with technology
    companies to realize this full potential.
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    And so lastly,
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    I'd like to leave you with a little
    story that really inspires me,
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    and that is the story of Jack Andraka.
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    Some of you might already know him.
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    Jack --
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    he invented a new, grounded-breaking,
    low-cost test for pancreatic cancer
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    at the age 15.
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    And when Jack shares his story
    of how he did this huge breakthrough,
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    he also explains
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    that one thing almost prevented him
    from making this breakthrough.
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    And that was that he did not
    have access to real laboratories
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    because he was too inexperienced
    to be allowed in.
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    Now imagine if we could bring Ivy league,
    million dollar, virtual laboratories
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    out to all these students,
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    just like Jack,
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    all over the world
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    and give them the latest, greatest,
    most fancy machines you can imagine
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    that would quite literally
    make any scientist in here
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    jump up and down out of pure excitement.
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    And then imagine how that
    would empower and inspire
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    a whole new generation
    of young and bright scientists
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    ready to innovate and change the world.
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    Thank you very much.
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    (Applause)
Title:
This virtual lab will revolutionize science class
Speaker:
Michael Bodekaer
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
11:26
  • Could it be that in 7:16 there should be E-Gel instead of E-Egel?

English subtitles

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