EDU236X Beyond Bits and Atoms
Reflection Paper 07 : On the shoulders of giants
Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Delivered in Stockholm, by Haleigh Baloo
Winner of the 2029 Nobel Peace Prize
10 December 2029
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, members of the Nobel Committee, ladies and gentlemen:
“If I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” It is with great humility that I stand here today, accepting this award on behalf of all the giants whose shoulders I have had the privilege of standing on. Time will not permit me to tell you about all of them – from Isaac Newton to James Watson and Francis Crick, from Muhammad Yunus to George H. Hitchings. Each of these giants offered broad shoulders for science and humanity, on which I was given the privilege to look far and wide, to be inspired to pursue the path that I am on.
But let me begin with a story of my personal journey – a story of a disinterested high school kid who had learned to game the system. Science was a breeze for me then – not because I had a passion for it, nor because I was a born scientist. Science was a breeze for me because it was taught in such a predictable way – all I had to do was to follow instructions, memorize my formulae, do some experiments, the answers of which were already known, and voila! That was science. Until 11th grade, when Mrs Foster stepped into my physics classroom, armed with her technology toys and her passion for the underserved, trying to teach us physics through her radical “constructionist-social-constructivist” curriculum.
All we wanted Mrs Foster to do was to show us what to do and what to memorize. Like what the other great teachers did. After all, we were all straight-A students. But no – she did none of that. Instead, she showed us a video. She showed us what some guys did South Africa, how they merged solar panels with clothes, how they brought power and energy to the community. Then she told us – use the technology toys to model what they did, create a prototype, and use some program called “Netlogo” to model the social impact of the fancy invention.
Oh she was met with great resistance (pardon the pun). Initially, I nursed so many negative thoughts about the exercise that would be too rude to repeat here. This was a system I didn’t know how to game! We almost started a revolt, if not for the fact that she was so nice and nurturing. She asked us questions, pointing us to concepts of energy and power. She gently directed us to find out about scientific principles, about resistance, about circuits, about solar power and about energy. She didn’t tell us what to do – she let us decide. Those were the toughest science lessons I had in my career as a straight-A science student. But I learned more in those 2 weeks than I had in 11 years of school. I didn’t just memorize – I understood. I didn’t just do experiments – I did science. I worked with my hands. I constructed real solutions. I didn’t just read about social change – I grappled with social issues, and I modeled how science and technology could impact community. I began to think science and social science. Together.
Without Mrs Foster and her radical curriculum, I guess I would still be doing mediocre science – rigid science. But by the end of that year in high school, I was transformed. My mind was hard wired into questioning science and constructing science. I was inspired to think about science in the context of social change. That year of experiencing physics in that way changed the way I thought as a scientist and a social scientist. All the work that I do with science and the underserved now, I do and grapple using the mind tools that I learned in that 11th grade science classroom.
I therefore accept this award not just on behalf of the giants like Newton and Watson. I accept this award on behalf of that one great giant who stepped into my 11th grade classroom, Mrs Foster. Truly it was my privilege to stand on the shoulders of giants.
Delivered in Stockholm, by Haleigh Baloo
Winner of the 2029 Nobel Peace Prize
10 December 2029
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, members of the Nobel Committee, ladies and gentlemen:
“If I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” It is with great humility that I stand here today, accepting this award on behalf of all the giants whose shoulders I have had the privilege of standing on. Time will not permit me to tell you about all of them – from Isaac Newton to James Watson and Francis Crick, from Muhammad Yunus to George H. Hitchings. Each of these giants offered broad shoulders for science and humanity, on which I was given the privilege to look far and wide, to be inspired to pursue the path that I am on.
But let me begin with a story of my personal journey – a story of a disinterested high school kid who had learned to game the system. Science was a breeze for me then – not because I had a passion for it, nor because I was a born scientist. Science was a breeze for me because it was taught in such a predictable way – all I had to do was to follow instructions, memorize my formulae, do some experiments, the answers of which were already known, and voila! That was science. Until 11th grade, when Mrs Foster stepped into my physics classroom, armed with her technology toys and her passion for the underserved, trying to teach us physics through her radical “constructionist-social-constructivist” curriculum.
All we wanted Mrs Foster to do was to show us what to do and what to memorize. Like what the other great teachers did. After all, we were all straight-A students. But no – she did none of that. Instead, she showed us a video. She showed us what some guys did South Africa, how they merged solar panels with clothes, how they brought power and energy to the community. Then she told us – use the technology toys to model what they did, create a prototype, and use some program called “Netlogo” to model the social impact of the fancy invention.
Oh she was met with great resistance (pardon the pun). Initially, I nursed so many negative thoughts about the exercise that would be too rude to repeat here. This was a system I didn’t know how to game! We almost started a revolt, if not for the fact that she was so nice and nurturing. She asked us questions, pointing us to concepts of energy and power. She gently directed us to find out about scientific principles, about resistance, about circuits, about solar power and about energy. She didn’t tell us what to do – she let us decide. Those were the toughest science lessons I had in my career as a straight-A science student. But I learned more in those 2 weeks than I had in 11 years of school. I didn’t just memorize – I understood. I didn’t just do experiments – I did science. I worked with my hands. I constructed real solutions. I didn’t just read about social change – I grappled with social issues, and I modeled how science and technology could impact community. I began to think science and social science. Together.
Without Mrs Foster and her radical curriculum, I guess I would still be doing mediocre science – rigid science. But by the end of that year in high school, I was transformed. My mind was hard wired into questioning science and constructing science. I was inspired to think about science in the context of social change. That year of experiencing physics in that way changed the way I thought as a scientist and a social scientist. All the work that I do with science and the underserved now, I do and grapple using the mind tools that I learned in that 11th grade science classroom.
I therefore accept this award not just on behalf of the giants like Newton and Watson. I accept this award on behalf of that one great giant who stepped into my 11th grade classroom, Mrs Foster. Truly it was my privilege to stand on the shoulders of giants.