Neil deGrasse Tyson’s reboot of the show Cosmos has continued to inspire me as an educator and as a human being. Their content is accessible, visually stunning, provocative, and raises lots of intriguing questions about humanity. In their most recent episode, Episode 7 – The Clean Room, they document the story of a scientist named Clair Patterson who, despite treacherous odds, discovered the age of the earth and led the charge to remove lead from gasoline and other consumer products.
While his story is a great one, I am most interested in the purpose for dedicating an entire episode to this story. Is it a tribute to an influential scientist? A social commentary about the influence of ‘big money’ in public safety and policy? A cautionary tale about the inherent dangers of using products and chemicals we don’t fully understand?Seeing the value of the pursuit of this answer, I based a socratic seminar around answering the following question.
With all the science of the universe to study, show, and explain – why did the writers and producers of Cosmos choose this specific story?
The discussion was priceless, but it only further nourished my interest in the Many vs. Few Project.
