Making Trouble

THE FAIRYLAND

OF SCIENCE

MAGIC IS IN THE MIND OF A FIFTH-GRADER NEAR YOU.

By Saul Griffith

“I HAVE PROMISED TO INTRODUCE YOU TO the fairy-land of science — a somewhat bold promise, seeing that most of you probably look upon science as a bundle of dry facts, while fairy-land is all that is beautiful and full of poetry and imagination. But I thoroughly believe myself, and hope to prove to you, that science is full of beautiful pictures, of real poetry, and of wonder-working fairies … and though they themselves will always remain invisible, yet you will see their wonderful power at work everywhere around you.”

These are the words of Arabella B. Buckley from The Fairy-Land of Science, penned in 1891. If I thought about a modern-day equivalent to this little book, I suspect it would be about the wondrous land of invention, and how it promises more reward and delight than the magical land of special effects. I’d like to see kids inspired by the fantastic feats of their big-screen heroes to produce real-world equivalents, to invent their own magic, through a deep understanding of the fairyland of science, with a good application of engineering.

I love magic as much as the next person: I love the illusions, I love the sleight of hand, I love the spectacle. To me, however, the real magic is in trying to explain the phenomenology of the trick. You know you’re watching a great magician when you’re struggling to explain the physics or even the optics of what’s going on.

Why not use magic as an entrée into the world of science, engineering, and invention? The phenomenon is the science, the props the invention, the execution the engineering. This way of imagining the world allows kids to envision their own magic, and then to make it.

38 Make: Volume 13

I recently returned from a tour promoting our first Howtoons book (see page 178 for our regularly appearing MAKE Howtoons). My co-author Nick Dragotta and I visited seven or eight cities in the United States and talked to groups of 50 to 400 kids at a dozen or so schools. The kids were third-through seventh-graders, and the experience was delightful and inspiring for a host of reasons.

I’d like to see kids inspired by the feats of their big-screen heroes to produce real-world equivalents.

Nick and I would do a presentation with the kids where we would describe what we do in our professional careers. It turns out kids are amazed to find out that someone can make a living drawing superheroes, and are inspired to find out that one can also grow up to be an inventor and build kites as large as their school auditoriums. (They were, however, horrified when I said I was in school for 26 years. I don’t think they thought that was possible, and when faced with more years of school than their current age, it must have seemed like a nightmare.)

After showing kids how to make projects from our book, they became extremely excited when we finished our time with a Q&A. It was actually less a Q&A than an invitation to imagine: if they could invent or draw anything, what would they most like to invent or draw? While I would then discuss how