Science should not be complicated. Science should be fun. It should be easily explainable within the basic theories, using the elements: water is broken down to hydrogen and oxygen, air to nitrogen and oxygen. You can put two substances together to create something that was not there in the beginning. It's beautiful and remarkable, but Wondergy president Ken Fink wants to make sure “magic” is not a commonly used descriptive word.
Fink started Wondergy, a science-based educational program based out of Philadelphia, with the goal of bringing scientific explanation to a variety of people, including students, athletes and CEOs. He believes that everyone has an organic desire to learn how the things that they use every day work, and that with this knowledge comes the power to feel more comfortable with these things and inevitably feel control over them.
“I have three loves: science, education, and theater. This was my way of bringing the best of those three worlds together, without having to throw anything out,” says Fink, an explanation to how Wondergy was created. Apart from showing dramatic, energetic science-based performances in schools and at parties, the organization works as a science and marketing consultant to big brands, stressing the importance of comfortable, flowing conversation with customers.
“I came down to Philadelphia in 2002, and had a choice between going to Alaska to design exhibits for a museum there or coming here to study marketing at Penn.” After graduating, Fink used his education in marketing management and instruction to tie in with scientific theory.
“I'm an interesting mix of hippie-do-gooder who still thinks he can change the world and the son of an accountant.,” Fink only half jokes.
Wondergy was certainly created with that hybrid in mind. He was able to merge science and marketing in a way that was not common in either fields, and in turn, crafted the organization to be a multi-faceted instructional choir with experts in a variety of fields. Fink organized a team with range, involved is everyone from ex-windsurfing educator Mike Roswell to Paul Shaffer, Aeronautical Engineer, and AJ Kohn, the local pro-skater featured in a November issue of sister publication Flying kite.
The idea is simple: teach people more about what they already know, and show them the freedom in truly understanding the ins and outs of the things that surround them. Your favorite sport is also physics. The food you cook? Changes, visible and not, are part of the chemistry behind it. The best way to teach science, in Fink's opinion, is to teach using a subject the student is already very interested in.
“It's part of the feedback-cycle, because you feel comfortable with [something], you start to question it more. Unless you are given the chance to feel comfortable, that feedback will go away. Knowing something is a way to really have power over it,” Fink says, “It's all in the idea of giving people a safe place to explore. Play is by definition self-motivated, and we learn when we play.”
One playful example: Fink uses sugar to satiate scientific appetites:
“When our team sets up at the Phillies games we make ice cream using liquid nitrogen, we make cotton candy, and we usually have an educational stand in the middle of all of this where we talk about the science of all of that stuff. It's usually the most crowded. I mean, Science even beats ice cream and sugar.”
Fink says one of the biggest rewards in bringing fun, science-based education full circle is when he catches someone who's catching on. The overhead lightbulb. The “Aha!” moment, that is often the best part.
Apparently, that “Aha!” moment often comes with candy.
NIKKI VOLPICELLI is a Fishtown-based freelance writer and founder of the Philadelphia Music Showcase. Send feedback here.