Can anyone recommend any good science communicators for a 12 year old girl?
When I was growing up, we had discovery channel. That sparked my intrinsic curiousity. My daughter has that intrinsic motivation as well, but only for k-pop now. She likes youtube videos and she likes when I tell her about science stuff. Maybe I can combine that by recommending her some good youtube channels.
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SciShow is good people making science content aimed at a general audience.
In addition to SciShow, PBS Eons is a good watch. Shout out to The Octopus Lady and The Monterey Bay Aquarium as well!
Literally all of https://m.youtube.com/c/crashcourse too.
In addition to the others mentioned.
Kyle Hill
Steve Mould
Physics Girl
The Action Lab
Anton Petrov
Scott Manley
Veritasium
Minute Earth
Minute Physics
VSauce
SciShow
Hank Green
Cleo Abram
Hannah Fry is great too. Becky Smethurst as well.
I approve of your list but Anton Petrov is a bit much for a 12 year old, I think. Kyle Hill gets a bit dark for a 12 year old sometimes.
It certainly doesn't hurt to just start off on the right foot with Carl Sagan and Cosmos.
Ha, yeah. That’s true about some of those channels. Kinda forgot about the age aspect. Like a lot of Simone’s videos have a bit of language, though she is awesome. I see her as far more as a maker than a science communicator. Not entirely sure why she was suggested a couple of times.
I love Hannah Fry. She's got so much joy out of a topic I don't even begin to understand. She HAS to be a good person.
I came here to say Hannah Fry, too.
She's been doing a lot of those YouTube shorts or reels or whatever they're called, so that's probably a good way in for the younger generation.
Then come the documentaries and books.
God I can't stand Veritasium. Even the name is so fucking pretentious. Dude is in deep love with himself, I can't watch it. There's just something about narcissists, I get an allergic reaction listening to them.
I can see that. I, like you, appreciate the content, but I have found myself watching fewer of his videos. I guess that’s also because he seems to be farming out his content production now. I like the self-produced stuff more than larger-scale productions.
I'm shocked I'm not alone, I was prepared to endure the downvote enema, good to know I'm not way off in my judgment at least.
Apparently the channel is owned by private equity now
Good news than, he recently made a video about stepping back a little and letting his colleages do more videos.
Just call him Dirk instead, he makes good videos.
Yes yes I know, I like the content. I just can't stand him as a person. That's on me. I was brought up by narcissists so I have this spider sense about it and I get a visceral reaction.
Well, his name is Derek.
That was part of the joke I was trying to make but I can see it was a miss since people didn't get the reference, never mind! It's on me.
Very Michigan-centric, but Alexis Dahl is wonderful, meshing history and science.
Also Nile Red and 3brown1blue.
for a more adult audience - Technology Connections. I say adult because I don't think Alec would hold the attention of a teenager.
NileRed is more adult than T-C based on the type of stuff he messes with being super dangerous sometimes, though. Like, I wouldn't want a kid messing around with things like manganese heptoxide or various strong acids or whatever that are super dangerous on their own with adults messing with them, let alone kids.
Some of those I wouldn't exactly trust as they're going to be mostly pushing agendas from the private equity firms that own them, eg. like Veritasium.
I have noticed that his videos over the last couple of years have bumped production quality but felt flat. I honestly only really enjoy his early stuff. How hipster-esque lame is that?
I have blocked a few that I don’t even remember the names of because sponsorships start polluting the content.
I try to take the content for what it’s worth and consider why they are producing the content/message. Starts sounding (externally) commercial, I generally stop watching. Some of these I haven’t watched recently, so I hope they are keeping it real for the most part. I partially blame the platform as well because it doesn’t pay to make the content like it used to. YouTube is pretty crap now for content creators in this genre
I'd recommend NileRed and NileBlue, if only some of his vids didn't involve things that would be seriously harmful for kids to mess with and that clearly are meant for adults learning chemistry to mess with, eg. like boiling or distilling sulfuric acid to purify it, which of course if hot sulfuric acid gets out of control, you got a massive disaster and easily severe skin burns, for example.
Otherwise, there should be plenty of science communicators which aren't sellouts that are also age-appropriate for kids to be following along with.
Hell yeah. His videos are great. Forgot to mention him. My wife actually got interested in the cinnamon candy episode.
I still must warn that the guy messes with things that are definitely age-inappropriate for kids, though, see the aforementioned sulfuric acid.
Simone Giertz
https://m.youtube.com/c/simonegiertz
That link format is unfortunate because Lemmy thinks you're trying to link to a /c/ community.
This should work: https://www.youtube.com/@simonegiertz
Both work the same on Voyager/GrayJay
The queen of shitty robots!
Her new brand is more product design and inovation focused, but its all amazing (plus, Scrapps is adorable).
She made a laundry chair. Just simple industrial design project for a chair to pile your not-quite dirty clothes on. Brilliant.
Technology Connections
Periodic Videos
Computerphile
One Blue Three Brown
MinutePhysics
Kurgezagt (probably misspelled it, search for in a nutshell)
in german the z and s sounds are switched. and you missed the actual z. its Kurzgesagt (from the word "Kurz" (short) and the 3. person singular perfect of the verb "sagen" (to say), "gesagt" (said)).
(sorry but i couldn't not correct you and explain where the word came from)
If we're being pedantic (which I'm all for), the sounds aren't switched 1:1 exactly.
German z is usually a ts sound, like the tz in hertz.
German s is indeed commonly the same buzzing sound as English z (but it can also be a sharp hissing sound).
An approximation might be [koorts guh zaakt].
The first few, at least, seem kinda heavy for a tween
Since I didn't see many creators who are women, here are a few recommendations:
The Space Gal (Emily Calandrelli)
Huge if True (Cleo Abram)
Up and Atom (Jade Tan-Holmes)
Emily the Engineer (content can be pretty rough - profanity and simulated danger)
Simone Giertz
Sometimes, I think science educators aren't political enough.
Cleo Abram's interviews with Nvidia's CEO, Zuck and Sam Altman are her only interviews to date, and they all paint them in a good light without being critical of their work. I get wanting to make it to the top, but simping for the capitalist elite is just not a good look in my book, especially when science communication should try to minimize bias.
I also remember her video about John Deere last year, giving the impression the company is only doing so much good in the world...
Yeah, she has faced a lot of criticism in the last few years; some of it undeserved, some entirely deserved.
Yeah, she’s been doing more sponsored content lately, it seems like.
Bill Nye the Science Guy from the 90s.
I was always the Beakmans World side.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8SFNbbOmAYNMcH8uywT24j5YXJTC2WTZ
HELL YEA!
Beakman is also great! I've got the full series of both on my Plex. My 7 year old likes both of them.
Good taste.
Bill Nye went crazy? Last I heard he was involved in the groundbreaking solar sail project and speaking out about climate change, what did he do that caused you to add this warning? I'm not disputing anything just asking for information.
Did he "go crazy," or did chuds just get irrationally angry because he had a song about sexuality in that show he did like 10 years ago?
Physics girl on YouTube, even though she hasn't made any content anymore for years due to long term Covid, she's still recovering, but her videos were always very inspiring, very happy and curiosity inducing
I think she's supposed to have a new video coming soon! It's about an interesting "photograph" of the sun.
Edit: Yay! The video is out now!
Hank Green’s stuff?
Hank Green good.
I don't understand why people see him as an authority on everything it's weird
Some people do
But he is a general science communicator. Like bill nye or something. He isn't the expert on any specific thing (as he will tell you himself), but people often don't want to watch content from a super specific specialist because they get bored of too much content on a specific topic. Hank (and his channels) have a research team who go out and contact specialists and experts, and then distill that into something close enough to the truth and still entertaining.
I don't dislike the guy I watch his stuff sometimes I just don't understand why people like him THAT much. Like a parasocial unhealthy worshipping type thing I don't think it has anything to do with the quality of his works but rather his charming character. And these days we know all too well the evil that can accompany charming. It's just strange we keep putting these men on pedestals.
I think I kinda get you, but also I think that it's just kinda the nature of humans to put people on pedestal. I can't really answer why (and honestly maybe I'm totally wrong, I'm not a social scientist).
As far as pedestal candidates go, if we had to choose, I'd rank him pretty high. Seems to be a fairly reasonable and ethical guy, pretty smart, willing to listen to experts, loves to learn, self aware, and seems to be pretty ethical. Not as far left as I'd like, but choices are slim lol.
How much is a facade and how much is truly him? We can never know. If it's a facade, it's an excellent one.
I find it very weird he (and Crash Course too) isn't top of the list in this thread.
Slop for my horses. Used AI to parse the comments and make a cohesive list with it's best shot at links
Then hand checked the links, fixed any broken ones I could find.
The classifications to the right are AI generated, feel free to comment and have me change things.
Added from posts: Fraser Cain, The Crash Course, Beakman's World, Cleo Abram
Added from my own list: nile blue, my green guy, hyperspace pirate, smarter every day, jeremy fielding, stuff made here, laura kamph, jerri ellsworth
Lots of good channel suggestions.
But I would also nominate COSMOS.
Both the original hosted by Carl Sagan, and the new series with Neil deGrasse Tyson.
For me, they brought the epicness of reality, scientific history, and the vastness of the universe, into focus in a way nothing else did.
They made me feel a hopeful and powerful "humanity is fucking AWESOME, and can do INCREDIBLE things". It's not just informative. It lights a fire in you for the way humanity fights its way through the dark, using the scientific method as our guide.
Tyson did a second season, as well.
you tube has pbs space time, nova, terra and the sci show along with others.
Seconding this. PBS has a TON of YouTube channels for all kinds of interest areas. Not all are going to be geared to a middle school audience, but much like the TV stations themselves, at least you don't have to worry as much* about the potential content as a parent (in terms of quality or appropriateness) vs random YouTube channels.
*I would say all their stuff is high school appropriate, but some of the more local/news-related stuff could be a bad fit for younger audiences depending on the kid, only because we don't live in a world that's child-friendly. Also channels like PBS Terra do a lot of videos about how fucked we are re: climate change (not in so many words of course) and although they do try to put an optimistic spin on it, sensitive kids might get freaked out by how bad things are (which would be an accurate response of course, so it depends on how much you've been trying to shelter your kid from this kind of thing I guess).
Vi Hart is great. She hasn't made videos in a long while but her old ones are still around.
Snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake
Triangle
Technically more of an engineering / maker channel, but Xyla Foxlin is great. She does occasionally swear, but a 12 year old has probably heard those words before. Yeetmas, where she launches a Christmas tree rocket, would be a good place to start. (Not a Christmas tree themed rocket, a decorated pine tree on top rocket motor as long as your arm.)
Crash Course/Hank Green
Dr Becky (aka Dr Rebecca Smethurst) for Astrophysics / Space news.
Any of the channels run by Brady Haran like Numberphile and Periodic Videos.
Most of my other picks have been mentioned already or else lean into spectacle which might not be appreciated by a 12-year-old girl. (Quite a few of the chemistry channels I watch are like this. In order of decreasing silliness: Nile Blue / Nile Red, Labcoatz, Amateur Chemistry, Chemical Force... Actually CF is pretty good by comparison.)
But I'm not you or your daughter. Check them out anyway and see if either of you likes what you see.
Literally: https://www.youtube.com/@Amateur.Chemistry
I guess no-one else thought to take the name before he did.
A-HA period makes all the difference,
i was hitting https://www.youtube.com/@AmateurChemistry and getting a dead paged named kramer :)
Found it streamimg on curiosity stream. $3-4 isn't much to try the service for a month and see if it's worth it to us.
Thanks for recommendation.
Maybe NOVA?
pbs.org/nova
youtube/@novapbs
They cover a wide range of topics, show professionals at work & explaining their work (glimpsing a life/work of an actual scientists).
Also good for having a sense of the context the modern irl world exists in, not just the here & now of personal bubble experiences.
I really like physicist Dr. Angela Collier. Not all of her videos are about science, but at least the plurality are. Her videos are generally pretty casual, and she doesn't really script.
I also really like Practical Engineering for civil engineering stuff.
I wonder if Collier might not be a bit too advanced for a 12-year-old who, it sounds like, is just starting to develop an interest in science. Might need some curating, maybe?
Crash Course is great. https://thecrashcourse.com/
I would have loved this when I was 12, I get to enjoy it now though https://youtube.com/@zefrank
Cleo.
She's not a scientist but a journalist, but a pretty good one, like, my top 1. She always covers science and engineering and always communicates extremely well.
https://youtube.com/@cleoabram
SciShow, PBS channels in general (although PBS Space Time might be too advanced for 12y old), anything with Hank Green
Edit: And of course Kurzgesagt
It’s not flashy but there’s plenty of great Richard Feynman lectures on yt. No one better at communicating science and math imo.
You're going to park a 12 year old in front of a Feynman lecture? Good luck with retention of the material.
You need the shorts, like when he explains rubber bands.
Well I was closer to 6 and 7, but I grew up with Mr. Wizard. He was probably Bill Nye's inspiration. Unpatronizing, simple, and straightforward science for kids. Man was a national treasure.
Science Max: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbprhISv-0ReKPPyhf7-Dtw
Also Myth Busters - not sure if available on YouTube, we ripped the DVDs long ago. Most episodes are pretty PC but some are definitely not appropriate so vetting required.
What episode of Mythbusters is remotely inappropriate for a 12 year old? It's a family program.
My 12 yr old son is pretty sensitive to pigs being blown up for example but I guess not everyone is. The infamous torture episode also comes to mind, we didn't show him that one. I'm just saying that it's up to the parents.
Tons of great recommendations here. I didn’t see it mentioned. For somebody into biology, especially apes, Gutsick Gibbon is superb. Erika is wonderful and crazy knowledgeable on the topic of hominins among other things.
I second this. Erika's great!
Myron Cook is the Bob Ross of Geology. His channel is a treasure:
https://www.youtube.com/@myroncook
Angela Collier
https://youtu.be/fLzEX1TPBFM
Carl fucking Sagan.
Oh my God I love the fact that you are using Lemmy for this! :D
#lemmy4everything
Huh?
Lots of great recommendations already, but I haven't seen mention of Nebula, and I was looking for something like it last year.
I'm not affiliated with Nebula, I'm just a fan.
I look for ways to support creators more while supporting Google less, and Nebula is my favorite for science video creators, at the moment.
Some of the creators recommended here also post to Nebula with ad-free versions of the same videos and with a little bit of extra content (think DVD bonus features) - slightly longer videos, sometimes extra or extended interviews with interesting people.
And pretty much any creator who is on Nebula will say so at some point in their YouTube videos.
Haven't seen Dr. Pamela Gay's name in this thread. So her.
if your 12yo is interested in space, physics, pbs space, is another one, but it might be hard to follow if your not versed in the field though.
I have started becoming a supporter of my local PBS station so I've been watching a lot of pbs content on pbs.org
It seems they have quite a few options for young kids learning science
watch mythbusters with her, maybe?
The Royal Institution, especially the Christmas Lecture series. Even the ones going back 30 years are great.
I would Anton Petrov. Good 10 to 15 minute videos on science and astronomy and current events. https://m.youtube.com/@whatdamath
Anton has far more than 10-15 videos. He's done more than that in the last 2 weeks and he's been making videos on all manner of science topics for years.
Lol yeah, that was supposed to say 10 to 15 minute videos
Any particular field of science? There are some great suggestions in this comment field already, so I'll just mention the CrashCourse channel on YouTube. Produced by Hank Green and his associates of SciShow fame. My kids love the CrashCourse Astronomy series.
i feel like Ze's humor is fairly adult
Bob MacDonald hosted a CBC Canadian show called "Quirks and Quarks" for about 30 years. I think a kid could get into it quite well. Happy trails!
Fraser Cain, universe today.
Space and physics stuff: David Butler - https://howfarawayisit.com/
Dr Iain Stewart has some good documentaries, Earth: The Biography and How The Earth Changed History
Science and Futurism with Issac Arthur on YT.
This week in science (haven't listened on a while but it had two women phds and a dude on it).
Not science and maybe not that young but skepchick is good
Not YouTube, but the Cosmic season was pretty good imo, even for someone like me who isn't into space.
The Rest is Science, bobby broccoli, atomic frontier, chubbyemu, Stand-up Maths, physics for the birds, explosions and fire, extractions and ire, alphaphoenix, medlife crisis, journey to the microcosmos, pbs space time, the thought emporium, styropyro, sebastian lague
Check your local library to see if they have access to the Kanopy streaming service. It's a bit of everything, but lots of top-notch documentaries on there!
https://drkarl.com/
Dr Karl from Australia. has a weekly podcast/radio segment (Science with Dr Karl) on Triple J and has published a million books. He wears loud shirts and can be quite interesting to listen to.
He has been doing this for more than 25+ years... he'll also give a talk to your child's class anywhere in the world if you ask him
Kurzgesagt, PBS Spacetime, and Rational Animations are always fun, and quite accessible to children. I'm not sure where gender comes into it though
Dr Karl is the GOAT
Mark Robert is a good one. Most of his stuff is made for kids around that age.
A couple of years ago sure, all his recent stuff is sponsored slop.