Tucker Hiatt, one of the Bay Area’s most beloved teachers, has been running Wonderfest- a nonprofit science education program-with his own and donated funds since 1997 (Wonderfest.org). The mission is based on the insight, inspired by Voltaire, that “societies will continue to make mistakes as long as long as they continue to misunderstand how the world works. When people comprehend nature and each other, through science, they make smarter decisions about virtually everything: personal and social relationships (psychology), our environment (biology and chemistry), and technology (physics).” Wonderfest promotes the scientific outlook so that mistakes-even atrocities-are gradually relegated to history. Since retiring from teaching, Tucker has devoted himself full time to bringing science to the public in non-school settings. Whenever I’m at an event with him I meet former students of his who have become physicists, engineers, professors-and still talk about how influential he was to them. Now his mission is to expose those of us who didn’t get to have him as a teacher (my words, not his!) to that same sense of inspiration.
Some cool things Tucker and his organization have accomplished:
*Wonderfest has presented hundreds of free (or nearly free) science events for the general public-young and old.
*Wonderfest ran a high school team science competition that gave students $70,000 in prizes and scholarships.
*Wonderfest has rewarded local, public-spirited scientists with $45,000 with it’s Sagan Prize
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