Sudbury scientist using web tools to teach about science
The SNOlab chemist draws on his acting skills to teach science basics on YouTube channel
Sudbury scientist Steve Maguire is using platforms like YouTube and Reddit to teach people about science because he says it helps make it accessible to the everyday person.
But along with chemistry, Maguire also has a passion for acting...and using his personality to make science accessible to everyone.
On his YouTube channel he calls "Science isn't Scary," Maguire explains everything from how soap works to why the sky is blue.
200 questions & comments from Reddit AMA
Last week Maguire fielded nearly 200 science questions and comments during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, on Reddit, an online forum.
Maquire works as a chemist at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNOLAB), an underground laboratory.
Some of the questions he answered during the AMA session included technical queries about SNOLAB.
He was also asked how he teaches science and makes it accessible to others.
"When you have a wider audience, you don't have to worry about getting a space or people to come to your event," Maguire said of his online interests in promoting science.
Maguire said he is really interested in taking science to the public and feels the Reddit AMA was another way of doing that.
"Walking up to a mic in front of a room of people to ask a question about science, can be nerve-racking. I've seen the nervousness, the stammering and stuttering of the person who really wants to ask this question, they're just terrified of being there."
The AMA session was organized through the American Chemical Society, which Maguire is a member of.
"People think science has to be hard or boring...that's not true."
"People think that science has to be hard, or boring, or 'mathy' or that only scientists can do it. That's not true."
He said he gets a lot of the comments from people who tell him they never understood science until he explained it to them.
Maguire said he plans to continue his online ventures and would like to be the next science guy on television.
"If you told me ten years ago I could sit in my living room and produce something that could be accessible to anybody around the world, I would have laughed at you."
Maguire credits his Grade 11 Chemistry teacher for helping develop his interest in science and chemistry. "I clicked with his teaching style. I discovered that I like chemistry. I liked knowing what things were made of and how you can turn things into other things."
Anyone who may have a science question for Steve Maguire can find him on Twitter at @sciencenotscary.
With files from Marina von Stackelberg/packaged by Angela Gemmill