How Science with Sophie Creator Uses Comedy to Teach Kids
Sophie Shrand, a behavioral neuroscience and theater graduate, uses her YouTube series 'Science with Sophie' to make STEM education engaging for children. She aims to increase the visibility of women in science media to provide better role models for young learners.
Why it matters
It highlights the importance of diverse representation in science communication and the role of digital media in modern education.
Sophie Shrand has spent more than a decade educating the next generation of STEM students through engaging, comedic television shows.
But despite the show’s popularity, children’s connections to the fictional character lack the real-life impact of people like Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, David Attenborough or Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Sophie Shrand, who graduated from Northeastern University in 2011, calls it the “Frizzle problem:” her term for what she considers a shortage of well-known women who teach science on screen.
“Mrs. Frizzle is amazing, but she’s a cartoon,” said Shrand. “We have more and more women doing science on screen than we have before, thanks to places like YouTube. But we still don’t have the household name status.”
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