Handouts are available below

Big Idea

How many science teachers are guilty of asking this question: what is science at some point – probably at the beginning – of the school year? I know I am. There’s nothing wrong with that question. But, what if we could ask the same question in a different way so that we can generate a more thoughtful discussion?

Getting the Discussion Going

To get students thinking about science, I first give students some ad slogans and have them guess the company. For example, “The Happiest Place on Earth” is Disneyland; “Just Do it” is Nike; and, “What’s in Your Wallet” is Capital One.

However, I also spend a bit of time deciphering cleaver slogans, like this one “Move the Way You Want”. Take a guess as to which company it’s from. Most kids guess it’s a company that makes shoes or cars or fitness accessories like FitBit. This slogan, though, is for Uber. It’s cleaver because Uber’s app does make it extremely easy to not just get to book a ride to get from one place to another but also to schedule a time, to add multiple stops, to split fares – the app really is the way it says moving around the way I want.

Then, I get students to imagine that they are a marketing firm that has come up with a slogan for a company and that the slogan is “the sweet science.” I ask them to write down (a) what company would this slogan for? And (b) why does sweet science fit the company? What does “sweet” or “science” refer to in the company?

For example, imagine eharmony – the sweet science. How is eharmony sweet Or or science? Or Reebok – the sweet science. How is Reebok sweet or science?

Give students 5 minutes to discuss in pairs and come up with 2 companies to apply the slogan to and why. Then, have groups merge with another group to decide on 2 ideas to share.

As for ideas, a lot if my students applied “the sweet science” slogan to companies that make food, dessert, cake, coffee or frappuccinos. For example, Starbucks literally makes sweet drinks and they use science in experimenting with ingredients of different flavor profiles in order to produce the sweet drinks that customers enjoy . Other suggestions that weren’t so literal included dating apps like Tinder and tech companies like Apple Computer products.

I write out student answers on the board – along with what science and sweet refers to for each company. And, the key thing I point out to students is that science is not so much a subject but a process or action. For Tinder, science is in the processes and algorithms used to match people. For cakes and sweets, science is in mixing and the chemical and physical interactions between ingredients. Science is an action – a doing – and not a subject

Where does “The Sweet Science” Come From?

I wrap up by talking about what “the sweet science” actually refers to. The term “the sweet science” was coined in the 1800s to refer to sport of boxing. The science of boxing refers to the strategy a fighter uses against their opponent. As for why boxing is “sweet”, I think it’s because seeing a good boxer is like seeing an artist paint. It’s effortless looking and flowing. It’s sweet. Just like when we see Steph Curry drain 3 pointer or Rafael Nadal make a backhand. However, I want to re-emphasize than even in boxing, the science is in process. It’s an action and not a specific item.

If you’ve tried or am trying this with your colleagues, please email me and let me know! 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): How My Students Use Ad Slogans to Discuss, What is Science?  

Our resources are free. We aren’t collecting emails for our resources. However, it would help us out if you liked us on our Facebook page and subscribed to our Youtube Channel. Thanks!