 "Photo: Molly Connolly\Volante")
It was conceived in the back seat of a Honda by three people in rush hour traffic. Over 15 years, 30,000 people around the world have witnessed it in person. It has appeared on "The Late Show with David Letterman" 21 times. Sound weird? That is just what it is.
"Weird Science" was the invention of a group of three teachers who have run National Science Foundation programs for teachers across the country and around the world, and last week Lee Marek presented "Weird Science" to USD faculty and students at the 2001-2002 Estee Lecture.
Marek's relationship with late night television started when he was doing summer workshops with his friend, Bob Lewis. Newsweek wrote a story about Lewis and he mentioned Marek in the article. "The Late Show" noticed it and invited Marek to the program.
"I think (Letterman) really likes science," Marek said. "All of the people on the show are pretty nice and reasonable to work with. They're always under a deadline, though."
"Weird Science" uses an MTV-style approach to chemistry, using videos of Marek from the "Late Show," along with jokes and off-the-wall demonstrations that keep the audience mesmerized for over an hour.
"We try to hook kids into finding an interest in science and finding a way for teachers to have fun," Marek said. "The cardinal deadly sin is to make a subject boring that is inherently interesting."
Since its conception 15 years ago, Marek and his group have given more than 500 demonstrations across the United States as well as internationally, including the Netherlands, Thailand and Canada.
"English is the universal language of science," he said, "People around the world like the show, but sometimes it's hard to translate some of the jokes."
Marek also gives presentations and workshops to teachers to help them keep science interesting to learn about and to teach.
"If mama ain't having fun, the kids ain't gonna have fun," he said. "If the teachers find the subject boring, so will the kids. Chemistry teachers are hard to find, so many schools rope in biology teachers to teach chemistry. We want to give them a better background in chemistry.
"Teachers tend to teach the way they were taught," he said. "We try to change that by updating the content they teach, making sure they are keeping chemistry as a lab-based science and lightening the content up to keep the student's interest. If you can start the class with a demonstration, you gain the students' interest right away. Then you have their attention for the rest of the lecture.
"Telling a good story with something makes it appear to come alive," Marek said. "Everyone likes a good story."
While on campus, Marek had a full itinerary. He performed demonstrations on Friday morning for general chemistry classes.
One of Marek's examples included using a potato gun to demonstrate Boyle's law of pressure and volume relationships. Keeping fresh routines and new material is something Marek said keeps the audiences drawn in.
Later, Marek visited with various professors in the science department and gave a public presentation at Churchill-Hanes. With his bright protective glasses and hard hat, Marek kept the audience in room 118 on the edge of their seats. Children as young as 5 years old to the distinguished Dr. Charles Remington Estee — the namesake of the lecture — were entertained by Marek's approach to science.
"Weird Science" has evolved with different demos and jokes over the years. To come up with new demos, they brainstorm or they see a demonstration and try to figure out ways to make it better.
Besides a hectic schedule of presentations around the country, Marek works full-time at Naperville North High School in Naperville, Ill., as an advanced chemistry teacher.
Marek has been teaching for 15 years and in that time has seen many of his students go on to be doctors, chemists and engineers. One of his students, however, is a writer for "Saturday Night Live."
"I think I gave him a D in the class," Marek recalled. "But a few years ago, I sent a transcript back to him with the D crossed out and an A instead."
Marek will retire at the end of the year from high school teaching, but hopes to be able to continue teaching to some extent — possibly at a university.
"I enjoy teaching and interacting with the kids," he said. "But teaching the young is best left to the young."
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