When I was growing up, we had discovery channel. That sparked my intrinsic curiousity. My daughter has that intrinsic motivation as well, but only for k-pop now. She likes youtube videos and she likes when I tell her about science stuff. Maybe I can combine that by recommending her some good youtube channels.
Oh my God I love the fact that you are using Lemmy for this! :D
#lemmy4everything
Science Max: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbprhISv-0ReKPPyhf7-Dtw
Also Myth Busters - not sure if available on YouTube, we ripped the DVDs long ago. Most episodes are pretty PC but some are definitely not appropriate so vetting required.
What episode of Mythbusters is remotely inappropriate for a 12 year old? It’s a family program.
My 12 yr old son is pretty sensitive to pigs being blown up for example but I guess not everyone is. The infamous torture episode also comes to mind, we didn’t show him that one. I’m just saying that it’s up to the parents.
Kurzgesagt, PBS Spacetime, and Rational Animations are always fun, and quite accessible to children. I’m not sure where gender comes into it though
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Hank Green’s stuff?
Hank Green good.
I don’t understand why people see him as an authority on everything it’s weird
Some people do
But he is a general science communicator. Like bill nye or something. He isn’t the expert on any specific thing (as he will tell you himself), but people often don’t want to watch content from a super specific specialist because they get bored of too much content on a specific topic. Hank (and his channels) have a research team who go out and contact specialists and experts, and then distill that into something close enough to the truth and still entertaining.I don’t dislike the guy I watch his stuff sometimes I just don’t understand why people like him THAT much. Like a parasocial unhealthy worshipping type thing I don’t think it has anything to do with the quality of his works but rather his charming character. And these days we know all too well the evil that can accompany charming. It’s just strange we keep putting these men on pedestals.
I think I kinda get you, but also I think that it’s just kinda the nature of humans to put people on pedestal. I can’t really answer why (and honestly maybe I’m totally wrong, I’m not a social scientist).
As far as pedestal candidates go, if we had to choose, I’d rank him pretty high. Seems to be a fairly reasonable and ethical guy, pretty smart, willing to listen to experts, loves to learn, self aware, and seems to be pretty ethical. Not as far left as I’d like, but choices are slim lol.
How much is a facade and how much is truly him? We can never know. If it’s a facade, it’s an excellent one.
I find it very weird he (and Crash Course too) isn’t top of the list in this thread.
Technology Connections
Periodic Videos
Computerphile
One Blue Three Brown
MinutePhysicsThe first few, at least, seem kinda heavy for a tween
Kurgezagt (probably misspelled it, search for in a nutshell)
in german the z and s sounds are switched. and you missed the actual z. its Kurzgesagt (from the word “Kurz” (short) and the 3. person singular perfect of the verb “sagen” (to say), “gesagt” (said)).
(sorry but i couldn’t not correct you and explain where the word came from)
If we’re being pedantic (which I’m all for), the sounds aren’t switched 1:1 exactly.
German z is usually a ts sound, like the tz in hertz.
German s is indeed commonly the same bu**zzing sound as English z (but it can also be a sharp hiss**ing **s**ound).
An approximation might be [koorts guh zaakt].
SciShow is good people making science content aimed at a general audience.
In addition to SciShow, PBS Eons is a good watch. Shout out to The Octopus Lady and The Monterey Bay Aquarium as well!
Literally all of https://m.youtube.com/c/crashcourse too.
The Royal Institution, especially the Christmas Lecture series. Even the ones going back 30 years are great.
Maybe NOVA?
pbs.org/nova
youtube/@novapbsThey cover a wide range of topics, show professionals at work & explaining their work (glimpsing a life/work of an actual scientists).
Also good for having a sense of the context the modern irl world exists in, not just the here & now of personal bubble experiences.
Simone Giertz
That link format is unfortunate because Lemmy thinks you’re trying to link to a /c/ community.
This should work: https://www.youtube.com/@simonegiertz
Both work the same on Voyager/GrayJay
The queen of shitty robots!
Her new brand is more product design and inovation focused, but its all amazing (plus, Scrapps is adorable).
She made a laundry chair. Just simple industrial design project for a chair to pile your not-quite dirty clothes on. Brilliant.
Since I didn’t see many creators who are women, here are a few recommendations:
The Space Gal (Emily Calandrelli)
Emily the Engineer (content can be pretty rough - profanity and simulated danger)
Sometimes, I think science educators aren’t political enough.
Cleo Abram’s interviews with Nvidia’s CEO, Zuck and Sam Altman are her only interviews to date, and they all paint them in a good light without being critical of their work. I get wanting to make it to the top, but simping for the capitalist elite is just not a good look in my book, especially when science communication should try to minimize bias.
I also remember her video about John Deere last year, giving the impression the company is only doing so much good in the world…
Yeah, she’s been doing more sponsored content lately, it seems like.
Yeah, she has faced a lot of criticism in the last few years; some of it undeserved, some entirely deserved.
Not YouTube, but the Cosmic season was pretty good imo, even for someone like me who isn’t into space.
In addition to the others mentioned.
Kyle Hill
Steve Mould
Physics Girl
The Action Lab
Anton Petrov
Scott Manley
Veritasium
Minute Earth
Minute Physics
VSauce
SciShow
Hank Green
Cleo AbramSome of those I wouldn’t exactly trust as they’re going to be mostly pushing agendas from the private equity firms that own them, eg. like Veritasium.
I have noticed that his videos over the last couple of years have bumped production quality but felt flat. I honestly only really enjoy his early stuff. How hipster-esque lame is that?
I have blocked a few that I don’t even remember the names of because sponsorships start polluting the content.
I try to take the content for what it’s worth and consider why they are producing the content/message. Starts sounding (externally) commercial, I generally stop watching. Some of these I haven’t watched recently, so I hope they are keeping it real for the most part. I partially blame the platform as well because it doesn’t pay to make the content like it used to. YouTube is pretty crap now for content creators in this genre
I’d recommend NileRed and NileBlue, if only some of his vids didn’t involve things that would be seriously harmful for kids to mess with and that clearly are meant for adults learning chemistry to mess with, eg. like boiling sulfuric acid to purify it, which of course if that gets out of control, you got a massive disaster and easily severe skin burns, for example.
Otherwise, there should be plenty of science communicators which aren’t sellouts that are also age-appropriate for kids to be following along with.
Hell yeah. His videos are great. Forgot to mention him. My wife actually got interested in the cinnamon candy episode.
I still must warn that the guy messes with things that are definitely age-inappropriate for kids, though, see the aforementioned sulfuric acid.
Very Michigan-centeric, but Alexis Dahl is wonderful, meshing history and science.
God I can’t stand Veritasium. Even the name is so fucking pretentious. Dude is in deep love with himself, I can’t watch it. There’s just something about narcissists, I get an allergic reaction listening to them.
Good news than, he recently made a video about stepping back a little and letting his colleages do more videos.
God I can’t stand Veritasium. Even the name is so fucking pretentious. Dude is in deep love with himself, I can’t watch it. There’s just something about narcissists, I get an allergic reaction listening to them.
Just call him Dirk instead, he makes good videos.
Yes yes I know, I like the content. I just can’t stand him as a person. That’s on me. I was brought up by narcissists so I have this spider sense about it and I get a visceral reaction.
Well, his name is Derek.
I can see that. I, like you, appreciate the content, but I have found myself watching fewer of his videos. I guess that’s also because he seems to be farming out his content production now. I like the self-produced stuff more than larger-scale productions.
Apparently the channel is owned by private equity now
I’m shocked I’m not alone, I was prepared to endure the downvote enema, good to know I’m not way off in my judgment at least.
Hannah Fry is great too. Becky Smethurst as well.
I approve of your list but Anton Petrov is a bit much for a 12 year old, I think. Kyle Hill gets a bit dark for a 12 year old sometimes.
It certainly doesn’t hurt to just start off on the right foot with Carl Sagan and Cosmos.
Ha, yeah. That’s true about some of those channels. Kinda forgot about the age aspect. Like a lot of Simone’s videos have a bit of language, though she is awesome. I see her as far more as a maker than a science communicator. Not entirely sure why she was suggested a couple of times.
Like a lot of Simone’s videos have a bit of language
So do most 12-year-olds
I love Hannah Fry. She’s got so much joy out of a topic I don’t even begin to understand. She HAS to be a good person.
I came here to say Hannah Fry, too.
She’s been doing a lot of those YouTube shorts or reels or whatever they’re called, so that’s probably a good way in for the younger generation.
Then come the documentaries and books.
Also Nile Red and 3brown1blue.
for a more adult audience - Technology Connections. I say adult because I don’t think Alec would hold the attention of a teenager.
NileRed is more adult than T-C based on the type of stuff he messes with being super dangerous sometimes, though. Like, I wouldn’t want a kid messing around with things like manganese heptoxide or various strong acids or whatever that are super dangerous on their own with adults messing with them, let alone kids.
It’s not flashy but there’s plenty of great Richard Feynman lectures on yt. No one better at communicating science and math imo.
You’re going to park a 12 year old in front of a Feynman lecture? Good luck with retention of the material.
Lots of great recommendations already, but I haven’t seen mention of Nebula, and I was looking for something like it last year.
I’m not affiliated with Nebula, I’m just a fan.
I look for ways to support creators more while supporting Google less, and Nebula is my favorite for science video creators, at the moment.
Some of the creators recommended here also post to Nebula with ad-free versions of the same videos and with a little bit of extra content (think DVD bonus features) - slightly longer videos, sometimes extra or extended interviews with interesting people.
And pretty much any creator who is on Nebula will say so at some point in their YouTube videos.
