---
author: TED
date: '2026-09-06'
guest: ''
layout: post.njk
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUhllpnYWR8
speaker: TED
tags:
- stem-education
- science-communication
- hands-on-learning
- pedagogy
title: Mark Rober 对谈 TED：CrunchLabs STEM 科学课程的缘起与动手教育理念
summary: 在前 NASA 工程师兼科普创作者 Mark Rober 与 TED 策展人的访谈中，Rober 阐述了其免费 STEM 课程 CrunchLabs 课堂版的缘起与愿景。他提出以“引申现象”和低成本动手实验颠覆传统死记硬背的教学模式，通过让学生自主探索与推导公式来激发其对科学的好奇心与直觉理解。
insight: ''
draft: true
series: ''
category: science
area: knowledge-meta
project: []
people:
- Mark Rober
- Whitney Pennington Rogers
companies_orgs:
- TED
- CrunchLabs
- NASA
products_models:
- CrunchLabs 课堂版
media_books: []
status: evergreen
---
### 重新激发对科学的热情
大家好，TED 会员们。我是 Whitney Pennington Rogers。我是 TED 的策展人，非常兴奋今天能在这里和大家一起参加这场会员直播活动。
Original English
Hello, TED members. I am Whitney Pennington Rogers. I'm a curator here at TED and I am so excited to be here with you today for this live member event.
Original English
All right. Now, I want to think for a moment about your favorite teacher. Maybe some of you are students right now and you don't have to pull back into the far reaches of your memory like I do, but I want you to think about this person and the things that made them so special. how excited they might have made you feel, how they made the subject they were teaching you come alive and made you want to lean in during their lessons and not zone out. I think for a lot of us, teachers like this maybe feel like the exception instead of the rule.
Original English
And when it comes to science, maybe even more so. But what if that didn't have to be the case? What if science could be the class that kids cannot wait to get to because it makes them laugh and beg to try everything out there for themselves? Our guest today has spent a lot of time trying to make science lessons just like that. He's a former NASA engineer, a YouTube phenom with tens of millions of subscribers and is undoubtedly one of the most beloved science communicators of our time. There is no question about this.
Original English
Earlier this year, he took the TED stage at our flagship conference to share his boldest project yet, a $60 million bet on the next generation of problem solvers and a new STEM curriculum designed to make science the class kids actually want to be in. That talk has since become one of our most viewed talks of 2026 so far. and he's here today to share more with us about that project, the philosophy behind what he does, and break down how he sparks excitement about science again and again for kids of all ages all over the world. Please give a warm welcome to Mark Robber.
Original English
>> Hello. How's everyone doing?
Original English
>> Hey Mark, how's it going?
Original English
>> Good.
Original English
>> Good. Thanks so much for being here with us today. The big reveal in your talk was the public announcement of your free STEM science curriculum for for kids ages I guess grades three through eight class crunch labs. Um and you talk a lot about that in the talk and that's a big a big thing that you you put forward. What what led you to create it?
Original English
>> I mean and to be fair like I don't talk about the talk's maybe like 14 minutes. I talk about it for like two minutes, but the whole point of the talk is to lead up to that in the sense that like peeling back the curtain on how we hide the vegetables and make learning science fun because if there's any subject in school that should be fun, heaven forbid it should be science. It's like [snorts] so it's like we kind of peel back the car on how we do it and it's like okay now that you understand how the sausage is made this is the this is the kind of sausage we will be making for the next five years.
Original English
Um, and so, and so like the the impetus for this came actually when my one of my buddies, his his kid came into the room and she was she she was like in probably 8th grade at the time. Like, what are you learning in science? I'm just curious, right? Because I do this on my channel. And she's like, "Oh, we just watched a Bill Nye video today." She showed me a worksheet that been copied probably 10,000 times. You know, each time you copy, there's like an artifact that comes along.
Original English
>> Yeah.
Original English
And I was like, and I love Bill, like he's a personal friend, but it's also those videos were made in the 90s, and this is a generation that has grown up on TikTok and YouTube, and there's like different tricks to, you know, reach their brains in engaging ways. And I'm just like, man, we we should we should do something like that for this generation because I know, you know, I've had to earn 18 billion views because on in YouTube, you could click on anything else, right? So, it's like you kind of get trained by the algorithm on how to make things engaging. And that was the start of it.
Original English
And I one of my superpowers, I think, is naive optimism where it's like it seems really easy when I have an idea. I'm like, "Oh, yeah, we could do that. Sure." [laughter] That's that shouldn't be a problem. It's been so much harder, but like I'm always continuously naively optimistic that's like, "Ah, that'll be fine." So, it's been a complete journey. It's it's evolved to be way more than I was initially planning on doing, but it's so clear that this is the right way to do it. This is the right approach. It needs to be done, and we're the right people to do it. So, we're just going full steam ahead.
Original English
I love that. And and you you said that it's uh you think it's the most important thing you'll ever do. And I remember watching you give the talk and you got a little emotional as you were sharing this. And if you can remember back to being on the stage, what what were you thinking about in that moment when you got really choked up?
Original English
>> Um I don't know. Like I I really do have such a soft spot in my heart for teachers. Like if I just teach him about teachers even like right now a little bit like I get a little emotional. It's like like teach it's so tough especially today to be a teacher
Original English
>> just because of a lot of factors and it's kind of the most important job in on the planet and so and they're not compensated as well as they like we should be ashamed I think I said that like we should be ashamed of like the support teachers actually get um for the importance of what they do and um yeah I don't know I just I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the underdog and for the especially an underdog who really really really really deserves it.
Original English
And so if I'm in a position to help them out then it just feels like you know what is life but working hard at work worth doing and like this feels like the most worthwhile work and like you know the most impact that I can you know have and affect change in like the most positive way cuz it's just no one's done anything like this. And then when we're ready to release it too, you know, a lot of times with edte and things, adoption is so hard, but like we're already teachers already show my videos in 40% of classrooms, but it's jello pools and squirrel obstacle courses and glitter bombs. It's not necessarily totally aligned with the curriculum.
Original English
So, all right, let's take all those tricks, make something that is totally aligned, exceeds all the state science standards. Um, and and and and then put it out there. And then I'll just tell, you know, I could tap a mic and get 50 million people to listen. So I'll just say, hey, if you know, tell your teacher, you want to watch this and you want you want to do this for your class curriculum and I'll sell that directly to the teachers and we'll have a map of the whole United States in every single school district and we're going to have three teacher and three parent volunteers in every single district. So like we we're going to roll this out in a way that like no one's ever been able to or done. And then we'll also go, you know, properly through the states for bottoms down, top up.
Original English
Um, we're just gonna get this out there and and not because it's like I have skin in the game, but like we're making sure it's five times better than anything else. Like we're independent folks are like running actual like curriculum studies and versus control in a classroom. So I don't want to waste my time or my money or anyone else's money and time if this isn't way better. like that's the hypothesis. So, we're just going to tweak it until it is way better and just get this goodness out in the world for free.
Original English
>> I know a lot of folks, especially some of our younger members who are watching, are really interested to hear more about you and your journey. And so, I'd love to talk a little bit about that. Um, I think most people who follow you know that you have this background as an engineer at NASA and Apple and and that before you started doing the work that you do, when would you say that your love of science began?
Original English
I mean like from a from an early age I think I just had a you know I think if anyone here has more than one child I know kids come pre-programmed and I just had an inclination towards kind of math and science and the physical
Original English
world
you
know
taking
apart
the
remote
control
um
also
just
like
coming
up
with
cool
ideas
like
the
first
job
I
ever
wanted
to
do
was
be
a
an
architect
but
specifically
designing
McDonald's
play
places.
So,
I
remember
I
my
like
white
sheet
of
paper
and
my
pencil
and
my
rule
and
I'm
like,
"Okay,
you're
going
to
start
here
and
the
ball
pit's
going
to
be
here.
There's
going
to
be
these
tubes."
Like,
I
got
all
these
cool
designs,
which
is
kind
of
full
circle
moment
because
now
we
have
Crunch
Labs,
which
is
like
our
headquarters,
which
is
like
a
Willy
Wonka
factory
for
engineering
that
has
secret
passageways
and
foam
pits
and,
you
know,
pistons
and
pianos
that
play
themselves
and
and
staircases.
It's
an
infinite
slinky
staircase
in
a
robot
you
can
play
rock
paper
scissors
against
that
you
can
never
beat.
So
it's
like
that
actually
my
first
job
I
wanted
I
eventually
got
just
in
the
very
secure
securest
route.
Original English
Um,
so
yeah,
and
then
and
then
I
think
specifically
when
I
took
high
school
physics,
I
was
just
like,
"Oh,
this
feels
very
good
that
like
I
can
predict
the
world
around
me
with
math
and
equations
and
there's
one
right
answer
and
it
doesn't
matter
where
I
grew
up
or
what
language
I
speak,
you
know,
if
I
drop
this
rock
off
the
building,
like
we
will
all
come
up
with
the
same
answer."
And
then
not
just
that,
you
can
literally
predict
the
future.
You
can
build
something
that
you
can
send
to
Mars
that
having
never
gone
there,
it's
like,
well,
we
have
the
equations.
It
should
actually
hit
the
planet
if
we
launch
at
this
point
when
it's,
you
know,
90
m
million
miles
away.
If
we
launch
at
this
velocity,
at
this
trajectory,
like
eventually
those
two
should
hit
and
then
we
could
get
from
the
upper
atmosphere
25,000
miles
an
hour
down
to
a
comfortable
six
miles
an
hour
to
land
in
seven
minutes.
It's
like
you
can
predict
all
of
these
things
and
that
it's
like
a
crystal
ball
that
actually
works
and
that
is
very
appealing
to
me.
Original English
>> And
a
lot
of
folks
who
have
shared
some
questions
about
your
your
story
or
your
journey
uh
are
just
curious
about
engineering
specifically
like
how
did
you
know
that
that
was
the
path
when
you
think
about
all
the
things
you
could
be
in
the
STEM
world
that
this
was
where
you
wanted
to
to
go?
Yeah,
I
think
specifically
mechanical
engineering
really
appealed
to
me
versus
like
electrical
because
I
like
to
be
able
to
see
and
create
and
build
something
physical
I
can
touch.
Um
because
there's
a
lot
of
different
engineering.
Um
and
I
don't
know,
it's
just
one
of
those
things
like
the
more
I
I
I
got
into
it,
the
more
I
was
like,
"Oh,
I
like
this."
And
then
straight
out
of
school,
I
got
a
job.
I
just
got
really
lucky
to
work
at
NASA.
you
know,
my
resume
was
just
in
a
pile
of
résumés.
Right
place
at
the
right
time.
Original English
Um,
and
I
think
that
what's
the
saying?
Something
like
fortune
is
what
happened
when
preparation
meets
luck
or
something.
And
certainly
I
got
a
little
lucky.
And
yeah,
and
then
I
was
at
NASA
for
a
decade.
Seven
of
those
were
working
on
the
Mars
Curiosity
Rover.
So
my
hardware
is
Original English
>> up
there
on
Mars.
I
think
currently
it's
120
million
miles
away.
You
can
see
it
in
the
night
sky.
the
little
red
dot
and
I
know
that
like
I
touched
and
designed
and
built
and
tested
and
integrated
something
that's
on
that
specific
dot
in
the
sky
um
is
really
cool.
Another
actually
another
really
cool
thing
about
Mars
is
really
fun
Original English
>> is
there's
not
really
a
lot
of
oxygen
so
things
don't
break
down
and
like
rust
basically.
So
long
after
us
humans
are
gone
and
all
of
our
structures
and
everything
has
crumbled
away
and
nature
has
just
taken
over
everything
in
a
million
years,
aliens
will
come
and
they'll
see
these
rovers
on
Mars
and
just
be
like,
"What
the
heck?
Where
did
these
come
from?"
Like
what?
I
don't
get
it.
Original English
>> Yeah.
You've
like
built
these
things
that
will
out
outlast
and
outlive
you
and
and
probably
all
of
us
on
this
call
in
some
way.
Original English
>> All
of
us
and
everything
we've
built
like
you
know what
I
mean?
like
in
a
million
years
they'll
still
be
there
and
every
single
structure
on
Earth
is
crumbled
away
into
dust.
Original English
>> So
it's
like
pretty
wild.
Original English
>> You
know,
you
liken
what
you
do
to
sort
of
like
hiding
the
vegetables,
right?
Like
you're
essentially
wrapping
like
important
hard
to
swallow
things
in
>> glitter
and
things
like
that.
Um
and
you
do
it
using
like
humor
and
spectacle
and
um
you
know,
now
you're
offering
the
blueprint
for
people
to
to
do
this
themselves.
And
I'm
I'm
sure
there
are a
lot
of
teachers
though
who
watch
and
think,
you
know,
well,
but
I'm
I'm
not
Mark
Robber
and
I
can't
do
it
the
way
that
you
do
it.
So,
like
what
would
you
say
to
people
who
feel
like
they
don't
have
the
the
personality,
I
guess,
to
pull
some
of
this
off?
Original English
>> Yeah,
I
would
say
I
mean,
and
this
is
like
the
point
in
the
TED
talk
was
like
the
trick
to
make
a
video
go
viral.
The
trick
to
sort
of
like
remembering,
this
is
kind
of
like
how
I
framed
it,
is
like
you
just
have
to
feel
something
in
your
heart.
Like
if
you
want
to
reach
someone's
brain,
you
have
to
enter
through
the
heart.
You
can't
you
can't
start
here.
Original English
>> This
is
why,
you
know,
if
you're
trying
to
convince
someone
out
of
like
a
being
a
conspiracy
theorist
or
something,
someone
who
believes
the
earth
is
flat,
you
can't
go
to
them
with
a
list
of
facts
and
like
try
and
reach
their
brain
of
why
it's
not
flat.
Like
you
can't
reason
someone
out
of
a
position
they
didn't
reason
themselves
into.
Like
the
reason
they
got
into
that
is
they
had
a
friend
and
like
it
was
a
community
and
they're
feeling
they're
getting
something
here
that
feels
really
worthwhile
and
so
you
got
to
start
here.
And
for
me
that
is
in
the
TED
talk.
Blow
up
this
trash
can
full
of
ping
pong
balls,
right?
Or
it's
someone
stole
a
package
from
my
house
and
everyone
knows
that
feeling.
So,
I,
you
know,
engineered
a
glitter
bomb
with
fart
spray
to
get
them
back
that
records
them
on
four
phones
and
uploads
it
to
the
cloud.
Like,
you
have
to
evoke
some
kind
of
visceral
reaction
for
people
to
remember
it,
for
people
to
care,
to
affect
change.
And
so,
I
think
that's
step
one.
Original English
And
even
in
the
talk
I
did
this
like
in
a
meta
I
don't
know
how
many
people
even
picked
up
on
this
but
at
the
end
when
I
was
like
talking
about
class
crunch
labs
and
you
know
I
said
like
so
to
all
those
teachers
out
there
in
the
trenches
like
I
want
you
to
know
reinforcements
are
on
the
way
like
when
I
got
to
that
punchline
like
I
was
very
adamant
that
Ted
let
me
like
play
music
not
just
in
the
video
but
in
the
auditorium
because
it's
like
this
is
me
demonstrating
my
point
of
how
you
hide
the
vegetables
of
how
you
get
people
to
remember
of
how
you
have
impact
is
like
you
have
to
feel
something
here
and
music
helps
with
that.
Original English
And
so,
you
know,
if
if
if
you're
a
teacher
out
there
and
you're
feeling
like
you're
not
like
reaching
the
kids,
like
start
here,
not
here,
you're
not
it's
not
like
if
you
just
used
a
slight
different
word
to
explain
it,
you
know,
then
it's
going
to
work.
like
they
don't
they
don't
care
what
you
know
until
they
know
that
you
care
and
that
it
it
kind
of
speaks
to
that
and
so
I
think
if
you
if
you
start
them
knowing
that
you
care
even
if
it's
just
like
in
your
level
of
effort
and
like
paying
attention
to
them
like
you
will
you
will
I
think
you'll
find
it's
easier
to
reach
them
here
and
that
this
Original English
look
this
is
the
beauty
of
class
crunch
labs
too
is
like
I
do
realize
that
you
know
people
have
different
skill
sets
and
abilities
right
and
for
whatever
reason
the
way
we
teach
science,
we
have
solved
a
lot
of
that
motivation
gap,
which
is
like
90%
of
the
challenge
of
teaching.
And
so
it's
like,
let's
team
up.
Like
I
can't
do
this
on
my
own.
You
can't
just
play
a
video
in
a
class
and
expect
it
to
actually
teach
them
like,
but
let's
team
up.
So
that's
the
whole
point
of
class
crunch
labs
is
I
kick
it
off
with
a
video
and
then
the
teacher
takes
it
over
and
it's
like
asking
engaging
questions
and
like
getting
them
going
and
then
I
come
back
with
the
video
and
I
throw
it
back
to
the
teacher.
So
like
that's
the
only
way
this
could
work
and
that's
kind
of
the
premise
behind
it
Original English
>> that
it
will
it
will
feel
like
sort
of
co-eing
with
you
in
a
way.
100%
it'll
Original English
feel like co-eing and honestly the teacher still the teacher is the hero to be very clear and I'm kind of just like teeing it up for them you know and just like hey kids I'm gonna say this thing now your teacher's going to take it from here you know and they become the focal point and I just keep like teeing it up you know giving them an assist
Original English
>> I love that you you know you mentioned at one point during our conversation that this is a generation of of kids who are consuming things differently it's not you It's not Bill Nye's science generation of consumers. Um, and I guess when you think about where kids are today, do you think there's a a bigger appetite for for the kind of content you're creating now than there might have been a decade ago because of how people are looking at stuff online?
Original English
>> Yeah, it's a good question. I would say like [snorts] I mean human brains don't change that much from a single generation to a single generation. I mean it takes hundreds if not thousands of generations to like have us evolve. So I think the raw DNA was always there, but just like the ability um I think like yeah the ability the fact that YouTube even exists that you know when I grew up you'd have to wake up on Saturday if you want to see a cartoon set your alarm and you get two hours of it on like ABC on Saturday morning and now you can just like every cartoon that is ever invented every single episode is available in like a window. So, it's like you have all this content here. Um, which is a which is a blessing and a curse. It's like it's it makes it challenging. You know, I I have to constantly up up update sort of how I'm doing what I'm doing to stay, you know, the audience appetite can change and what used to be spectacle and interesting and make you have that visual reaction 10 years ago like it takes more now, right? So it is this almost like arms race of of keeping the content interesting and relevant um such that I can evoke that visceral reaction and then reach the brain with like the cool thing I want them to remember. But I it's a challenge but it's one I welcome and I think it's really fun and it keeps it fresh and interesting for me you know
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>> and of course there's like a debate you know that's happening out there about screens and kids and attention and of course you're
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>> most successful people on the planet at capturing uh people especially kids attentions on screens. So how do you think I guess when you when you factor the work you're doing into it? How do you think about the the role you play in in that conversation? And and
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>> yeah, I think an important part about it actually is that um and one of the early feedbacks we've got from these studies that they're doing. A big part that I I just briefly touched on the talk is we have the videos, we have the teacher leading them, but there's these hands-on activities where you're actually like say for example for kinetic energy, actually for potential energy. This is a really fun one.
You build a little a little tower and then you know those water blobs that like you see sometimes at lake where someone jumps on and then someone goes flying.
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>> Well for potential energy you know the higher you well we actually don't say this but we we started out with this lesson that's the anchoring phenomenon. So you're like that is interesting. We're showing people flying. We show a car go down and like a crash test dummy go flying like all these visual things to get you hooked. But then in your classroom, you get a um you get like a Ziploc bag, you make your own blob and you make your own little tower and and then you have a little guy that goes flying and and we don't tell you the equation for potential energy, which is I'll say it here, which is mass times gravity times height, mgh. You just start dropping different things. And what you start to notice is that only two things affect how your guy goes flying. the higher you raise the thing that you're dropping that somehow seems to have an effect. And also if it's same height but heavier also seems to have effect and send your guy. So you're kind of like Scooby-Dooing your way to this equation without us even giving you. So you get like an intuition for it which is much more valuable than just memorizing an equation. But what's really fun is like the guy that goes flying, it's this little crash test dummy. And these can be really expensive that like force sensors to measure how much GeForce. And so the constraint I've given the toy engineers, you know, these product designers with engineering degrees is like it can't for a classroom, it can't cost $10, it can't cost $5, it has to cost zero dollars. literally has to be made from just stuff teachers have lying around the classroom or you'd find in the trash can. And so for kinetic energy, we build these little cards, which are note card and and two, you know, binder clips and then like the tops of a um of like a soda bottle are the wheels that you poke a hole through. Um, and that and like so these hands-on activities that the kids are doing for each for each, you know, engineering or each principal, each science control are really where a lot of the learning is coming. Again, we're tacking it here. When your science when your blob guy goes flying like, "Oh my gosh, did you see mine? Look how high mine went." Suddenly, they're stoked. They're engaging. They're showing each other versus like sitting in a classroom and a teacher just sage on the stage being like potential energy is mass times gravity times height. Please memorize this. Right? You start the other way around. You start with the wow and then and then we give you the how. But you got to start with the part that engages your heart first. So that's the point is it's not just like sit back and listen to me tell you potential energies mgh. It's more like I tee up the problem. The anchoring phenomenon for that unit in potential energy is like, wait, why? Wait a second. Look, go back. Play that back. Why did why did he go that the the kid go this high one time, but then the next time he went way higher? The heck's going on there? Right? And then the kids scooby-Doo their way to the answer, and we're never speedoon feeding. Each lesson, they get a little bit closer to that answer. It's it's kind of turning science education on its head. And we didn't even invent that. like open sed is a great example of a they kind of pioneered this in like 2019 like so they've done a great job um of like just showing how how much better you can teach science how much more can be remembered how much more exciting it could be if you do it this way versus just like I said sage on a stage here's the right answer memorize it
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>> or even just person on screen who's telling you you're in a lot
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>> person on screen the thing is it's very engaging ing and it's very like but also like uh almost half of the downloads so far of the pilot has been homeschool um uh folks who do homeschooling to make it engaging. So but even then they are seeing it on the screen but then they are taking it and they're doing stuff in real time. It's not just engaging on a screen. Um I I think you can't ignore that. And I'm really good friends with Sal Khan, you know, who does Khan Academy. um obviously very connected to Ted and you know and he's he's mentioned this like you know we'll probably partner up in some way. We are a yes and situation too like that's why we're telling everyone they can use our curriculum. If other people are doing curriculum they should come to Crunch Labs. We'll show them what we're doing. We'll share notes. This is a rising tide you know raises all boat situation. We want this to work for home school, charter school, private school, title one schools, like everything. This is a shotgun approach and that's why we're making it free is because as soon as you charge a dollar it creates this friction. So we just want to create this goodness and if people even there's people who charge for curriculum uh you know and if they want to use our curriculum in theirs and charge for it fine you know maybe they have to pay a license fee to donate to our nonprofit which is crunchlabs.org But like everyone this is
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open source like anyone can use this you know what I mean like we don't have our only goal is just reach and impact there's no world where we make any money off this.
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>> Yeah. Well, I mean, we have a question from Shendy S about, you know, how far this reach goes, you know, wondering if there's interest and opportunity in making this accessible to people who who are outside of the US at some point. And, you know,
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>> 100%. That is the ultimate goal. We we're very good at walking, you know, crawling before we walk, walking before we run. Um, a lot of our downloads, it's free. You can go to crosscrunchlabs.org and you can download all the curriculum. They're editable. So like even the curriculum, it's not like a PDF. We put it in Google Docs. So you could take that and you could copy and paste it, you could change it and make it whatever you want to make it exactly what you want. Um and eventually we will, you know, once we nail it in the US and like have it figured out, then yeah, it is a it's a matter of of scaling that worldwide.
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And you know, I think there are science standards in the US. I think there are another a number of countries who are starting to adopt our science standards um and that makes it easier but you know you got to start somewhere because currently different countries do have like slightly different standards instead of trying to make something for everything. We'll make it for ours. We know we signed standards and we know 95% of that will be pretty applicable to others but then you know country by country we can slightly tweak it as needed.
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Well, I think thinking about just sort of the future and where things head um not just for for Crunch Labs, but in for science education in general, especially online. um you know everyone of course like so many conversations all roads lead to artificial intelligence and how that factors in and what like for you when you think about the work you do if you're thinking you know 20 years ahead when we have and even today we have AI tutors and VR classrooms all of that like what is how does that change what a human like you or a teacher looks like in in that equation?
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>> Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, I think as you get I mean, I I have this piece of glass and metal here that I can use my thumbs to touch in a very specific way and get an answer, a very good answer to any question on Earth. Any question I could potentially ask, even if it's very personal to me and my inputs in my world, like I can get a a very good answer. And so the real skill becomes asking the question, the right question or even asking a question period. In other words, curiosity.
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And I think as AI becomes more and more like things that inspire curiosity and and that reach here become more important than ever. Um, and I I see it I think AI could be a great tool. I mean there's one example which I really love. I was thinking about the other day where it's like even in a classroom if they have you know some some classrooms do have computers there there could be a situation where there's like an AI Mark Robber or AI BAM who's also is one of our toy engineers at Crunch Labs that everyone loves
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>> where her or I it's like all right design your catapult you know for this potential potential like design it and then show it to AI Mark Rover you know and then I look at it and it's an AI version of It's like, "Oo, that's really good, but what where's your energy source? You might want to relook at that." And then they go back and then they show it to me again. I'm like, "I love that. That's so good. Raise your hand. Tell your teacher you're ready."
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So, it's like I'm actually kind of like tutoring each each, you know, me or Bam or someone is like working with them. And then there's the teacher. But I think you I think you'll always need a human element there. Even if it's like that and it's like a simulated human element, just like a robot coming in and teaching you something, I I think you're fighting against a couple million years of evolution there that like that's never really going to do it. So, it's like how do you combine how do you make the best out of it? I don't think it's the right answer to be like isue everything AI and be like absolutely not. No, I don't think it's the right answer to just a robot should be doing all of these things. So, it's like what's the best of both worlds? How do you combine those in a way that's like um that maximizes the impact? And I I think there's going to be some great ideas there.
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Yeah, I think there's really powerful, you know, another good example is like what we're making with Class Crunch Labs is the fresh ingredients, you know, but you can you can make different meals with those fresh raw ingredients. So a teacher could be like, "Look, I have 17 students. You know, half of them have this learning disability. Um, we've already covered this topic and this topic. They struggled with this. They nailed this.
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>> Take the cross climbs ingredient this next unit and customize it for me." Right? And it would be really good at moving all the ingredients. Okay. This is this is going to speak just to what you need. But you got to start with something good. the input has to be good to get a a quality output. And so I I I see like that's another really great use case where AI would be awesome with this.
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>> It's it's more Yes. And it seems like just how can you do both?
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>> Yeah. Yeah.
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>> Well, Mark, we have some fun questions from from kids um who are either of members or somehow became TED members themselves before before they um became adults. Um and so I'm going to share some of those with you. Um, usually people don't put their age when they share a question, but we have a lot of that. So, Winston K, who's eight, um, asked if you plan to visit space one day and how common will do you think space travel will be by 2040?
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>> Winston. What a great By when?
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>> 2040.
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>> Which is soon. It's soon.
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>> Yeah, 2040. I I think we'll definitely be on Mars. Um, I was just at I don't know if I'm allowed how much I'm allowed to say, but I will say three days ago I was at SpaceX um talking about something potentially in the next year or two. Um, if everything goes right. So, space is definitely in my near future.
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Um, uh, also there's some man, there's so much cool stuff to say in the next year or two. I'm going to be going to some very very interesting places. Uh and and and for everyone else, space travel, I mean, you could get to Australia from Los Angeles in like 45 minutes if you travel to space. Um so I I think it will become much more common. I think I think for everyone I mean Winston, it was Winston's eight years old, right?
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>> Winston for sure you will go to space. I'll say that much.
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>> It's exciting. there. I feel like there's a stay. Keep watching Mark Robber for more information about like where what's [laughter] on the horizon there.
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>> There's some cool opportunities coming up that kind of revolve around getting people excited about science education by me going to from some pretty wild places.
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>> All right. All right. We'll take it. Um, so Rory, who didn't share their age, but said that they are a kid, um, asked, "What is your favorite thing that you've ever made, and how do you think of what to make next?"
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>> How do you think what to next? I mean, favorite thing I've ever made. That's hard. We just did a robot goalie that that Ronaldo couldn't score on, like a a soccer goalie that moved back and forth at 40 miles an hour, and then we tracked the shot. Really, that was really fun.
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um the uh you know as far as what to make next. I think that's the beauty of being engineer is like it's not like oh the ideas come I mean almost never certainly when I was doing it on my own now we'll do it just because it's kind of fun with the team but like they almost never come from like I'm going to sit down today for an hour and I will brainstorm ideas never like I came up with a squirrel obstacle course when squirrels were stealing my bird seed and [clears throat] most people would just be like gosh darn it steals are, you know, squirrels are stealing all my bird seed. But I'm I saw an
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opportunity and I was like, wait, what if I really made them earn it with an eight part ninja warrior obstacle course? The birds could come and go as they please. The only way for a squirrel to do that is if he like solved all my things and I'm going to name them and, you know, I'm going to make it a thing. So, it's like uh or someone literally stole a package from my porch and I was very sad and I was sad for about a week and then I was like, "Wait a second. What if I devised a way to get back at these guys because I put her over on Mars." So, I should be able to come up with something that would be fun and exciting to get some revenge. So, so much so many of the ideas just come from conversations, everyday life. The key is you just always have to have that part of your brain engaged of like what would my solution be? So if you can start thinking like that, I think you'd be surprised how many opportunities are right in front of you at all times. You just got to get your head in that mind space.
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And I think that is some I do get that feedback sometimes from parents where it's like my kid watched one Mark Robber video and suddenly they're inventing ways to you know capture the rainwater on the roof and and and power a light bulb and to take the remote and turn it into like a you know a beam sensor when their kid their sister enters the room. I I love that, you know. I love being the catalyst for everyone thinking in their own domain how they can, you know, come up with their own clever ideas. They don't have to be that complicated, right? But like literally, if you're watching this right now and and you're a kid or if you're an adult, like, you know, a good thought starter is like, how do you turn off the light in your room while you're in bed? You know, that could look like a lot of different. Maybe it's a string on a thing that comes through. Maybe it's like a a weighted thing. Maybe it's like a a target that you shoot your dart gun at that hits it. You know that that can be a very using a lot of just duct tape and ingenuity and junk around your house. Like what does that look like for you? And then once you do that, you'll realize like that was cool. I learned this and now I'm gonna figure out this new thing. How do I make my door so it automatically closes? You know, you can just it's it's a really fun way of seeing the world. Well, ton of folks, Paul who is 13, Sophul who's 11, Luca who's seven, they all want to know what is the hardest or most interesting part of engineering.
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>> Um, I think the hardest part is also the most fun part, which is like it's it's never been done before. You're willing something into existence that's never existed. So, that's the opportunity. The challenge is like it doesn't exist because it might be really hard to make it exist. And so it's just this constant feedback loop. The number one mistake people make when they're trying to build something is they want their final version to be their to be their to be they're the first version to be their last the final. And nothing that exists in the world. You know these scissors right here went through so many prototypes to get to this final form. Did not start looking like this. And so same with these these headphones, same with this literally this cap. Like the amount of revisions that this has gone through to get here is in the hundreds.
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>> And so that is the challenge is like just start somewhere. Start with cardboard and duct tape as your first prototype and then get better and better and refine it until it is like something that works really well. And each time you solve a few more problems and do another version, solve a few more problems. Um, so, so that's the great opportunity and the great challenge is it's a it's a it's work and it's iterative, but that that's the fun part. It's a journey.
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>> Um, well, Mark, as we're winding down the conversation, um, you know, we've talked so much about what you're creating with Class Crunch Labs and just what you've been doing just in general with creating science content for all these years. when you're uh you know 80 or an old man and you're looking back at all that you've done, how how do you think you'll know that CR excuse me, Class Crunch Labs worked? How will you know that what you've done was successful?
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>> Uh I'll never get to that point
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>> and and I'm okay with that. Like I love mountains to climb, you know? I I I don't tend to look back very often. It's more just like, oh, but what else could we do? So, it's like someone else can can figure out if it's been successful or not. Like that's I mean I will I will I will always be analyzing it and figure out what more we could do to tweak it to make it better. But like I don't engage a lot in like, oh, let me look back and be like, "Wow, look at all we've accomplished." Because there's so much more cool stuff to do. Like there's always more mountains and and fun things. And like that is the joy, you know? It's the It's the happiness of the pursuit, not the pursuit of happiness. And so I get the most joy and happiness when it's like I take something exactly what I just said, the iteration and like making it a little bit better. Making a little bit better. And so if someone else wants to look at it when I'm 80 and be like, "Oh, it was good." And therefore, you know, mission accomplished, great. But I won't. I'll be like, "Yeah, but we, you know, we haven't got it nailed in Korea yet. So let's do that." And that's not to say like I'm not happy or satisfied. Like I do take great satisfaction, but I take satisfaction in like the the leveling up. And then hey, sure enough, what you find I think at some point is you have this body of work behind you that's speaks for itself that hopefully has impact. But like I will I don't ever want anything named after me like a building. I don't I don't believe in generational wealth. I don't like all that stuff is so like even the concept of legacy to me doesn't even make a ton of sense. I don't personally I just don't get it. That's not what I'm working for. And so um I I I appreciate the question. I think it's the right question to ask and it's an opportunity to just say like it almost is confusing to me because that's just not how my brain works. It's like what else can we do? How else could we improve this?
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>> Yeah, it's the process. you're just constantly in there
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>> of the process and then if you do that they're things I think do tend to work well if you incrementally every year you're improving by 5% that's like compounding results you know.
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>> Yeah.
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>> Well that those feel like words to live by and and maybe a good place to end. Thank you so much Mark for everything you've shared. I've learned a lot. I know everyone in the in in the comments have been saying how much they've learned. So thank you for sharing all this with us and taking some time today. Love it. Thank you guys so much. Really appreciate the time. [music]
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