by Kathryn Blancas, BAVC Intern

“It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and work to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology.” —Barack Obama

Centered around the drama of competition at the Intel Science Search (America's most prestigious science research competition for high school seniors), Tom Shepard’s latest documentary, "Whiz Kids," follows three teenagers as they forgo more tradtional teenage activities to pursue a $100,000 scholarship and a future as a leading scientist. Be one of the first to see "Whiz Kids" at it's World Premiere and Benefit Screening! Thursday, June 16th at The Herbst Theatre. For more info about the film, visit: http://www.whizkidsmovie.com.

Tom Shepard has been directing and producing documentary films for the last 12 years. He is perhaps best known for his 2001 film, "Scout’s Honor," which traces the conflict between the anti-gay policies of the Boy Scouts of America through the personal sotry of a 13-year old boy and a 70-year-old man - both heterosexual - who are determined to change the Boy Scout's policies. “Scout’s Honor” screened at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the “Audience Award for Best Documentary” and the “Freedom of Expression Award.” Shepard’s work has also been broadcasted on PBS and NPR.

While the statistics seem bleak (US teens now rank 24th in the world for math and science), Shepard teamed up once again with co-director Tina DiFeliciantonio, to make a film about passionate and determined young people who are committed to making change. Gearing up for the film's World Premiere here in San Francisco on June 16th at the Herbst Theatre, I sat down with Tom to talk about the project: 

Tell me about Whiz Kids:

Tom Shepard (TS): "Whiz Kids" is a feature-length documentary that follows the lives of three high school students who compete in the nation’s oldest science competition. On the one hand, it’s a little bit of a competition film, but, on the other, it’s really a coming-of-age film about three young people who are using science as a major driving force to adulthood.

We follow Kalydra Welker from Harpersburg, West Virginia, who we met in her junior year of high school. She was researching a pollutant in the Ohio River that the Dupont Chemical Company has been dumping for 50 years. She not only created a way of measuring this chemical, but also a way for ordinary people to remove it in their kitchen with a household device. She now has a patent for this process. So, her whole thing was ‘power to the people’ and ‘let individuals measure and don’t necessarily trust the levels that they’re hearing from the local industry.’ The local industry has a particular perspective. We were drawn to her story because it is somewhat controversial. It’s a little “Erin Brockovichy.” She’s taking on an environmental issue. On the one had, her dad worked for Dupont. They’re part of this Dupont community, and Dupont provided many jobs in her community. But, her work wasn’t about tearing down Dupont. It was like, “How could this work to help this community?”

We also followed Ana Cisneros from New York City who goes to an all minority school: half African-Americans, half Latinos. Her research is on plant chemistry, and trying to figure out the ways plants communicate via chemicals in their roots. She wants to be able to identify and manipulate those chemicals to increase crop growth, ultimately helping farmers and increasing agriculture. We were drawn to her story in part because she and her classmates want to challenge the notion that most scientists, and particularly winners at these competitions, are predominantly white and affluent.

The third story is about Harmain Khan who is Pakistani-American. His parents came to the U.S. when he was just a baby. Soon after, his dad abandoned the family, so his mother was forced to raise Harmain and his four siblings on welfare. For him, science was not different from upward mobility. It was really trying to create opportunities that he didn’t have while growing up. He does a project in paleontology where he makes a discovery about how to date fossils that are over a million years old. Carbon dating only goes back 50 or 60 thousand years. The method that he used allows people to date at the time of our pre-ancestors. It’s called “ESR Dating.”

Of course, all the stories aren’t just about the science and getting into the competition. The stakes are pretty enormous.

There are magnet school around the country that provide incredible opportunities for kids  like mentorship’s with hospitals, universities and the FDA. And neither Harmain, Kalydra, or Ana had those opportunities handed to them on a plate. They were doing a lot of research in their homes and backyards. They were reaching out to get support from people around them. The stakes for them winning this competition and getting into good schools are pretty intense. We follow them from their junior year to the point where they’re applying to and going to college. So, you see the ways that their research influences the opportunities that are awarded to them.

How did you find these ‘Whiz Kids?’

TS: We started with research and travel -- going to regional and state science fairs, talking to editors, teachers, and parents, and going to schools that focus on science research. We met a lot of kids. We tried to really look at the larger life story of the young person, and spend time with youth for whom science was about more than just school, but about the opportunity to make significant change in their lives. With that, we wanted to find kids who were defining themselves as young scientists. They weren’t teens who were like “Oh, I’m doing this ‘cause it’s going to look good on my resume.” We looked for teenagers who had science as a major defining factor in their daily lives.

There are some crushing stereotypes about young scientists. Some kids don’t go into science simply because they don’t want to be seen as a “geek,” or a “nerd."We wanted to question some of the stereotypes. 

What kind of stereotypes? And how are they proven wrong in your film?

TS: The stereotype that kids who are interested in science are not well rounded, or don’t have any social skills. I think we challenge that. These kids are driven. While all three didn’t have time for dating, they were working as seriously as they wanted or needed to. They chose not to have time for boyfriends or girlfriends.

They sacrifice their summers to do work out in the field or in the lab. The virtuosity of their drive to do this work; it’s not just one year. Most of them spend a few of their high school years to come up with some viable project that has findings and that can be publishable.

We were interested in personal stories, and the coming of age stories. I think a lot people are intimidated by science and scientists. Immediately, their eyes glaze over when anyone talks about scientific findings or scientific research. You see that these kids compete and the adults are like, “huh?”

One of our missions was to make science more accessible to the general audience, and to do that, by humanizing the science and telling the stories of these vibrant young people who are doing it. And, getting the audience invested in their personal lives, and their family lives, and their back stories. It’s a drama like any other. The kids could be doing anything, but instead, they’re doing science. And that hooks the audience. In the process, people actually learn about science research, the process of it, and they learn about the three areas of science the kids do.

Why do you think so many American teens are behind in math and science?

TS: It’s a pretty complex discussion… for instance; California has huge cuts in education spending due to the economic crisis. Culturally, “what do we put a premium on?”… We talked to a lot of teachers who said, “We don’t have the time and resources to work on science fair projects with the kids. We are expected to do so much already.” So, some of that is because there’s insistence on teaching to standards, and “No Child Left Behind” requires teachers having to teach to tests. So, how do you inculcate a real interest to science? From my vantage point, I defined myself in high school as a “science fair geek.” That was my community. That’s where I spent most of my time. Children are natural scientists. There’s some intrinsic curiosity. The child who’s outside playing asking questions like, “Why does water run down?” or “Why do flowers bloom?” That’s being a “scientist.” And their tendency toward trial and error, and testing out the world, testing out limits, that’s the scientific method. I wish there were more ways we could nurture the natural curiosity that kids have. I feel all too often that curiosity gets quashed when kids go to school because they need to measure up, and they need to learn facts and figures, which are very important. But, that inherent curiosity that I think we all have, and as we develop young adults, is something we could be doing more to cultivate.

Obama said, “As a nation, we need to think more creatively about how to engage and retain the interest in science in our kids. And to allow kids to be makers of thing as opposed to consumers of things.” That’s a real cultural shift. I could not agree more. Maybe our film could be one small part of shifting the culture around, and sending a message to kids saying, “science can be cool” and “cool kids do it.” I think it’s a good timing for them.

What aspects of the film will relate to teens and/or adults who do not excel in science? Are they supposed to relate to the characters in the film?

TS: I think more than anything that young people will particularly relate to the characters because they are struggling with the same issues of adolescence that they all are struggling with: finding a voice and finding an identity. We see it prominently in sports, and we see it more prominently in arts and entertainment where kids seek to find a voice for themselves. In this film, these kids find themselves in science. We show them as multidimensional people: their insecurities, their need for attention, their desire of opinion, and to be recognized publicly. We all struggle with finding a community of people who "get us." It’s really common. Even for kids who have no interest in science, I think they will be engaged by the human stories in the film.

What changes would you like to see for the future of these characters and teens like them?

TS: I think most important, more broadly, to have a society that’s more technically and scientifically literate. I actually was a winner of this competition when I was in high school, and making it to The Science Talent Search in Washington, D.C. was the “Holy Grail." I came from Colorado Springs, which is not a science-rich area, so for me that was the “Super Bowl” of my world.

I still value that experience of doing science fairs and research. It helps you participate in the national conversation about science and policy, and be more informed. Science infuses everything. I look at documentary filmmaking, and I think, “it’s not that unlike doing a science fair project.” We collect huge amounts of data in hours and hours of footage. We’re set out with some sort of research questions like “What is this story?” and “How does this story resonate with the national dialogues that are going on?” It’s messy, and it’s not resolute. All those things are very similar to doing a science fair project.

Science is not black and white. It’s messy. These kids discover that when they’re doing their work.

What do you expect audiences to take from this film?

TS: The ability to evoke real emotions about kids and science. Having a general audience engage, and open their minds to how they think about science and how they engage in science. It’s the goal of every film I do: to humanize a group of people whose stories are less told, to make them more human. That’s what the kids in our film are doing. They’re trying to take really complex things and make them understood. Anyone who’s a parent will appreciate the expectations the kids have on themselves, and the burden of sacrifices the kids inherit from their families. There are a lot of issues that have nothing to do with science that families will appreciate when they see this film.

Be one of the first to see "Whiz Kids" at it's World Premiere and Benefit Screening! Thursday, June 16th at The Herbst Theatre. For more info about the film, visit: http://www.whizkidsmovie.com.

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