As hard as The Big Bang Theory may try every week, a lot of people in the world still don’t see science as especially sexy or exciting. That’s what makes studying science—a.k.a. “the nerdy arts”—so important, though. It’s like the vegetables of knowledge, in the sense that not everybody enjoys it, but we’d all be better off if everybody had more vegetables/science.
To that end, Nova has set up a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter to raise money for a handful of new pro-science initiatives that will teach kids (and adults) about important science stuff, starting with a new special called Beyond The Elements that will be hosted by former New York Times tech writer and frequent Nova host David Pogue. The special will be a follow-up to Hunting The Elements—“one of the most popular Nova specials ever”—and it will further explore how everything around us is comprised of elements and combinations of elements.
The campaign needs to raise $1 million before March 3 in order to make Beyond The Elements happen, and if it can meet that goal, there are a handful of stretch goals that will continue Nova’s mission. At $1.25 million Nova will be able to offer free resources to schools, at $1.5 million it will develop a “VR experience,” and at $2.25 it will begin figuring out how to bring free DVD or Blu-ray copies of Beyond The Elements to every public high school in the country.
You can learn more about the Kickstarter campaign at this link, or you can watch the pitch video below.