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.
Mark Robert is a good one. Most of his stuff is made for kids around that age.
Physics girl on YouTube, even though she hasn’t made any content anymore for years due to long term Covid, she’s still recovering, but her videos were always very inspiring, very happy and curiosity inducing
I think she’s supposed to have a new video coming soon! It’s about an interesting “photograph” of the sun.
Bill Nye the Science Guy from the 90s.
Bill Nye’s downfall into craziness (and I mean that in the worst way) is one of the most unfortunate and saddest in recent memory.
But along the same lines as Bill Nye before he went crazy, Beakman’s World is another good recommendation.
Lots of good channel suggestions.
But I would also nominate COSMOS.
Both the original hosted by Carl Sagan, and the new series with Neil deGrasse Tyson.
For me, they brought the epicness of reality, scientific history, and the vastness of the universe, into focus in a way nothing else did.
They made me feel a hopeful and powerful “humanity is fucking AWESOME, and can do INCREDIBLE things”. It’s not just informative. It lights a fire in you for the way humanity fights its way through the dark, using the scientific method as our guide.
Technically more of an engineering / maker channel, but Xyla Foxlin is great. She does occasionally swear, but a 12 year old has probably heard those words before. Yeetmas, where she launches a Christmas tree rocket, would be a good place to start. (Not a Christmas tree themed rocket, a decorated pine tree on top rocket motor as long as your arm.)
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 AbramHannah 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Very Michigan-centeric, but Alexis Dahl is wonderful, meshing history and science.
Some 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 or distilling sulfuric acid to purify it, which of course if hot sulfuric acid 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.
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.
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).
Technology Connections
Periodic Videos
Computerphile
One Blue Three Brown
MinutePhysicsKurgezagt (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].
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.
Vi Hart is great. She hasn’t made videos in a long while but her old ones are still around.
Snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake
Triangle
Hank Green’s stuff?
I find it very weird he (and Crash Course too) isn’t top of the list in this thread.
Hank Green good.
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.
Dr Becky (aka Dr Rebecca Smethurst) for Astrophysics / Space news.
Any of the channels run by Brady Haran like Numberphile and Periodic Videos.
Most of my other picks have been mentioned already or else lean into spectacle which might not be appreciated by a 12-year-old girl. (Quite a few of the chemistry channels I watch are like this. In order of decreasing silliness: Nile Blue / Nile Red, Labcoatz, Amateur Chemistry, Chemical Force… Actually CF is pretty good by comparison.)
But I’m not you or your daughter. Check them out anyway and see if either of you likes what you see.
Dr Karl from Australia. has a weekly podcast/radio segment (Science with Dr Karl) on Triple J and has published a million books. He wears loud shirts and can be quite interesting to listen to.
He has been doing this for more than 25+ years… he’ll also give a talk to your child’s class anywhere in the world if you ask him
