High school student Ryan Chester
has become the inaugural winner of a new scholarship, winning
$US250,000 ($354,265) for his 7-minute film that uses simple props and
hand-drawn graphics to explain Einstein's special theory of relativity.
Besides winning that money for himself,
Chester, from Ohio in the US, also won $US100,000 ($141,706) for a
new science lab at his school in the Cleveland suburbs, North Royalton High,
and $US50,000 ($70,846) for his physics teacher, Richard Nestoff.
"This is awesome," Chester,
18, said in an interview on Monday, the day after he accepted the award.
The scholarship means he can apply to a
bunch of universities he hadn't considered before because of their cost, he
said: "A tonne of possibilities are open. Before, I was worried about
graduating with debt, and I don't have to worry about that now."
The scholarship is the newest award in
the family of Breakthrough Prizes, which are meant to celebrate the importance
of science and recognise brilliance in the fields of math, biology and physics.
Founded three years ago by Silicon Valley giants, including Google's Sergey
Brin and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, the Breakthrough Prize offers awards
ranging from $US100,000 ($141,706) for promising early-career achievements
to $US3 million ($4.2m) for scientists who have made fundamental discoveries
about the world.
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge asked young
people between ages 13 and 18 to create short videos that communicated a big
idea in science. More than 2000 students from dozens of countries applied.
Zuckerberg's wife and partner in
education philanthropy, Priscilla Chan, presented the award to Chester in an
Oscar-style presentation that was broadcast live on Sunday night on the
National Geographic Channel in the US.
"With the Breakthrough Prize and
Junior Challenge, we want to inspire more young people to study science and
math, and pursue careers that change all our lives," Chan said in a
statement.
Chester's film takes on one of the
biggest ideas in science, Einstein's theory of relativity. With cartoonish
graphics drawn by hand and props from everyday life, like a bowl of popcorn and
a moving minivan, Chester explains what Einstein's famous theory is all about -
and why it means that people travelling close to the speed of light age slowly
compared to people on Earth.
"This is the kind of thing that
we're exposed to all the time in pop culture and films and science shows on TV,
but in the video I use physical demonstrations that anyone can think through to
have it make sense," Chester said in an interview posted online.
In an interview with The Washington
Post on Monday, Chester said the challenge was a chance for him to marry
science and film-making, two of his passions. He plans to major in film in
college, and perhaps minor in engineering.
"I've been making movies for over
10 years now. You wouldn't believe how much film-making equipment I have in my
basement," he said. "You can make movies about anything. It never
gets old, you're always learning something new, you're always making something
unique."
Chester could have chosen any teacher to
benefit from his prize. He chose Nestoff, his AP Physics teacher, because
he is inspiring.
"He's a great teacher. He's
different than any teacher I've had - he's not really afraid to say anything or
do anything as long as it makes class more entertaining and helps teach what
he's teaching," Chester said. "Every day in physics class, you never
know what to expect, and that's an exciting way to learn science."
Nestoff said Chester is an outstanding
student, not just because of his ability to understand complex physics concepts
or his impressive ACT scores, but because of the easy way he gets
along with - and often helps - his classmates.
"Ryan is the perfect person to be
involved in something like," Nestoff said in an interview. "He's such
a well-rounded kid. He's so pleasant."
Nestoff said on Monday morning that he
was "still on cloud nine" after the awards ceremony, made surreal by
the number of Silicon Valley celebrities and great scientific minds in
attendance. He said he isn't sure what he'll do with the $US50,000
($70,853) prize. He doesn't want to just throw it into his retirement fund
or buy a car, he said. He wants to do something special - maybe start taking
some interesting holidays after spending many summers teaching at various
camps.
But while the money turns heads, he
said, what means more to him is the fact that his student appreciates him.
"The fact that he thinks a lot of me, that's the part that's very
gratifying," Nestoff said.
"Do I deserve it? I don't think so.
But I'm glad he thinks so."
By Emma Brown. SMH
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