Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

The day of our launch my boys were with me in new York (which was one of the most gratifying thing about this launch). As I prepared to the interviews with the best media training team (thanks, Vickee!!!) my oldest son was watching me and took part in the correction round. At some point he looked at me and said something very profound

"Dad, you really need to work on your message so that a 5th grader can understand it"

Well - you know how hard it is to explain things to the general public, try to pass an idea by a 5th grader. You cannot resort to any scientific terms (No second law of thermodynamics, Andrey). You cannot hide behind very large numbers, because the kids won't buy them - they need something tangible.

So tomorrow I am facing the ultimate trial, the hardest presentation - no, not the Israeli press, a bunch of 2nd graders, and a group of 5th-8th graders. We're going to tape the presentation and see how I explain to them that this project is really for them. You see, if we just keep on going as we did so far, we are going to run out of a world to hand over to them. No matter what we do, their kids will look at our generations and say - that was the dumbest century in human history - these guys burnt the planet away.

Speaking about that, I already have my opening joke(Thanks to Tom Gage of AC Propulsion!!! who is building my own eBox...), which I decided is the best response to those who take life too seriously these days as they write about this project -

Which country was the first to realize that the internal combustion engine was a crazy idea?

Madagascar...Get it?

Just like our project, the fifth graders will get it intuitively. Do you?

Comments

[Nir Kouris]

Dear Shai,
As someone who always think about our Challenges as People at the Beginning of the 21st Century.
I am focusing on Our Future: The Next Generation.

I really like this post and I honor your action in this field.
Your initiative has a true Vision and it touches people and brings an enormous value to them.

Good luck !

Yours,
Nir Kouris
ISRAEL

[Mike Harrigan]

My own experience is that kids get this better than anyone. They resonate more with environmental issues than most adults. There are lots of complaints about the education system in the USA but this is one area where I believe it is doing a good job.

[Robert Kirsten]

All 5th grader cars are electric so you should have a receptive audience. Please post the video so I can share with my kids as well.

[betsy]

Madagascar. Groan!!

[Herbert]

got it..... after checking with my daughter...that's the benefit of your own internal focus group. She recommends "I like to move it" as the new anthem for your project.....and she now wonders what we all do at work that "Madagascar" is of interest at all. I told her only at a "better place" that's the case. Good Luck for you and this exciting project. The coverage is overwhelming so far. Let's keep fingers crossed that the adoption of the technology follows the coverage

[Jens Buehrmann]

The sun pumps a tremendous amount of energy into the system Earth everyday.
Plants store solar energy by growing.
Animals take up this energy by eating plants.
Plants and animals die, and make room for new plants and animals to store solar energy.
Dead plants and animals become oil after many million years.
Bringing all this energy back into the system Earth, is what mankind is doing within a glimpse of time.

[Jacob]

Why you need to explain it to fifth graders I don't get. I'm a 60 grader, and I don't understand, but it does not matter. It's you who are the big shot, with the brains and the money.
Go, implement your vision and make it happen. Work on your business, leave the 5th graders alone, it's a waste of your time.

Unless it's all a publicity stunt...
We have a lot of feel-good crusaders. What we need is people actually doing things, not talkers.

[Tamar Wisemon - Sviva Israel]

Dear Shai,

5th grade is definitely the place to start (if not earlier). As with many technological applications, if our kids get it, then they will explain it to their parents!

In Sviva Israel's recent Jerusalem-New York Environmental Challenge, we connected fifth and sixth graders in both cities, to learn about their ecological footprint, how it is affecting the world and what they can do about it. We have been asked to expand the curriculum and would be very interested in the possibility of including your classroom presentation.

B'Hatzlacha,

Tamar

[Niv]

Hi Shai,
There is another important interest group: the public.
There is a lot of interest in the public in this project, and people do "get it", and people also want to buy stocks of the company , but it is not public.

Why don't you do an IPO in order to raise money instead of taking it from the banks?
It is an endless source of money raising, that is better than the banks.

I am waiting for an answer here ...

[EV 2 G]

The next generation not only deserves batteries that are safe, they must be NanoSafe.

[Amit Nisenbaum]

Here is a link to an article that I just found about the emission effects of electric cars - http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/environment/2008-02-25-plug-in-hybrids-pollution_N.htm. It quotes two reports, one of them by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (http://www.pca.state.mn.us/publications/p-gen4-01.pdf ) has a couple of surprising findings. On top of the usual findings that PHEVs reduce GHGs (CO2s etc.) the report claims that:
1. Per-mile PHEV emissions of SO2 are higher than for either the conventional gasoline-driven ICE or the hybrid electric vehicles due to the high sulfur content of the coal that is assumed to be combusted at the power plant. SO2 is toxic in large amounts and is a component of corrosive acid rain
2. PHEV CO2 emissions are lower than the conventional ICE vehicle emissions but are marginally higher than the hybrid electric vehicle emissions. This is due in part to the relatively higher carbon content per MMBtu of coal compared to the carbon content of gasoline