“Whiz Kids” traces the events leading up to the most prestigious science competition in the USA. The Science Talent Search began in 1942 and currently is sponsored by Intel, the processor chip giant. The filmmakers scoured the high schools of the country looking for 16-17 year old budding scientists.
To their surprise, they found that some of the STS candidates were already working in government labs, sometime under the supervision of Nobel Prize winning scientists. Others were working in that masterpiece of American ingenuity, the basement lab. Here they toiled away, driven by curiosity and fueled by the energy of youth.
The group was winnowed down to three competitors who were chosen to tell their stories in “Whiz Kids.” Keledra Welcker’s research centered on pollution dumped into the Ohio River by her hometown in West Virginia. The pollutant is a byproduct of the Teflon manufacturing process and the corporations who make Teflon are very big and very powerful.
It is commendable that the filmmakers chose to focus on students who were not only science nerds but who were aware enough to tackle potentially dangerous political problems as well. The chief perp amongst the polluters was a firm her father worked for---a firm that was paying his pension.
Ana Cisneros Cisneros is a first generation Ecuadorian-American living with her family in Long Island, outside of New York City. Ana embodies a fierce competitive spirit. Her high school is 90% black and Latino---ethnic groups with low representation in Ivy League schools. The science competition offers her a chance at a life that is only a dream for most in her neighborhood. It offers her a chance not only for a college education but to be a leader---the chance to inspire others in addition to making a living.
Harmain Khan’s family immigrated to New York City from Pakistan and survived for a time by collected recyclable aluminum cans. He knows poverty first hand and was determined to show he could be a winner.
The film starts by introducing the STS, putting a much-needed spotlight on a part of Americana that fails in the glitz and glamour department. Once the technology capital of the world, the US is now well down the list in standardized test achievement. We fall below countries that were considered “third world” a few decades ago. Now kids from those countries are coming here and taking the place of 5th to 10th generation Americans in our most prestigious colleges and universities.
There is an entire film to be made about that issue alone; a film that investigates when and how children make the decision to pursue careers other than science and engineering. Money is certainly an issue. Business careers offer higher pay and easier college classes. Although an Ivy League business degree is a guarantee of huge paychecks for even the most unproductive business contributions, even those with lesser degrees can find their way into Wall Street and allied high paying positions.
As America defends its position as the entertainment epicenter of the world many kids chose the glamour that industry and hope the dollars will follow. For some it does but for the majority who are stuck in the minimum wage parts of entertainment they have lost the youthful edge it takes to come up the steep end of the science learning curve.
The prevalent “talent” of the three competitors seems to be driving curiosity. At a visceral level, they need to know how things work. These same students would probably make great police detectives (or great criminals). Luckily, the working tools of science are available for those who want them. It is easier to build a garage lab than to track down terrorists.
As the STS continues there is a priceless and heartbreaking sequence as the STS receiving center closes down at the submission deadline. One boy calls on the phone panicked and says he is on the way to the center. As the minutes, then seconds, tick away the boy fails to cover the last yards in his car. He is past the deadline and will not be allowed to submit. Deadlines are a part of the real world and some of these high schools students learned that lesson the hard way.
In the end, some win and some lose, but that is not the end of the story. Even those who do not win the competition end up much better off than if they had never competed. This is a sweet film that both prepares kids for the STS and motivates them. A must see for the family of the science whiz kid.
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