The First Winner of The Flame Challenge Ben Ames PhD Candidate, University of Innsbruck Austria

I also have a passion for music, film, and the performing arts. So when I learned about this wonderful contest, I had finally found a project where I could put all of my interests to use. I locked myself in my basement for a solid week, writing, narrating, animating, and composing every element of the film. – Ben Ames

About Ben

The first winner of The Flame Challenge, Ben Ames, is an American working on his PhD in quantum optics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, exploring how atoms interact with light on the tiny, tiny, quantum level.

He grew up in Kansas City, MO, the youngest of eight children, in a home filled with music. As a child, he played piano and guitar, performed in high school plays, studied ballet, and danced each year in a local production of The Nutcracker. (Ben’s mother is a ballerina and ballet teacher).

Ben’s earliest ambition, however, was to be an inventor, like Thomas Edison, and he loved to watch Bill Nye the Science Guy on television. He became intimidated by science in grade school, but in college he rediscovered his passion for asking questions about the natural world. Ben received a bachelor’s degree in applied physics from the University of Utah, and studied in Finland before moving to the University of Innsbruck. Ben’s wife, Missy, is an artist and former art teacher. Their daughter, Adelaide, enjoys music as well.

A Word from Ben

What is a flame? What is time, color, sleep, or sound? These questions were asked by students around 11 years old and answered by real scientists in past years of The Flame Challenge. The responses were then judged by some of those same students based on how well they understood and enjoyed the entries.

Teachers, you can engage your class as judges in a real-life science contest. By registering your class, you’ll be kept up to date on news about The Flame Challenge and also be considered as a panel of judges for the 2017 contest. Your class may also be considered to participate in the Worldwide Assembly, a live web conference in which students discuss the finalist entries with Alan Alda.

Teachers: Register Your Class

Registration is now closed for the 2017 Flame Challenge. Come back in the Fall to register your class to vote on next year’s competition!

Teacher Guide to The Flame Challenge 2017

Please see below for a link to download our Teacher Guide, which includes helpful information for engaging your class, school and community. If you have any questions that are not covered in the guide, please email [email protected]. We look forward to partnering with you and your students!

Key Dates

Don’t miss out on important deadlines! We know teachers have a lot to juggle and we hope this contest will enhance your spring semester. Please review the timeline and make sure it fits into your curricular schedule.

September 30, 2016: Last Day to Submit Questions
October 3, 2016: Voting Begins to Select The Flame Challenge Question
October 10, 2016: Voting to Select The Flame Challenge Question Ends
October 24, 2016: Announcement of The Flame Challenge Question
November 1, 2016: Release of Teachers’ Survival Kit for The Flame Challenge 2017
December 9, 2016: Early Registration Deadline for Schools
December 13, 2016: Informational Webinar for Participating Teachers
February 28 – April 7, 2017: Classes Vote on Contest Entries
March 15, 2017: Last Day for Classrooms/Schools to Register as Judges
March 31, 2017: Last Day for Schools to Submit Scores for Contest Entries
April , 2017: Voting Begins for Finalist Contest Entries
April 24, 2017: Worldwide Assembly with Alan Alda (via web conference)
May 3, 2017: Last Day to Vote on Finalist Contest Entries
May 8-24, 2017: Students Submit Questions for consideration for The Flame Challenge 2018
June 4, 2017: Announcement of Contest Winners at World Science Festival in New York City

The Worldwide Assembly

Watch Alan Alda and students discussing the 2015 finalist entries for “What is sound?” during the Worldwide Assembly on April 26, 2016.

Past Challenges

Please browse our Past Challenges section to get your class excited to participate. You may also enjoy watching the videos below to get some ideas about how students responded to the entries and how to weave The Flame Challenge into your science lesson plans.

Science Unplugged

Science Unplugged is a platform that the Alda Center created for young scientists to gain experience delivering vivid and engaging presentations. Students host and participate in web broadcasts, develop animated lectures about their work, and present to local high school classrooms about their struggles to make the next discovery, uncover a hidden surprise, untangle a myth and tackle the problems that affect us all. Join these young professionals on their journey to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

View All Science Unplugged

Science Unplugged in the Schools

In Person

Science Unplugged is both a course and an on-going program. PhD candidates prepare their talks at the beginning of each semester and are booked into local high schools when their presentation is polished. Many students continue to present after the course just because they have enjoyed the experience so much.

Virtual Field Trips

You can also take a virtual “field trip” to Science Unplugged. If you’re a high school teacher outside of the travel radius for Science Unplugged and still want to participate in our interactive program, you can access one of our scientists via video web conference. The goal of the presentations is to introduce science in a conversational way, to engage your students, hear their ideas and give feedback to their questions.

Dr. Laura Lindenfeld is director of the Alda Center and professor in the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural studies from the University of California, Davis. As a communication researcher, her work draws inspiration from the idea that we can make better, more informed decisions about how we shape our collective future. She is passionate about supporting scientists to communicate their work in more direct and engaging ways. Her work focuses on how we can advance meaningful, productive interactions with communities, stakeholders and decision-makers by strengthening linkages between knowledge and action.

In her previous role, Laura directed the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, a nonpartisan, independent research unit of the University of Maine, which aimed to inform public policy and societal decision-making. Much of Laura’s research focuses on environmental communication, especially in the area of sustainability. In addition to understanding more about stakeholder engagement, her work seeks to understand how we can build strong interdisciplinary teams and communicate our science more effectively and persuasively.

With a keen interest in food culture, she has dedicated significant effort to investigating the relationship of food and media and to understanding how we can advance more sustainable food systems in the U.S. Laura’s work has appeared in a range of journals such as Ecology & Society, Environmental Communication, Sustainability Science, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, and Food & Foodways. She and her co-author, Fabio Parasecoli, associate professor and director of Food Studies Initiatives at the New School, look forward to the release of their book with Columbia University Press, “Feasting Our Eyes. Food Fil

2017 Flame Challenge Finalist

Chemistry Tutor at the University of Wollongong from Mangerton, NSW, Australia

Get to know Johanna

Johanna is also a freelance science writer and has her own Youtube channel, Class 509: Science History.

“I hate to admit it but I fell into the “energy? This’ll be easy to explain” trap. Turns out energy is really hard to explain in a visual format given that you can’t physically see it. I went and looked up the standard definitions for energy and decided that instead of trying to explain what it is I would show viewers what it does.”

“In my experience, I understand concepts much better if I have something familiar to apply it to. The fact that I got to eat cake on camera was a bonus.”

“I’m hoping that students can start to see energy everywhere. It’s the driving force behind anything that moves or changes in our universe.”

2017 Flame Challenge Finalist

Writer and former civil engineer from Hillsboro, Oregon

Get to know Hannah

“I’m the mother of young children. When I think about energy, usually I’m thinking about how I wish I had more of it!”

“I tend to remember things visually, so I went for an example that I thought kids might be able to visualize. A specific human experience seemed like the best way to go about that–hence the babysitter on the couch.”

“I have a high respect for children and think they are capable of understanding much more than we adults sometimes give them credit for…But kids can be ruthless critics. They have no problem letting you know when they are bored. Finding the right intersect of aptitude and interest is a fascinating quest.”

Full Entry

“I wish I had your energy! Have you ever heard an adult say this? Well, what is energy, and how do you get it?

Energy is the means to move. Without energy, a ball won’t roll, a car won’t drive, and a babysitter won’t get off the couch. Energy isn’t always something you can measure directly, like with a ruler or a scale. But you can always calculate it with the right measurements. To figure out how, let’s talk about the different types of energy, starting with potential energy.

Potential means “hasn’t happened yet.” A babysitter laying on the couch has potential energy. How much? To find out, multiply the height of the couch by the babysitter’s weight.

Now, let’s talk about kinetic energy. Kinetic means “moving.” Everything moving has kinetic energy. To change the babysitter’s potential energy into kinetic energy, you just need to give him a little push…

…but I don’t recommend this. For starters, kinetic energy stops when he lands on the floor. Ouch!

Instead, try energizing the babysitter with a sandwich—a form of chemical energy. All food has chemical energy—candy, crackers, pepperoni—anything with Calories. Calories are one way to measure energy.

Other options for energizing your babysitter might include: rubbing your socks on the carpet to give him a little jolt of electric energy or blasting some loud music to send sound energy his direction.

No matter the type, once you have energy—that’s when things can start moving.”

Video Winner
Johanna Howes (Mangerton, Australia)

Written Winner
Hannah Holt (Hillsboro, OR)

Video Finalists
Alison Caldwell & Micah Caldwell (La Jolla, California)

Tevye Kuykendall, Martin Mulvihill, & Russell Campisi (Oakland, California)

Written Finalists
Richard de Grijs (Beijing, China)

Stuart Chalk (Jacksonville, FL)

The Flame Challenge

What is The Flame Challenge?

The Flame Challenge is an international competition in which scientists answer a technical question in a clear and entertaining way, specifically geared toward an audience of 11-year-olds. Launched in 2012, The Flame Challenge began with Alan Alda’s own childhood query, “What is a flame?”

When Alda was invited to contribute a guest editorial to the journal, Science, he wrote about why we need scientists to communicate clearly and vividly with the public.

I’d like to try a playful experiment. Would you be willing to have a go at writing your own explanation of what a flame is — one that an 11-year-old would find intelligible, maybe even fun?

How does it work?

Each year, a team from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University reviews questions submitted from students around the world. The Alda Center selects a new question for the contest each year, based on student submissions, then hundreds of scientists submit answers to the featured question in written or video format. After screening for scientific accuracy, the contest entries are judged by thousands of 5th and 6th grade schoolchildren around the world. The scientists who submitted the winning entries (one written, one visual) are invited to New York City in June to be honored as part of a special program at the World Science Festival.

Get Involved

Scientists, teachers, students and families are invited to join us each year as partners in The Flame Challenge. Please see the navigation at right to learn more about how to get involved.

In the inaugural episode of CLEAR + VIVID, a new live web show, the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism will feature a conversation about accessing “personal power” to achieve what New York Times Best-Selling Author of Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges and Harvard Business School Associate Professor Amy Cuddy refers to as “presence, the state in which we stop worrying about the impression we’re making on others and instead adjust the impression we’ve been making on ourselves.” Cuddy will be interviewed by Alan Alda, acclaimed Actor, Writer and a Visiting Professor at the School of Journalism.

This live web event is produced by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science with support from The Kavli Foundation, Stony Brook University School of Journalism, and Heleo.