Helping Promote the Teaching of Evolution in School (via Rap)

November 25, 2010 By Guest Contributor 6 Comments

I’ve posted about rapper Baba Brinkman before. His Rap Guide to Evolution debuted last year and he’s now trying to get high quality videos of his songs made for use in science classrooms everywhere:

Quite a few biology and psychology teachers already use the rap songs in their classes (see the “Testimonials” document) to introduce evolutionary concepts to their students, and these videos will make an even more potent vehicle for communicating science in an entertaining manner.

The initial funding from the Wellcome Trust allows us to shoot live footage for each video with a professional film crew, edit it, and set up a website to distribute the videos. This phase of the project will be completed by mid-December. The additional funding from Crowdfunder will allow us to produce original animation and digital effects and license high-quality nature footage from the BBC, to make the vision of each video really come to life.

Rewards for your contributions include your name in the video credits, a free digital download of the DVD, a pre-order of the DVD to be sent to you by mail when it’s ready, and even the use of your photo within the videos themselves, each photo representing a branch on the human family tree. Contributions of over £1,000 will book a full performance of the Rap Guide to Evolution at your local school or theatre in 2011, subject to Baba’s availability.?

Just click here if you’d like to help him raise the money needed! It’s a great cause and I can’t wait to see the final products.

(Thanks to Melissa for the link!)

Filed Under: Education, General, Science 6 Comments
  • http://littlelioness.net Fiona

    Anything that makes it more memorable. As long as it’s not as freaky as that catholic baby show.

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  • http://chandays.blogspot.com Larry Meredith

    if they plan on getting that in North American schools all I got is 2 words. Good luck.

  • pandurata

    As someone who really likes rap music (among other things) but is contstantly put off by the majority of the lyrics in that genre, stumbling upon Baba a while back was really refreshing.

    Not only is his Rap Guide to Evolution fascinating, he even got me to re-read the Canterbury Tales.

    Hope he continues to inspire a desire for knowledge and education in young kids with his work!

  • Claudia

    I’ve never liked rap, but this growing sub-genre of skeptical/science rap I love. I’m glad people with the big bucks (or pounds) are noticing too. Congratulations to Brinkman, he’s earned this.

  • Laura

    This guy is pretty talented, and the evolution rap is a lot of fun. Maybe this is my bias from being a biochemistry student at a mostly nonreligious West Coast university, but I feel like he’s giving too much airtime to creationism and not focusing enough on evolution itself.

    There’s a small clip that shows him supporting evo-psych in an evo-psych vs. social science debate, which is something I’m not always unequivocally for (yes, it’s ridiculous to say that evolution has no role in shaping behavior, but it’s just as ridiculous to say that social pressure plays no role at all, either.) Can anyone find the full clip?