The Moon vs. Brian Cox

Of the many jobs I’ve juggled, my latest presents a unique challenge.

Sabah, in Malaysian North Borneo, is popular with Korean tourists. Five hours south of Seoul, it offers rich seafood, fun watersports, spectacular sunsets, golf courses, and tuition centres.

Yes, tuition centres.

While parents enjoy their lobster lunches after the morning golf round, their offspring are safely tucked away in a classroom with me. Five kids, wildly varying ages and abilities, in one small room for six hours. And just to spice things up, my boss occasionally tosses in a Chinese student who speaks neither English nor Korean. I try to make the lessons fun because these serious and thoughtful students are, after all, on holiday. Most days I manage and we have a blast. Some days I don’t and we have to do grammar worksheets.

The other day, some of the parents requested that I teach “science.” Just “science” — no further specification. Fine, I thought, let’s do some gravity. Egg drops, parachuting figures, catapults…perfect for a class of four studious yet energetic boys and one cheerful, geeky girl.

I usually start lessons with short videos to introduce what we are doing. That day, I wanted to begin with Galileo’s Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment, the one where you drop two objects of different weights and they land simultaneously. It can be done with a stapler and an eraser, for instance, but I wanted something with more impact. Plus, the experiment works best in a vacuum, without pesky air resistance.

After sifting through YouTube, I narrowed it down to two options: Apollo 15’s David Scott dropping a feather and hammer on the moon, or Brian Cox dropping a feather and a bowling ball in the vacuum of NASA’s Space Power Facility.

In my rush, I let my personal bias take charge. Astronauts on the moon? How could anything be cooler than that?

Quite a lot, actually.

The Apollo footage is grainy and difficult to see, and it has that crackly “moon” audio. David Scott spends some time explaining his upcoming demonstration, including a detailed footnote about the falcon feather (noteworthy because their lunar module was named Falcon).

When he finally drops the objects, the moment falls flat. Not a single kid paid attention. Everyone was poking their water bottles, fiddling with paper and looking at the ceiling.

Humbled, I tried Brian Cox’s video. The difference was stunning. His version is a storytelling masterpiece that had everyone glued to the screen from start to finish. You can go and check it out for yourself. The setting, the atmosphere, the goal, the suspense, the climax…it’s perfect.

The lesson? While the Apollo demonstration might have been conceptually cooler, Cox’s superior execution won the day. I guess it’s not so much about having the most impressive idea, it’s about how the story is told.