Dr. Bennett speaks frequently to a variety of audiences, and with Covid shutdowns now behind us (hopefully!), he’s resuming his event schedule. In keeping with Dr. Bennett’s personal mission, he strives to make events available as widely as possible. To this end, please note:
- National Free Visit Program: Across the U.S., Dr. Bennett offers a limited number of completely free community visits, including paying his own travel expenses. Click here for details on his free visit program.
- Colorado Free Visit Program: In Colorado, particularly within an hour or so drive of Boulder, Dr. Bennett offers a larger number of free school visits. Contact Dr. Bennett directly with requests.
- “Everybody Wins” Book Sale Based School Visits: For all other school visits, Dr. Bennett strives to make his programs as affordable as possible. Scroll down to see how you can get a visit that is paid for through book sales to students, families, and teachers, so that there is no impact to your school budget.
Available Programs (click each for details)
- Elementary School Visits: Dr. Bennett has spoken to more than 100,000 school children at more than 200 elementary schools by offering “interactive reading” assemblies based on his award-winning children’s books.
- Middle/High School Visits: Assemblies or discussions on global warming, eclipses, astronomy, or astrobiology.
- Public Lectures: Dr. Bennett can speak on a variety of topics for the public, but his current focus is on (1) talks to help the public understand and prepare for the 2023 and 2024 eclipses, based around his free app “Totality by Big Kid Science” and (2) continuing his series “Global Warming Demystified, based on his book A Global Warming Primer. Other topics he can speak on include Einstein’s theory of relativity, the search for extraterrestrial life, the scale of the universe, and “math for life.”
- Teacher Presentations/Workshops (K-12): Topic options include: using Dr. Bennett’s free digital textbook for Earth/Space Science; teaching global warming with inspiration, not fear; how to use Story Time From Space in your classroom; the scale of the universe; relativity and black holes; and the search for life in the universe.
- Colloquia for College Mathematics Faculty: A faculty seminar on “Mathematics for Life: Are You Teaching Students What They Really Need?”
- Colloquia for College Science Faculty: Faculty seminars on science teaching, ideal for all science departments as well as faculty in Math and Education.
- Business/Corporate Audiences: Talks for the business community.
- “Science Dinner Parties” (New and Experimental!) Would you like host an evening of great science and intellectual conversation for invited guests at a private event or dinner party? Dr. Bennett can attend and offer a a 1-hour science presentation followed by up to 4 additional hours of Q&A and discussion with your guests. You may select the evening topic in conjunction with Dr. Bennett, with choices including global warming (science, consequences, and solutions), the search for extraterrestrial life, Einstein’s theory of relativity, the scale of the universe, and more. Contact Dr. Bennett if interested and to discuss scheduling and fees.
- Other: Dr. Bennett’s goal is to share his love of math and science with as many people as possible. If you have other ideas for engagements, please contact Dr. Bennett to discuss your idea.
“Everybody Wins” Book Sale Based School Visits
Again, Dr. Bennett offers many opportunities for completely free visits, but he tries to focus these on underserved communities (and public schools). For others, Dr. Bennett still offers a way to get a “free” visit through sales of his Big Kid Science books, with minimum sales numbers based on his travel distance. He calls this the “everybody wins” visit policy, since it allows your school to have a visit at no cost to the school while providing books to those who purchase them.
Note 1: Most schools choose the option of a “free” visit paid for through book purchases. Dr. Bennett can provide a book order form that you can share with kids/parents/teachers and is willing to autograph these books. The only additional requirements with this option are: (1) Books must be purchased directly at retail price from Dr. Bennett; (2) the school receives all books in a single shipment; (3) the school (or PTO, etc.) cuts a single check (or pays via paypal/Venmo) for the total to Dr. Bennett; and (4) the school is buying the books “wholesale” from Dr. Bennett and will pay any required local sales taxes.
Note 2: The distance-based minimum sales numbers for a free visit are listed below, along with an alternative fee if you prefer to pay directly. A common question is “what happens if we don’t make the minimum sales number?” The answer is: In that case, Dr. Bennett will prorate the alternative fee based on the number sold. For example, if you sell half of the minimum number, then you would pay half of the alternate fee.
Note 3: The books that count as “Big Kid Science” titles under the book purchase option are all seven of Dr. Bennett’s children’s books plus A Global Warming Primer and On Teaching Science.
Note 4: For Colorado visits outside Boulder/Denver, two (and sometimes three) nearby schools may share the visit and split the sales number (or alternative fee) as long as they can be scheduled back-to-back to minimize down time in between. A larger number of schools can share multi-day visits, which can often include up to 3 schools per day.
Note 5: For visits with an overnight stay, Dr. Bennett will be glad to add after-school teacher workshops and/or an evening public lecture at no additional charge.
- Boulder County and Denver Metro Area (less than 1 hour drive of Boulder): Visit is free with minimum purchase of 40 Big Kid Science books. Alternate fee: $450.
- Colorado Region, 1 to 2 hour drive from Boulder: Visit is free with minimum purchase of 50 Big Kid Science books. Alternate fee: $550.
- Colorado Region, 2 to 3 hour drive from Boulder (no overnight stay): Visit is free with minimum purchase of 60 Big Kid Science books. Alternate fee: $650.
- Colorado Region, 3 to 4 hour drive from Boulder (no overnight stay): Visit is free with minimum purchase of 75 Big Kid Science books. Alternate fee: $800.
- Outside Colorado Region (requiring air travel):
- Single-day visit: (e.g., Dr. Bennett flies in one evening, speaks next day and flies home that night): Visit is free with minimum purchase of 150 Big Kid Science books. Alternate fee: $1500 + airfare/hotel.
- Two-day visit: (e.g., Dr. Bennett speaks on two days and stays over two nights total): Visit is free with minimum purchase of 220 Big Kid Science books. Alternate fee: $2500 + airfare/hotel.
- Three-day visit: (e.g., Dr. Bennett speaks on three days and stays over three nights total): Visit is free with minimum purchase of 275 Big Kid Science books. Alternate fee: $3000 + airfare/hotel.
Other Visits
Other event types — for example, teacher workshops or public talks — are negotiable but follow a similar price structure to the elementary school visits above. Contact Dr. Bennett to discuss this or any other questions.