Science, Music, and Life!
Will.i.am is well known as the frontman for the popular group The Black Eyed Peas. But that's not all he's known for. His political activism for change during the 2008 election season was groundbreaking... and now he's got a new cause that he's passionate about.
Together with FIRST founder Dean Kamen, he's produced a one hour back-to-school special entitled i.am.FIRST: Science is Rock & Roll that airs, tonight, Sunday August 14th on ABC, 7 pm, 6 Central.
This special is all about the FIRST program, an organization that inspires young people to achieve goals and to better their education. It accomplishes this by creating a science competition involving young students.
The i.am.FIRST special follows these emerging inventors as they go through the regionals and enter the international Championship.
I recently had a chance to dish some e-mail questions to will.i.am about this new project.
What inspired you to get involved with the FIRST program?
I created this TV special to get kids excited about math and science, using the FIRST Championships and entertainment to help make science and technology cool. When I attended my first FIRST event as a guest of inventor and FIRST Founder Dean Kamen, I was blown away. I asked him why more people didn't know about FIRST. Dean has made FIRST great, but we agreed that my role was to make it loud. One thing led to the next, including taking the BEPs to St. Louis to play a special private concert, which then led to creating the TV special i.am FIRST: Science is Rock and Roll.
