Sean the Science Kid Reflects on ‘Amazing’ Moment He Met His ‘Idol’ Bill Nye and What the Beloved Scientist Told Him (Exclusive)

Sean the Science Kid Reflects on ‘Amazing’ Moment He Met His ‘Idol’ Bill Nye and What the Beloved Scientist Told Him (Exclusive) https://ift.tt/zBH9q3A

The kid influencer and science creator says that Nye carried him through his science journey

Sean the Science Kid (L) and Bill Nye (R)
Credit: Courtesy of Museum of Science

NEED TO KNOW

• Sean Atitsogbe, 11, is a science prodigy inspired by Bill Nye, whom he recently met at the Museum of Science

• Atitsogbe and Nye are part of a campaign promoting air quality awareness through education and a new museum exhibit
• Atitsogbe hopes to inspire kids to engage in science, emphasizing their role in solving future environmental challenges

Sean the Science Kid loves science. More specifically, he loves teaching people about science — the same way Bill Nye did for him.

The 11-year-old STEM prodigy, whose real name is Sean Atitsogbe, recently met the 70-year-old scientist, whose show Bill Nye the Science Guy inspired generations of scientists and science enthusiasts.

Meeting Nye, Atitsogbe tells PEOPLE, was "absolutely amazing."

"Getting to meet one of my idols and one of the people that carried me through my science journey just felt surreal," Atitsogbe shares. 

Andrew Rodgers, Sean the Science Kid, and Bill Nye
Credit: Courtesy of Museum of Science

After meeting the TV personality, Atitsogbe shares the advice Nye gave him and the rest of the audience at the Museum of Science in Boston while promoting a new exhibit that highlights the importance of air quality. 

"We have to vote. He said we have to vote to help solve the problems with our air," Atitsogbe says. "And he also mentioned how we can take tiny steps, like not burning our trash, using e- eco-friendly things such as electronic devices, helping with our e-waste, you know, stuff to help the air we share."

Atitsogbe, who shares his interest in science with the world and nearly 2 million online followers, says he loves physics most, but shares a joke with PEOPLE about each amazing aspect of science. 

"Chemistry is, 'What is this phone made of and how do those materials interact with each other?' Physics is 'Why does this phone do what it does and how does it interact with other pieces of matter like it?' Biology is 'What are the things that make up this phone, and how do they work together to power the phone?' And geology is, 'Screw the phone, let's look at rocks.' " 

Sean the Science Kid and Bill Nye
Credit: Courtesy of Museum of Science

Recently, Atitsogbe and Nye teamed up for a new national initiative from Sanofi and the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), designed to help families better understand how air quality impacts respiratory health through trusted, science-based community education.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"This exhibit aims to create activism, and it aims to educate people about the air we share, what we're breathing into our bodies that we usually don't think about," Atitsogbe shares. "As someone with asthma, that helps a lot because a lot of people know the air quality is bad, especially me, since I'm coughing and sneezing, and a lot of people don't do much about it. They live their life knowing that the air sucks."

The campaign introduced the character Lungston to help kids identify their respiratory systems and understand the difference between good and bad air quality. 

"What they're doing is bringing people together to help the situation going on with our air, the toxicity of it, the carbon monoxide, the factories," the tween says. "They're bringing activism to it. And they're also advocating for initiatives to clean the air."

Andrew Rodgers and Bill Nye at the Museum of Science
Credit: Courtesy of Museum of Science

Just as Nye inspired Atitsogbe, the young science enthusiast hopes to inspire the next generation of kids like him.

"The next generation is the one we need to be teaching, not the current generation. When the current generation is doing things, the kids are sitting there doing nothing, probably scrolling on their iPhones, watching brain-rotting content," Atitsogbe says. "We need the kids to help us do what we're trying to do, fix the air, fix the science. We need to get more kids engaged in science because they will live longer. They're going to be the ones fixing the world when adults aren't around anymore."

Nye, meanwhile, tells PEOPLE that he's excited about the newest generation of scientists because they "want to change the world and they have access now to information that nobody had before."

"You can look up the atomic weight of chlorinated fluorocarbons in a beat. It used to be this huge hassle," he shares. "With these electronic information systems, you can get a lot of things wrong, but that's the most important skill for anyone: critical thinking, sorting out what is reasonable from what is probably not. That's our goal."

"We have people excited about science who are entering the workforce, gonna vote, make changes, and change the world. It's exciting," Nye adds.