Bill Gates is one of 11 leaders receiving the Franklin Award at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on Thursday night. But, before the pomp and circumstance, students were able to get some Q & A in with the billionaire founder of Microsoft.
Gates breezed into the engineering lab of the Science Leadership Academy earlier Thursday.
One of the items on display was a vertical windmill, suitable for a rooftop.
Another displayed nanotechnology, where one student described the goal as making bacteria to eat plastic bags.
It was easy to forget these are high school students.
"It's great to see people doing hands-on science. It's fun, it's wonderful, and in this school they get a chance to do that," Gates said.
Senior Allison Campbell said she was impressed that Gates asked probing questions.
"Most people come in and go "Oh, cool..." on what we're doing," Campbell said. "He asked really important questions and really made us think."
At a later Q&A with the students, Gates fielded questions about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As one of the richest men in the world, Gates said great wealth means a great responsibility to give back to society. His foundation has spent billions of dollars in the developing world on agriculture and fighting disease.
At one point, Gates was asked what young people could do to help.
"I think the way to get started, for almost everybody, is in your own community," he said.
When Gates is honored with the Franklin award, he'll join an elite group including the likes of Albert Eintsein, Thomas Edison, Jane Goodall and Orville Wright.
