• Question: What Inspired U To Be A Scientist?

    Asked by mohammeduzair to Sarah, Ivan, James, Jessica, Nicola on 12 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by sadia12345, supbro, bobby6007, vickygodwin, mileywannabe311, loopy2018, ducksareawesome, kjxxxxxxxxxx, bethen, sammonlogic, georgefish.
    • Photo: Sarah Tesh

      Sarah Tesh answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      I think the main trigger for my interest in science was my Dad. He designs bridges, airport runways and roads. He loves cars and planes and even used to be a pilot in the RAF. We would go to motor-sport shows, quadbiking and watch Formula 1. This really began my interest in how things work and why. Like how did they make cars go fast? How do you build them? How do planes fly? Also my Mom did geography so on holidays we would go see glaciers and volcanoes and she’d explain the reasons things happened. It was so interesting! I started asking for Lego Technix for Christmas so I could build Formula 1 cars and remote control rally cars and would do school projects on cars.

      It also turned out that at school I was better at Maths than say English or History. It just came a lot more naturally to me. Then we started having lessons on space and I loved it! It really captured my attention and led me down the road of Physics.

      Since then my interest has just spread and widened and shifted. There’s always something new to learn and scientists around the world are discovering new things everyday!

    • Photo: Nicola Potts

      Nicola Potts answered on 18 Nov 2013:

      To be honest, I can’t say that I knew at school what I wanted to be and I think I ended up as a scientist by accident (a very happy one).

      I took the subjects which interested me and followed the same rule for going to University. After there I think I have done the same, that I was interested in something and wanted to research it.

      Along the way I’ve had some really supportive teachers/lecturers who made me believe I could be like them which was inspirational to me at the time.

    • Photo: Jessica Liley

      Jessica Liley answered on 18 Nov 2013:

      When I was about 7 my mum bought me a chemistry set for my birthday, this totally inspired me and I’d sit there making up my own experiments all day and writing all my results down! I still have it now but it’s got big holes burnt in the packaging from the chemicals!

      We had great science teachers at school too, they made science so interesting and the practicals were always really fun. I’d love to be a teacher later in my career – I’ve realised how important it is to try and inspire students in science while they’re at school!

      I also ended up doing science at University by accident as I wasn’t sure what degree to do for a long time! But I’m so glad I chose Chemistry, being a scientist is one of the best jobs ever 🙂

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