• Question: What advice would you give to children if they want to be a scientist.

    Asked by XxTekkz11scientist on 17 Feb 2020.
    • Photo: Peter Fawdon

      Peter Fawdon answered on 17 Feb 2020:

      Hi,

      I think the best advice would be not to let anyone tell you what you should and should not be interested in thinking about. wondering why and how it is what drives science.

      Also, don’t worry about being wrong, having ideas, testing them out and improving them where you were wrong is the most important thing in science (also hand in life!).

      Peter

    • Photo: Abbie Hutty

      Abbie Hutty answered on 24 Feb 2020:

      I would say become an engineer, not a scientist! 😉 We have much more fun.

      Really, though, the skills and career path is almost identical so you don’t have to make the decision right now – people move backwards and forwards between science and engineering even once they have a job, the two are so similar.

      I would say stay curious, and find out about topics that interest you, outside of school as well as in your lessons. And make things! Making things, no matter whether it’s a collage, a sock puppet, a wooden box, or a Mars Rover, uses a whole load of skills. Thinking about what problem you need to solve, or what you want your “thing” to be like, then deciding what materials to use and why, and actually physically building it and if it doesn’t work out, not giving up and thinking of ways to change it so it will work after all – those are all skills that can be learnt and practiced and developed.

      And they are all the kinds of skills that you need to be a good scientist or engineer – Creativity, curiosity, problem solving, visualising designs, deciding the best design solution, resilience when things don’t work out quite right the first time… They are all things that will help you out all through your life!

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