• Question: when you were younger did you enjoy science at school and want to be a scientist?

    Asked by Eleanor to Jackie, Michele, Oliver, Vicky, Yelong on 9 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Francesca.
    • Photo: Michele Faucci Giannelli

      Michele Faucci Giannelli answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      I liked maths more that science until I got to the end of high school. At that point math was too abstract so I decided to study physics which had more connection to the “real” world.

    • Photo: Jaclyn Bell

      Jaclyn Bell answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      I really hated science lessons at school and I was only really good at maths so I did maths at A-level and carried on with it at University. I liked watching science programs and stuff but I really didn’t like my lessons at school 🙁 It wasn’t until uni that I studied some maths modules which were more physicsy that I decided I liked physics again!

    • Photo: Vicky Bayliss

      Vicky Bayliss answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      I liked science once I got to A-levels. I think at that point it started sounding relevant, where early on it was all a bit abstract and I couldn’t always see the point. I wanted to know how things worked, often fairly fundamentally – like computers, so they are controlled by code – but how? You don’t really get that from year 7 physics.

    • Photo: Oliver Brown

      Oliver Brown answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      For me it was more that I really hated having to write long essays, I was much happier doing a short bit of maths! I was also really in to the BBC show Waking the Dead, and decided since I was too clumsy to be a policeman, I should be a forensic scientist instead

      I started out doing 5 A-levels Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and Music Technology. I enjoyed chemistry until I started having to do organic chemistry — lots of memorising hydrocarbons! I realised I could never pass an exam that required me to remember so much stuff, and dropped it. It meant I couldn’t be a forensic scientist, but I also realised I enjoyed electronics and the computing end of physics a lot more than I’d ever liked chemistry.

      So that’s how I ended up here, today! I didn’t like writing, I did like maths, and I didn’t have the memory for chemistry. It’s great to have a really good idea of what you want to do, but it’s important to remember that things change. I remember my chemistry teacher told me I’d regret dropping it — sorry Mr. O’Neill, I still don’t!

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