• Question: did you like science when you were at school? what set were you in? i am in bottom, i find it hard to like it.

    Asked by rubyfernfern to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 19 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi rubyfernfern. I liked science at school, mostly biology (wasn’t so keen on chemistry and physics), but I liked other things – took a lot of history and english too. At university though, after a really inspiring molecular biology class, I realised how much about the world that science could explain, and how many cool questions there were left to answer, and I was hooked. I went to school in New Zealand, and we didn’t have sets at my school, so can’t answer your other question…

      The important thing about science is that it is not just facts, it is a way of looking at the world – make your decisions based on data, not on what other people/websites tell you. Useful tool for all sorts of things.

    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi ruby,
      Thanks for your question. I did like science, but not all of it. I hated chemistry!!! Really , really, really, really, hated it 🙂
      But, I tried hard to do OK in it and I liked some other parts of the science course and it all worked out in the end. I don’t think we had sets where I went to school, but I was always farely average.
      The main thing is not to get too down that science is hard! It’s difficult, but its also loads of fun!!

      Eoin.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      I didn’t I must confess. I found the lessons difficult to understand and the practicals were dull. I can understand where you’re coming from. In my secondary school, if you were in the bottom set, you got fewer lessons than the top set – I thought this was the wrong way around, and if you were struggling you required extra lessons, not fewer than someone who understood the subject – what is your view on the subject?

      All I can say I guess is stick at it, I promise you that professional science is nothing like science at school, and it really suits people who are willing to think independently and work hard. The questions you were asking in the live chat clearly show that you know more than you think you do! So stick at it, and I’m sure eventually you will be in the top set!

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi Rubyfernfern

      Sorry to hear you’re in the bottom set and finding it hard to like science. When I was at school they didn’t have sets, and although I quite liked science I wasn’t especially good at it. I bet you have strengths in other subjects, and not everyone has to like science – as long you like what scientists do. I hope that scientists help to make the world a better place.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 19 Mar 2011:

      Hi ruby again thanks for the question. It’s great that although you say you don’t like science, you keep asking questions to us!! I really appreciate it!
      i was a geek at school (i still am!) and was in top set for science. But don’t give up on science! It is well worth trying to find a way round your dislike of it. It is such a wide area, there are so many different careers in it, that i find it impossible to believe that you can’t find some part of it that you really, really like!! Don’t like maths?? Well nor do i, and so i became an experimental scientist. There’s not much maths involved, and is deeply enjoyable. Actually if maths is the problem, then don’t worry – most scientists actually don’t use much maths!
      Anyway, what is it that you don’t like about it?? What in particular?

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