Raising the next generation of scientists

Dec 16, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – I did promise you that from time to time I will be dedicating this space to aspects of science which I feel will be of interest to the general public, a task that is all the more necessary, considering the decline in the teaching of science in our classrooms.
Improving the teaching of science within our schools will also encourage greater interest in science within our schools. I have always felt, however, that interest in science needs to be cultivated from an early age within our homes.
We should not wait until children enter the formal school system before we fire their thirst and hunger for scientific knowledge. We should begin this initiation from an early age, and this should happen firstly at home.
Children are naturally inquisitive about things around them. Just recently I was speaking with my own grandchild who, after looking at the West Indies fast bowlers, asked me how by jumping a bowler gains more speed. Now, that is a scientific question that will require inputs supported by facts about bio-mechanics, momentum and motion, all of which are fascinating subject areas in science.
The question shows how much our children are keen on understanding the world around them. Thus, the right age to cultivate an active interest in science is when our children are very young.
When children are young, they have questioning minds and their constant questioning can be at times irritable, but only because we adults to whom the questions are posed do not always have the answers.
They expose through their constant probing questions, the inadequacies of their parents, and sometime we react by telling them how they ask too many questions, which is the worst thing that can be done, since this will only discourage the development of an active mind.
Even if we do not know the answer to a question, we need to encourage this thought process of our children, because it is only by asking questions that they grow in knowledge.
We also need to expose them to role models. I recall when I was a teenager how fascinated I was by the work of scientists and how they came upon the discoveries that changed the face of human history. One day, I was in the library and came across this biography of one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, Marie Curie. I borrowed the book and could not put it down.
That was a long time ago, but I still recall how engrossed I was in the story of this amazing woman. I have searched long and hard ever since to try to find a biography of Marie Curie, so that I could share the story of this woman with my grandchildren. I have not been successful so far, but I am sure there are many such works available.
I urge any parents or guardians who wish to harness their children’s natural propensity for science; who wish to satiate their offspring’s appetite for answers to the puzzles of science, to introduce your children to the story of Marie Curie.
This was a simple woman, born in Poland, whose love for science forced her to break with tradition and immigrate to France. There she pursued her studies eventually becoming a doctor of science. In Paris also, she met her husband who was a renowned scientist.
They married and continued their work in science. They were neither rich nor comfortable. In fact they were not fortunate to have some of the modern equipment, laboratories and resources which today’s scientists have at their disposal.
Their facilities were primitive, and yet this amazing couple was able to isolate two important chemical elements, one of which was radium, and to pioneer the study and understanding of radioactivity. Their story is fascinating.
One of the things that really struck me about this poor woman was her deep love for scientific knowledge. Despite the hardships she endured before being awarded the Nobel Prize, she was obsessed with her work and dedicated her entire life to the study of science. She made science her life’s vocation and, with her husband, would work from sunrise to sunset in trying to improve mankind’s knowledge of whatever she was studying.
Such dedication is inspirational. She is the perfect role model for our young children who have an interest in science and who may wish to continue into higher studies.
I urge any parent to introduce their children to the life-story of this great woman whose brilliance and painstaking efforts helped to transform the scientific community and whose findings was later to lead to so many innovations that have benefited mankind.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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