• Question: When you first started working with science did you find it hard? And how did you learn to love it and did you enjoy science when you were younger?

    Asked by emmaminaj1111 to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 13 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by joeb, ossianbb, anon-30036, carlykibbey.
    • Photo: Jill Magee

      Jill Magee answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      I did enjoy science when I was younger. I think its important to really enjoy a subject before you consider doing it as a job. If you really enjoy the subject I think the love for it will come naturally. You will always want to learn more about your subject.

      There are difficult parts to any job, but thats what makes mine so interesting. I like a challenge, and science to me is just one big puzzle…so its a good thing I enjoy them! If my work was easy then I think I would get a bit bored at times. Its very rewarding when you have been working on a really hard problem for a long time and then suddenly you have solved it!

      Never be put off by something if you find parts of it difficult, especially if you really enjoy the subject. Hard work will pay off in the end 🙂

    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      I definitely found it hard. My first time in a real lab was really confusing. I had to quite a few sums on the spot and getting used to them took a little while. It was probably only about a week until I felt more comfortable with them, but it felt like ages!

      When I started getting my own results, that no-one else had ever looked into that was when it became great. There’s nothing like trying lots of different ways to find something out, and then getting a solid answer that you’re sure of, it’s a great feeling to push our knowledge forward!

      I enjoyed science when I was younger, at school I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did at college. Then at university a whole new world was opened up to me where I had to look at the actual research and not read it from a book, it got really fun when you can see what we don’t know, what we think we could know and what we are very sure of!

      How do you find your science classes at the moment?

    • Photo: Melissa Brereton

      Melissa Brereton answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Even now I find science hard – the longer you are a scientist and the more you learn, the harder it can become. I just knew that I found science more interesting at school than history or maths! And so I just continued to study science at school, college, university…. and now this is my real job!

    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Science can be hard – I definitely found it hard when I was younger but I think that was part of the appeal! If you like something and are interested in it then you want to find out moreand although sometimes it can be difficult, once you understand it, it’s great!

      I still find science hard now – you can’t possibly know everything all the time! 🙂 Sometimes I get results and I have no idea what they mean……but there is always someone you can ask or who can help you find out the right answer. I do love it now, especially the challenges! Finally figuring something out after struggling with it is the best feeling 😀

    • Photo: Phil Rice

      Phil Rice answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      Science is fundamentally about how the world works. It is hard to begin with, but as you build on the foundations it gets easier as new facts mesh together. I loved it because I UNDERSTOOD it, again, because I had an excellent chemistry teacher. I loved science when I was young, making stink bombs (for example) and ruining all of my watches by trying to find out how they worked! The best thing in science (apart from finding something new which no-one on the planet know about – yet), is understanding it. Once you GET IT and it clicks, something goes off inside my head. I love it.

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