What got you interested in science? – Green Zone

Question: What got you interested in science?
- Keywords:
  interest,
  science
Asked by orla on 23 Apr 2020. This question was also asked by deshfix123.
- Katherine Benson answered on 23 Apr 2020:
  
  I really enjoyed my science classes in secondary school, my teachers made it really interesting, so I started considering studying science at university. That’s what got me started!
- Roisin Jones answered on 23 Apr 2020:
  
  I always loved anything to do with science in school, but it was really my leaving cert chemistry teacher that settled it for me, she was so great and really made me love chemistry. So I went on to do chemistry in college, found that I still loved it, and have been working in chemistry ever since.
- Min Yap answered on 23 Apr 2020:
  
  I think I was interested in understanding how food came about, that was what sparked it and got me interested in food science. And how food gets from one end of the world to our tables. That got me started I suppose.
- Louise Mc Grath answered on 23 Apr 2020:
  
  A few things happened in my life which made me become a scientist.
  I always liked learning how things work. I would often take things apart and put them back together.
  My granny bought me a chemistry set, and I thought that was awesome! I liked carrying out the experiments and seeing what happened. I loved making limewater as it used to smell really nice!
  Crime Scene Investigation TV show came out and I loved it. The show opened my eyes to the world of Forensic Science, and after that I knew I wanted to be a scientist.
- Sonia Lenehan answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I was always interested in science, I loved reading and my parents bought me loads of the How my Body Works books and videos! Then my youngest sister was born blind and I really wanted to understand why and how this happened. So I became interested in the brain. But my first choice was to become a vet as I did not know there was such a job as a neuroscientist. Thankfully when I went to college I found out about this job and now I am a neuroscientist learning all about the brain!
- Mark Kennedy answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  My parents took me to Kennedy Space Centre in Florida when I was 9 years old, and when I was there I met an astronaut. Seeing how big spaceships are in person, and chatting to a person who had been to space really ignited my passions for astrophysics.
  
  Then, during secondary school, my physics teacher encouraged me to study astrophysics when I went to University, and the rest is history.
- Maria Isabel Meza Silva answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  My dad was an engineer and he would always ask me if I had any idea how something was made. We would watch videos together about how chairs, plastic bottles or even makeup was produced! He also brought me to the production floor of some of the companies he worked at. I got to see how cereals and chocolates were made and packed and perfumes and creams as well! I found it fascinating and I thought I wanted to learn more in detail how different items we use in our daily lives are manufactured.
- Jean O'Dwyer answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I was one of those kids that always asked “why?”, so when I got to secondary school and got to do subjects which explained exactly why and how things happened, I was hooked. Science is so broad too, so really, it’s hard not to be interested!
- Aileen Doran answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I always enjoyed physics in secondary school, but hadn’t planned on studying it in college. I was planning on going to study psychology, and my CAO was mostly courses related to that. Then really close to the CAO deadline, my geography teacher talked about volcanoes in a way that I thought was cool. So that night I put down the first Earth Sciences course I found in my CAO list (I think it was my 6th choice) and that’s the one I got! So, getting into science was an accident, but I’m glad it happened!
- Jun Lin answered on 24 Apr 2020: last edited 24 Apr 2020 11:08 am
  
  I liked watching documentaries like National Geographic and Discovery channels when I was a kid. These got me to decide I’m gonna to science in the future.
- Brian Murray answered on 24 Apr 2020: last edited 24 Apr 2020 11:07 am
  
  When I first mixed hydrogen and oxygen together (just a small bit!) in a test tube in chemistry class and use a long match to light it. The POP it made was so loud it startled everyone!
  
  There’s a really cool video of someone doing it here on YouTube that you can watch:
  
  I’m work in physics now instead of chemistry, but I love hearing about all different types of science still.
- Ollie Otter answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I’m a very curious person and love finding out how stuff works. The great thing about science is that I now get to do that for a living!
- Achim Schmalenberger answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I wanted to know how thinks work in the natural environment, how organisms function and how they interact.
- Yashdeep Yashdeep answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  It was my uncle( My mom’s brother ) who introduced Science to me even before I started reading. He is a Physics teacher and I would go through the pictures of his Physics books when he would study. He would tell me all about the pictures and I loved learning about them. This got me interested in Science.
- Michelle Monaghan answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I loved learning about new things and how they worked. Finding out about how the body works down to cells and DNA, how plants make energy, what the different elements were made up of and how they combined to make different things. It is so fascinating and I always want to know more.
- Hannah Currivan answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  My interest for wondering how things are made!!! I enjoyed watching “The Universe” documentary on the history channel when I was a kid.
  When I was 14 years old I sent a letter to NASA saying that I wanted to work in the Space Industry when I grow up, and I received a letter back from NASA telling me about there careers, and the application process of becoming an Astronaut. So I highly recommend contacting space agencies, especially the European Space Agency and NASA.
- Lea Duran answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I was a lot outside as a kid, we were spending a lot of time in nature with my family and friends. I was curious about many things. A friend of my parents was a researcher and he would explain us the rocks and animals and so on.
  I liked school and wanted to keep learning for as long as possible!
- Nadeem Rather answered on 24 Apr 2020: last edited 25 Apr 2020 5:54 pm
  
  I always had an interest to open my toys mostly remote-controlled cars – I wondered how things worked – that is me pressing a button and something happening to the car.
  
  Later on, I realized that there are many building blocks that made it possible – and it was everywhere in our day to day lives making our life easier and efficient.
- Tommy Hayden answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I was always naturally curious. My father was a big believer in fixing things and I wanted to emulate that
  I got a telescope and a microscope for Christmas one year and that’s when I was aware I had an interest in “science” but in hindsight the toolbox I got the year before was just as much a science present. I broke much more stuff than I fixed with those tools but they gave me an insight into how things worked, and how things broke
  
  Understanding how things fail is a key part of knowing how to design things that won’t fail
- Sarah Mallen answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  My secondary school science teacher, she was amazing! She looked like Edna Mode from The Incredibles. The first day she came into our classroom, slammed a meter stick on the ground. Everyone stopped talking and she just said “Gravity!” She was so passionate about science and was really good at describing how things work
- Rory Ward answered on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  I’ve loved solving puzzles, brainteasers and just general problem solving since I was very young. Science and Engineering gives me a great chance to do that everyday.
- Aisling Ryan answered on 24 Apr 2020: last edited 24 Apr 2020 6:01 pm
  
  For me it was during transition year when science was split into chemistry, biology and physics as separate subjects. I realised that I found chemistry really interesting. I did chemistry as one of my leaving cert subjects (I still thought I didn’t like/wasn’t good at biology or physics!) When I started college I had to do lots of biology classes as part of my degree and I found out that I also really like biology! Now I am doing a PhD that involves chemistry and biology!
  Keep an open mind: it it is never too late to develop an interest in science, and science is so diverse so there is bound to be at least one aspect that you will love!
- Laura Finnegan answered on 25 Apr 2020:
  
  I was always very interested in nature and animals, picking up random facts about the natural world. I think it was really when I was studying biology in secondary school that I decided to stay in science though. I really loved studying genetics and enzymes – how you can study each part separately and then work out how they fit together, like a puzzle. I also liked the idea that there’s always more to learn, even for scientists who are considered top in their field. So I figured I wasn’t likely to get bored!
- Hazel Rooney answered on 26 Apr 2020:
  
  Hi Orla, I first became interested in science during secondary school when I had subjects such as biology and chemistry. Getting to do small experiments was really cool! The animal parts of the biology course then made me want to study animal science in college and the rest is history!
- Francesco Floris answered on 26 Apr 2020:
  
  The feeling of discovery! It makes me happy…
- Fiona Malone answered on 26 Apr 2020:
  
  In school, I loved maths and art and science. I figured out that studying engineering was the best option for me because it uses all these skills to figure out how things work and how to make the world better designed for everybody
- Ciara O'Donovan answered on 27 Apr 2020:
  
  I always enjoyed science in school, in particular in secondary school I loved Biology. From there I just applied for courses which had subjects I was interested in in college and went from there!
- Aimee Stapleton answered on 27 Apr 2020:
  
  This might surprize you but I didn’t always like science – I struggled with it a bit until Junior Cert. But in Transition Year science was spit up in to Biology, Chemistry and Physics and I simply adored Physics! I loved how you could describe something kind of complex (like a bouncing ball) with just a simple equation. I found it so satisfying to be able to use reason and logic to understand how things work.
  
  After studying Physics in College, I got a job working for a pharmaceutical research centre so I had to learn chemistry then. And now I work for a microbiology research centre, and I loving learning more biology.
  
  What’s really fascinating is how often biology, chemistry and physics mix together. That’s why most problems need a team with different skills.
- Chloe Matthews answered on 27 Apr 2020:
  
  Lots of things! I was always curious. I loved watching nature programmes on TV and forensic science shows like CSI. I was just always interested in how the world worked. Some cartoons like Dexter’s Laboratory and Pinkie and the Brain let me believe that you had to be a crazy scientist making weird and wonderful machines to be a scientist. That’s not the case at all! I soon learned there are so many different types of scientists.
- Caoimhe Daly answered on 27 Apr 2020:
  
  My primary school teacher (who was also my Aunt) used to do really interesting experiments during our science period so I was interested at a young age. It started me thinking about the science behind all sorts of stuff. I studied Chemistry and Biology in secondary school. My Biology teacher was just amazing. He related every single topic we studied to everyday things/events so it made it easy to learn and very enjoyable. Like one question he asked us was ‘if I turned you upside down and asked you to eat a sandwich…would it go down into your stomach?’ I said no at the time but the answer is actually yes!
- Enda O'Connell answered on 27 Apr 2020:
  
  I had really good science teachers in school, particularly my leaving cert Biology teacher, Mr. Fitzgerald. I also watched lots of nature programmes when I was younger and read some really interesting books, like River out of Eden (by Richard Dawkins) about evolution and where we all come from.
- Anthony Newell answered on 27 Apr 2020:
  
  I’ve always been really curious about how things worked. My parents, family and school teachers were always really supportive when I wanted to get books and go on courses when I was younger.
- Lucy Blennerhassett answered on 28 Apr 2020:
  
  Being outdoors definitely. Going hiking and spending time in nature as a kid sparked my interest in the natural world. Once I began studying geography and chemistry in secondary school my interest really took off and I became fascinated with understanding how the Earth works!
- Ehren Dixon answered on 30 Apr 2020:
  
  I didn’t know much about science until I was a teenager, but then I started science in school. My old science teacher helped show me what science was and in really cool ways too! I loved learning new things about the world and then showing those things worked or were real by doing experiments.
  
  After 4th year, I really got into chemistry because it was happening all around us. The basic fundamentals of everything, from atoms to molecules to cells to people! Chemistry is all around us, and I was so intrigued, I had to know more and more!
  
  After school, I took on Chemistry in College and started learning about the unknowns, the things we don’t yet understand or have a solution too. I learned about current research, what current scientists were trying to achieve, and I wanted to research something also! To push the boundary of current knowledge beyond into new unknown territories.
  
  I am now doing that very thing with my research. Hopefully, I will discover something that no one has every done before or invent something new that will help the world!

Comments

Amy Heather commented on 23 Apr 2020:

I always wanted to be an archeologist and then when I learnt how objects are dated using carbon dating, I realised that a lot of the important work in modern archeology is scientific. I choose biology and chemistry as my leaving certificate science subjects and couldn’t figure out what type of science I wanted to do. The other big passion in my life is food, I love growing it, cooking it and eating it! So I decided to study food science and ended up studying how viruses survive on food and how they make people sick

Log in to Reply
- deshfix123 commented on 24 Apr 2020:
  
  So it kind of fits in with COVID-19 since eating cooked rats and other animals are what started it
  
  Log in to Reply