• Question: Would you ever be able to teach science or would you find it irritating?

    Asked by Holly-H to Barbara, Matt, Ravinder, Sophie, Tristan on 9 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Sophie Robinson

      Sophie Robinson answered on 9 Mar 2015:


      I have considered becoming a science teacher as I do love to teach science and it’s very rewarding when kids are interested in what you’re teaching them. However, at the moment I get a buzz out of being at the forefront of new knowledge and being able to contribute to finding new therapies for patients. I would like to do both if I could!

    • Photo: Ravinder Kanda

      Ravinder Kanda answered on 9 Mar 2015:


      I have taught science (in schools), and no, it wasn’t irritating… it was actually quite rewarding. Especially when you guys behave! The rest of the time – there’s detention! Of course though, sometimes you guys ask difficult questions as you’re coming from a totally different viewpoint (ie no prior knowledge), it quite often leads to interesting discussions… which is what science is all about – asking the questions that no-one has asked before and coming up with ways to answer them. Its all about discovery!

    • Photo: Barbara Shih

      Barbara Shih answered on 10 Mar 2015:


      I think I would be able to teach science. I wouldn’t find it irritating; I would either be too shy or just end up confusing my students. I have a lot of fun designing my own “experiments” at a science fair, but I wasn’t the best at carrying it out (thank goodness the nurses/medical student helping me were awesome). Never really tried to teach high school kids other than when I was a high school kid.

    • Photo: Matthew Moore

      Matthew Moore answered on 12 Mar 2015:


      I would love to teach science! At the moment I teach undergraduate students maths in their first year, biochemistry in their second year and I teach masters students about evolutionary analysis.

      I love to have a captive audience to share my excitment of science with and hopefully get them excited about it too, because it is interesting! I can’t imagine what could be more interesting! There are really no limits to how far human civilisation can go but we need more scientists and engineers.

      This is a great opportunity to speak to students considering their careers and I’ll be looking for more opportunities in the future for sure. I wouldn’t find it frustrating, if something is not understood then it’s my fault for not explaining it properly! There was a time not very long ago when I understood very little myself and very good teachers have taught me a lot!

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