As graduation approaches, I find myself reflecting more and more about the past and the future. It seems somewhat unbelievable that in less than four months I’ll be graduating with degrees in Genetics and Evolution (with a minor in Psychology!). That surreal feeling is even stronger when I tell people that I’ll soon be striving towards my PhD studying Human Genetics & Evolution at…well, university soon to be decided.
I’ll be the first Dr. McCreight in my family, and the only scientist. That makes me wonder how I ended up this way. How did a daughter of an art teacher and history teacher become such a big science geek? And more importantly, what can I learn from my upbringing to better encourage kids to be interested in science?
Books
The importance of reading is so well known, but I need to mention it. I never was given explicitly pro-science books that are targeted towards kids. In fact, the only real nonfiction science book I enjoyed was the first book I ever read, in preschool, and was about dinosaurs. I’m still baffled how you can have a book with complex dinosaur names that a 3 year old can understand, but I loved that thing.
That’s the one exception, because it was fiction books that really got me pumped about science. They sort of tricked me into thinking like a scientist, rather than ramming it down my throat. For example, I still vividly remember reading a passage from A Wrinkle in Time where a character is explaining the different dimensions, and they accidentally travel through a 2-D world and experience what it would be like to be squished flat:
She tried to gasp, but a paper doll can’t gasp. She thought she was trying to think, but her flattened-out mind was as unable to function as her lungs; her thoughts were squashed along with the rest of her. Her heart tried to beat; it gave a knifelike, sidewise movement, but it could not expand.
But then she seemed to hear a voice, or if not a voice, at least words, words flattened out like printed words on paper, “Oh, no! We can’t stop here! This is a two-dimensional planet and the children can’t manage here!”
I read that book over a decade ago, but that passage still stuck with me – in fact, it’s one of two scenes I remember from the entire book. I understood the concept of dimensions because it was humanized, regardless if we could really do the magical sort of traveling they do in the book. If someone had tried to my ten year old self down and explain dimensions scientifically, I’m not sure if I would have understood it or wanted to pay attention, no matter how passionate the teacher was.
But books don’t just have to teach scientific concepts. In 5th grade we read The Westing Game, a Clue-like murder mystery. It was full of puzzles and red herrings, and trying to solve them was pretty much the most amazing thing ever. We were living the Da Vinci Code (well, it wasn’t written yet, but you know what I mean). Every time we’d read a new chapter as a class, we would collect all of our new clues, add them to a giant bulletin board, and try to figure it out. We weren’t just reading a story – we were actively participating, gathering evidence, working as detectives, forming hypotheses, and using logic to solve the problem. It was teaching us to think like scientists and have fun while doing so.
Sci-fi and murder mysteries are all well in good, but it was naturalistic books that really got me interested in biology. I was a shy, indoors sort of kid; I loved painting, drawing, reading, and playing videogames. My parents aren’t outdoors people, so we never went hiking or camping – the only time we spent with nature involved sitting on a golf cart.
So when I was assigned books like Where the Red Fern Grows and My Side of the Mountain, it was a type of escapism. The idea of interacting with animals and living off the land was as spectacular and amazing as zipping through dimensions and traveling through space. It wasn’t just novel – the books were great, and I started to eat that genre up. I looked for more books by Jean Craighead George, and found Julie of the Wolves. I absolutely loved it, and it was the first time I ever thought about animal behavior and ecosystems. I wanted to gobble up anything about wolves, so my dad bought me The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London.
But again, things don’t necessarily need to be realistic fiction. My sudden curiosity for animals was also filled by Animorphs – and aliens giving people abilities to turn into animals isn’t exactly scientific. But it made me think about what it would be like to be certain animals – how their behaviors differ, how they’re similar, how they’re like us. I even loved the evolution-like covers, long before I had ever learned what evolution was. Aliens giving people abilities to turn into animals isn’t exactly scientific, but it ultimately increased my interest in nature, and that’s what matters.
This isn’t just an exercise in nostalgia – trust me, it makes me feel suddenly old, not a feeling I enjoy. But reading matters when it comes to getting kids interested in science. The books don’t need to be non-fiction or have the goal of teaching science in mind – they just need to inspire. They need to plant that spark of interest that kids can choose to follow if they wish. This is especially important for kids like me who didn’t get any real life experience with nature – sometimes a book is all we have, and sometimes a book is all it takes.
Actually getting a child to read is a totally different problem, one I don’t have a good answer to. I was a little bookworm, so you never had to encourage me. But one thing to notice is that nearly all of these books were assigned to me in school. Left to my own devices, I would probably still be rereading Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein to this day, and never have picked up something new. Did I love every book I was assigned in elementary school? God no. I didn’t even get halfway through the Secret Garden (still got a B on the essay – developed my BSing skills early). Not everyone is going to love everything, but inspiring some children down the road to science is worth it.
More parts to How this kid became a scientist will be forthcoming soonish. Hey, scientists are busy people!
I loved A Wrinkle in Time *so* much — and Flatland, loved that too. Books are such a wonderful source of inspiration.
I don't have an e-reader yet, I wonder if the wonder of books will be lessened for future generations unfamiliar with the feel of a book, the smell of it (whether new, or a little musty from the library). There is just something magical about dead-tree books, or maybe I'm just being overly nostalgic. I *am* a geek after all, I should welcome our new Kindle, etc overlords?
I loved A Wrinkle in Time *so* much — and Flatland, loved that too. Books are such a wonderful source of inspiration. I don’t have an e-reader yet, I wonder if the wonder of books will be lessened for future generations unfamiliar with the feel of a book, the smell of it (whether new, or a little musty from the library). There is just something magical about dead-tree books, or maybe I’m just being overly nostalgic. I *am* a geek after all, I should welcome our new Kindle, etc overlords?
Thankfully my daughter already loves books even though she is only three and can't read. I've found that age appropriate encyclopedias can do wonders. For instance, the book that made me the most interested in science as a kid was Isaac Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He managed to simultaneously explain very complex science while humanizing the scientists who made all of these amazing discoveries.
I really need to find a copy of that book again.
Thankfully my daughter already loves books even though she is only three and can’t read. I’ve found that age appropriate encyclopedias can do wonders. For instance, the book that made me the most interested in science as a kid was Isaac Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He managed to simultaneously explain very complex science while humanizing the scientists who made all of these amazing discoveries. I really need to find a copy of that book again.
Interesting. I definitely remember the first time I read A Wrinkle in Time; The Westing Game was a book I read early on also, although I remember very little of that one now. I never really thought about either of those books as encouraging scientific thinking, but now that you mention it, it's definitely there.
I have to say, though, that it was probably Isaac Asimov's robot stories that got me into engineering.
Interesting. I definitely remember the first time I read A Wrinkle in Time; The Westing Game was a book I read early on also, although I remember very little of that one now. I never really thought about either of those books as encouraging scientific thinking, but now that you mention it, it’s definitely there.I have to say, though, that it was probably Isaac Asimov’s robot stories that got me into engineering.
When I was a kid I wanted to be a scientist too. IIRC I was particularly interested in astronomy and biology rather than engineering stuff. As late as about 12 I wanted to be a biologist, not least after we met an American biology teacher up a mountain in Switzerland and he gave me a textbook and dissecting gear.
The trouble was that they wouldn't let me do science because my math grades weren't good enough. And that was mostly because I had a total dickhead math teacher. He would sit with the clever-clogs doing advanced stuff and refuse, even when asked, to give any help to anyone else. One day when he was sick and the deputy head came to spell him, I actually understood calculus. For one day in my life, until the dickhead came back and I de-understood it again.
Sigh…..
When I was a kid I wanted to be a scientist too. IIRC I was particularly interested in astronomy and biology rather than engineering stuff. As late as about 12 I wanted to be a biologist, not least after we met an American biology teacher up a mountain in Switzerland and he gave me a textbook and dissecting gear. The trouble was that they wouldn’t let me do science because my math grades weren’t good enough. And that was mostly because I had a total dickhead math teacher. He would sit with the clever-clogs doing advanced stuff and refuse, even when asked, to give any help to anyone else. One day when he was sick and the deputy head came to spell him, I actually understood calculus. For one day in my life, until the dickhead came back and I de-understood it again. Sigh…..
Wow, I read the same books and had some of the same reactions. But until just before college I thought I'd end up in an art/design area, so who knows.
Wow, I read the same books and had some of the same reactions. But until just before college I thought I’d end up in an art/design area, so who knows.
Madeline L'Engle has always been one of my favorite authors. I still reread the Wrinkle in Time series occasionally.
I haven't thought about The Westing Game or Animorphs in ages though. I was such a bookworm, and Animorphs was one of those series that I just whipped right through, finishing a whole library shelf worth of books in a few weeks one summer.
This is a great post. I know that many of the books I have read have shaped me and my interests, but I had never really thought specifically about the impact they had on me as a future scientist. It's an interesting thought.
Madeline L’Engle has always been one of my favorite authors. I still reread the Wrinkle in Time series occasionally.I haven’t thought about The Westing Game or Animorphs in ages though. I was such a bookworm, and Animorphs was one of those series that I just whipped right through, finishing a whole library shelf worth of books in a few weeks one summer.This is a great post. I know that many of the books I have read have shaped me and my interests, but I had never really thought specifically about the impact they had on me as a future scientist. It’s an interesting thought.
I've actually re-read The Westing Game as an adult, and I have to say, it stands up to multiple readings. :)Great list.
I’ve actually re-read The Westing Game as an adult, and I have to say, it stands up to multiple readings. :)Great list.
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GREETINGS AND FAITHFUL SAYINGS:Greetings to one and all: In that most precious name. That name which is above every name, the name: “Jesus” ____There’s tremendous power in that name. I’d suppose we’ll never fully realize all that can truly be accomplished, by us simply calling out that name in true faith.____There’s an old, old, gospel song that goes like this: Faith in the Father, faith in the Son, faith in the Holy Spirit, great victories are won. Demons will tremble and sinners will awake, faith in Jehovah will anything shake.____For you who have never come into this realization, if you’re reading this, just give him a welcome into your heart and life. You will both feel and see an awesome difference. You will have also purchased the ticket to heaven (by accepting, therefore making him welcome to come into your life. You will also sup from His cup that contains living water. (As did the woman at the well of Bethesda.) John 4:10____Much love, ____Your brother in Christ Jesus, who is both our Lord, and Savior.____www.eloquentbooks.c…… “http://www.eloquentbooks.com/O…” …
LOL. Christian spammer need to work on finding the right target audience.
LOL. Christian spammer need to work on finding the right target audience.
"nearly all of these books were assigned to me in school"
Yepper. If I hadn't been forced (kicking and screaming) to read Silas Marner as a high-school sophomore, I doubt I would have ever evolved my taste for classic literature, especially Shakespeare.
BTW, Mr. Dunnigan–fuck you.
“nearly all of these books were assigned to me in school”Yepper. If I hadn’t been forced (kicking and screaming) to read Silas Marner as a high-school sophomore, I doubt I would have ever evolved my taste for classic literature, especially Shakespeare.BTW, Mr. Dunnigan–fuck you.
Oh my goodness, 'The Westing Game'! It's still one of my all-time favorites. I got it out of the library again two years ago just to enjoy the puzzles one more time.
What a fabulous post, Jen. I'm glad to hear about ways to inspire younger folks to think and be curious about the world around us. Especially with my neices growing in age, I'd like to be a good influence in this area.
Oh my goodness, ‘The Westing Game’! It’s still one of my all-time favorites. I got it out of the library again two years ago just to enjoy the puzzles one more time.What a fabulous post, Jen. I’m glad to hear about ways to inspire younger folks to think and be curious about the world around us. Especially with my neices growing in age, I’d like to be a good influence in this area.
I take my four year old daughter on weekly trips to the library and check out at least 10 books each time. If something catches her interest, we hunt for books on the topic at the library. Some of her interests include: volcanoes, dinosaurs, planets/solar system and germs.
Sidenote: I want to say that I enjoyed reading your blog. I also grew up in the Region and went to Purdue. However, I have escaped from Indiana :)
I take my four year old daughter on weekly trips to the library and check out at least 10 books each time. If something catches her interest, we hunt for books on the topic at the library. Some of her interests include: volcanoes, dinosaurs, planets/solar system and germs.Sidenote: I want to say that I enjoyed reading your blog. I also grew up in the Region and went to Purdue. However, I have escaped from Indiana :)
My husband found an old Antimorphs book the other day – we both had a good laugh.
My husband found an old Antimorphs book the other day – we both had a good laugh.
Reading through your blog and enjoying it. Totally agree with this post. I’ve been feeding my kids books throughout, anything that grabs their interest, beginning with dinosaurs. Now my 8YO declared he wants to be an astronomer when he grows up. Oh, the joy!