Shouldn't we encourage a passion for science rather than stifle it?

As someone who has been interested science since I was a small child (having an engineer for a father and a mother who worked in a lab may have had something to do with that) I was rather perturbed when a letter from Dr Anthony Selden appeared on the timesonline website. I must confess that I missed the original article he was commenting on but the prospect of school children no longer being able to actually conduct science experiments filled me with horror.

I, too, remember the wonder of growing crystals in beakers and adding pieces of sodium to water. I was so keen that I persuaded my parents to buy me a chemistry set so I could continue my scientific investigations at home. Once I had been through the book of prescribed experiments I simply invented my own, as the ceiling of my home ‘laboratory’ bore witness to (a little methyl orange can go a LONG way!).

Whilst I accept that this exploratory approach may not be advisable for quite a number of reasons, it did instil in me a curiosity as to how things work and a love of practical problem solving. Had I not been allowed to do this then I probably wouldn’t have gone on to study engineering at university.

Sadly many children don't get the encouragement at home that I benefited from so it seems likely that the only chance they are going to get to gain any kind of hands on experience is in school. At a time when many are all lamenting the lack of young people choosing to study science and engineering and then take it up as a career, surely we should be demonstrating that science can be interesting and fun and encouraging them to be inquisitive rather than banning them for ‘safety reasons’?

I know I learn best by doing when I have something physically in front of me and I’m not alone in that. I doubt very much that I would have been so enthusiastic or learned as much as I have by watching someone else conduct the experiment, and even less by watching a video. Call me old fashioned but some things are still best experienced in the real world not a virtual one.

One thing that has stuck in my mind for many years was from when I was studying for chemistry A-level. One day I went into the chemistry prep room and found my tutor dosing a series of beakers of brown mush from a bottle of pure ethanol. It didn’t seem unreasonable to ask what he was doing and he explained that these were second year students’ experiments on fermentation. They had crushed up some apples and left them to ferment and would be testing them later for the presence of alcohol. I asked whether he thought the addition of alcohol wouldn’t somewhat skew things in favour of a positive result and I’ve never forgotten his response. He said that at that stage of their learning it was more important that they got the right result.

Obviously I wouldn’t advocate this approach for all research and experimentation but, looking back after over 20 years, I realised he was absolutely right. He was inspiring them and building their confidence and enthusiasm and, if that encouraged just one student to pursue their interest in the subject then, for that alone Dr Jackson, I salute you!