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Asked by caitlinfc to Indi, Jarv, John, Ken, Vicky on 14 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by ewantennent1282.
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Ken Dutton-Regester answered on 13 Mar 2012:
I would recommend choosing the science area that most interests you! For me, it’s biology. Being interested in something makes it so much easier and enjoyable when your studying. If you are super serious about becoming a scientist- look up the science degree requirements at univerisity. There is usually some minimum requirements such as a certain grade or particular subject selections. I can’t really comment on what those requirements are in the UK as I am based in Aus and there might be some difference. I would just make sure that you are on track to meet those requirements in order to get into science.
For me, getting into science here in Aus wasn’t particularly strict or difficult. I think all you needed to have done was one science subject and a medium level maths during school. Probably a high C to a B grade average. I only did one science subject at school (biology), however, becuase I didnt do physics or chemistry it did make it more difficult when I got to uni. That being said, I made it through without any problems!
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Jarvist Moore Frost answered on 13 Mar 2012:
Ken’s describe all the school based stuff really well.
But one thing that I would like to add is that the Internet has completely changed how we do science. You’re no longer isolated in your school, but just as much a part of the global scientific community as any one of us 🙂If you start looking, you can find whole communities of people out there that popularise and describe science, and people that do their own observations and experiments. In particular, if it interests you, there’s an amazing amount of ecological and environmental observations that you can do, and investigate yourself. There’s so much we don’t know about the world, that there’s loads to do.
A couple of years ago a scientist worked with a class of primary school kids to find something new about bumble bees! Their paper is here:
http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/7/2/168 -
Indi Ghangrekar answered on 13 Mar 2012:
Very good answers from Ken and Jarvist. I thought it was fantastic that those primary school children did that bumble bee study and got published! There are lots of different options to doing it and lots of different options available when you finish. For example, if you like biology, you could even get experience working on a research station doing some field work before you even start doing a degree – it may show you what you’re most interested in.
Also, don’t ever feel restricted to just science – my first degree was in Neuroscience with Japanese and I had the opportunity to go study in Japan for a year. If you want to you can engineer flexibility and different options into what you even if they aren’t actually available at the time, universities can be open to new suggestions. Nor should you feel restricted to one particular science when you have to choose it at degree level, I’ve heard some physicists applying maths to certain biological studies like studying biomechanics of movement. Or biologists getting involved with engineering projects by using biomaterials for construction.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do!
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John Prytherch answered on 13 Mar 2012:
Good advice here. My only extra comment would be to work hard on your math skills.
Whatever area of science you are interested in you will definitely need to do math and statistics, and being comfortable with numbers will make it a lot easier for you (plus, maths is fun! sometimes…).
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Vicky Young answered on 14 Mar 2012:
I would say (as well as all the above) make sure you are passionate about whatever science you choose. You will need to work long hours and be much more committed than most jobs. You will also spend a lot of time repeating the same tests over and over and for that you need passion to keep you going. If your passionate about what you do in life it stops becoming a chore to work.
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