Careers in Science

The other night I was helping my 9th grade daughter with her essay on Cavafy's poem, "The Road to Ithaca". Many of you might remember the opening line, "When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery". I couldn't help think how relevant Cavafy's advice is to students interested in pursuing science careers: focus on the journey rather than the destination.

Some of us know what we want to be from a young age. Others have an interest in many subjects and switch majors multiple times in college before they settle into a career. And then there are those who develop new passions or encounter new opportunities and end up switching careers later in life.

How many times are teachers asked by their students struggling over a new math concept, or chemical reaction, "what am I ever going to need this for"? Ah-ha! This is the perfect time for a discussion of the myriad of science careers available, from astrobiology to zoology and every multidisciplinary combination in between.

A broad foundation in math, chemistry, biology and physics makes any science career possible. Most students don't know what they're going to need to know for their career until they have reached their "destination". Hence, the importance of the "journey", of taking the time to learn everything you can along the way.

A few weeks ago, I attended the National Science Teacher's Association (NSTA) meeting in Detroit and gave a workshop on how to introduce science careers into the classroom. One activity I suggest teacher's use is called, "Map Out Your Future". Students are given a handout with 5 columns labeled, "When I Was Younger", "Middle School", "High School", "College & Graduate School", and "My Career". Middle school students for example fill the first column with what their interests, hobbies and career goals were as a young child, then what they are now and then project what their path will be on to a career.

It's enlightening for science teachers to do this activity themselves by thinking back to what they thought their career path would be when they were 12 or 13. It's important to have goals that motivate us at all stages of our lives. As this activity illustrates, often times we don't end up exactly where we thought we would.

If we encourage our students interested in science not to limit themselves, to acquire a broad math and science background, they will ultimately find a career in science, when the time comes.

We continue to ask children this question, but what can we do to prepare them?

As students enter my classroom, I find some have already limited their career aspirations. This may have stemmed from inaccurate information or sex-stereotyped views of a career. Students enter the classroom believing their struggle in or dislike of math and/or science has already eliminated career choices.

This week while working with elementary students in an after school program, I explained how they would be the ones going to Mars. Excitedly the students wanted to know what they had to do. When I explained they needed to study math and science, many responded negatively thinking going to Mars was not an option for them because they didn’t like math.

It is important I open students’ minds and provide positive experiences; I want them to realize they have the potential to be anything. In teaching Earth science at a junior high, I connect the content they are learning to present and possibly future careers—through discussions, online searches, surveys, readings, speakers, and real-world experiences.

It is important for my students to discover the diversity in the many career fields. When I capture a student showing a high interest in an area of science we are studying, I help the student recognize this curiosity by providing other experiences. For the student who doesn’t want to come out of the star lab, I connect them to our local astronomer and our area planetarium.  For the student who doesn’t want to leave the rock site, I connect them to our local paleontologist who has donated a triceratops to the district.

I also encourage my students to visit a high school that offers an area of their interest.  The high schools in my district each offer a different 21st century program such as Aerospace and Engineering, Biotechnology/Life Sciences, e-Communication, Geosciences, or Sports Medicine and Athletic Training.  Students are able to transfer to the high school that is offering a program in their interest area.

I also enjoy sharing with my students that they may be preparing for a job which doesn’t yet exist. The future is theirs to decide.

Not long ago, students who excelled in science were largely herded into careers in engineering and medicine. (Actually, as a girl, you were mostly directed toward medicine but that’s a different entry...)

But like the rest of science, which has advanced in ways many could not have predicted (genetic clones, mapping of the human genome, the development of handheld computers/phones/cameras to name a few), careers in science have broadened tremendously. Today, scientific careers merge interests and disciplines that previously had about as much in common as quartz and quarks.

Take Don Bliss, a medical illustrator whom I interviewed a few years ago for a book on careers in health published by Sally Ride Science. Don loved drawing as a child but didn’t think it was something that he could make a career out of. He drew throughout high school where he developed an interest in biology (he embellished his lab reports with drawings, naturally.) He drew throughout college where he took pre-med classes, sneaking art classes in on the side. He was on his way to becoming a doctor when he spied a poster for a medical illustration program and it clicked: he didn’t have to choose one interest over the other. Today, Don is a medical illustrator for the National Institutes of Health where he uses his background in science and his skills in art to turn complex research into illustrations and images that can be easily understood by wide audiences.

I’ve interviewed numerous people who, like Don, found ways to successfully combine their passions into a career. Among them:

• a neuroscientist who put his love of scuba diving to good use by searching coral for potential medical compounds
• an astrobiologist who devoured science fiction as a kid and wanted nothing more than to look for “cool, weird creatures” when she grew up. Today she journeys into caves in search of extremophiles – rare (cool, weird) organisms that can survive in extreme heat or extreme cold
• a baker who blended her love of food and science into a career as a flavorist for a major food manufacturer
• a science star and talented soccer player who became a physical therapist for the gold-medal winning U.S. Women’s Soccer team
• a forensic scientist whose desire to solve crimes became reality – all within in her lab
• and more...

As students explore their career options, it might help them to know that the days of having to choose one interest over another are gone.  Students today can combine their interests – and do it in the name of science.

Recently, The San Diego Union-Tribune ran an interesting op-ed by a former teacher who pined for discussions about education that included the goal of instilling in students a “love of learning.”

“The purpose of education is to develop and sustain a student's love of learning for school and for life, long after school doors close,” wrote the author, Dorothy Rich. She continued: “Studies about 21st century needs report that the desire to learn, the ability to function creatively, the capacity to concentrate, the motivation to do well and, above all, the self-discipline to keep on learning are the attributes our children will need most. These are the true new basics.”

On paper, few would disagree about the importance of such goals. After all, what employer wouldn’t want schools to help students develop into future employees who can concentrate, can be self-starters, and are willing to continue learning on the job?

Yet in reality, such basic goals are frequently pushed to the side. Somewhere between the multiple hours of homework that students face—beginning as early as in first and second grades—and the overzealous emphasis on standardized test scores, the goal of teaching children to love learning has gotten buried.

The importance of instilling students with a joy of learning is clear, especially in the fields of math and science. Teachers and parents have a small window of time in which to grab students’ attention and turn them on to these fields before constant testing and dry textbook lessons turn them off.

Passing on the joy of learning takes time and conscious effort. It takes observant parents who see an interest in their child and look for ways to encourage it—parents Sally Ride’s who supported their daughter’s early penchant for stargazing. “I was lucky because my parents never discouraged me,” she said. On the contrary, they gave her simple telescopes as a young girl that allowed her to explore, perhaps launching the career that would later land Ride in the history books.

It takes teachers who make science engaging and relevant to their students’ lives. And it takes school administrations and administrators who support them.

It also takes organizations like GlaxoSmithKline, which pays for employees to go into schools and attend events to get students fired up about science by showing them how fun it can be. For example, they have lessons on forensics that a CSI screenwriter would envy, complete with hands-on experiments in gel electrophoresis, powder analysis and fingerprinting.

In the high-paced, high-pressured educational climate that exists today, it’s not always easy to help students enjoy what they are learning. But as a parent, I’ve seen how parents, teachers and the scientific community can work together to help students see beyond homework assignments and tests by giving them the time and resources they need to explore, to make connections and to enjoy the experience of science for themselves.

When that happens, a love of learning can’t help but follow.

I often get asked, “how did you get into science and why did you become a physicist?”

My answer usually begins with, “well, my father was a physicist and his father was a physicist…” I probably heard that I would become a physicist years before I learned the word. Truthfully, I didn’t fully understand what physics was all about until I was in college and then I got hooked.

Everything interested me when I was young - sports, nature, friends, music, reading, writing but the fact of the matter is I loved math. I still do. It’s my language of choice and I believe it is one of the most valuable tools students can learn to use.

As a child I couldn’t get enough math. My favorite family dinners were the ones my father uttered math problem after math problem for me and my sisters and brother to solve in our heads and then shout out the answer. We all became confident shouters.

Math is the foundation for science and engineering disciplines. Even if it’s not used for a career in the sciences, math is required in everyday life. It helps with things like budgeting, figuring out how good a sale really is, planning vacations and designing birdhouses.

I always knew I wanted to find an area of science where I could use my math skills to solve real problems. In college I discovered that I was indeed destined to study physics. What could be better than using math to understand the behavior of our universe?

You don’t have to be born into science in order to become a scientist. Despite being a third generation physicist on my father’s side, I attribute most of my success to my artistic mother who simply told her children that they where capable of anything they put their mind to.

That’s the most important message teachers and parents can impart to their students. Guide them to find what interests them and brings them enjoyment. Tell them to persevere. Oh, and encourage them to learn some math along the way!

As a writer for Sally Ride Science, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing countless scientists for our educational publications. I’ve gotten to ask some of the brightest minds in the country what makes them tick and why they do what they do. From the JPL project scientist whose heart and hopes lie with two robotic rovers on Mars, to the Yale neurobiologist who searches coral reefs for compounds that could advance medicine, the scientists I’ve talked to are as different as the fields they study.

And yet, many share common traits: curiosity, an openness to going where their research takes them, and surprisingly, a strong conviction that to be a scientist, you don’t have to be an Einstein.

It’s true that many scientists were whizzes at math and science as young kids. They started sophisticated rock collections as middle school students or rebuilt cars as teens.

But others – more than one might expect – stressed that they worked hard, sometimes very hard, to succeed in math and science. Sometimes they didn’t like it. When the going got tough, they simply refused to give up.

“Whoever said you had to like math to be an engineer?” asked Ann Devereaux, a communications engineer for NASA. Ann didn’t, but was able to see math as a means to an end – something she had to go through to get to where she wanted.

Often what pushed them to persevere was the presence of a passionate teacher – the kind who brought science to life in real ways and encouraged them to stick with it.

Miriam Nelson, a top nutritionist at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, struggled with dyslexia – and chemistry – in high school. Then a biology teacher saw potential in her. “He said you can do anything… . Don’t sell yourself short,” she recalled. Dr. Nelson went on to become one of the country’s foremost experts in exercise nutrition, appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Good Morning America, and writing numerous best-selling books on nutrition and exercise.

The belief that people are either born scientists or not is not only untrue, it’s unhelpful. It hurts students who are interested in science but begin to doubt themselves when a lesson or subject doesn’t come easily.

But learning science takes work, just like many other things in life and school. The brightest minds will tell you that.