After learning that kids nowadays mainly dream about becoming dancers, singers or chefs (well, TV shows are all about that now) and less and less about any of the S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related professions I decided to volunteer as a speaker on career day at my children's school. To tell the kids a little about what it's like to be a scientist and give the list of professions a bit of a balanced look, at least for one school. Although a TV series about scientists would be nice...
I decided to make a Powerpoint presentation. After over 14 years as a scientist, hundreds of lab meetings and formal and informal presentations, this has become the way I feel most comfortable presenting and also make sure I stay on track and within time limits. But this presentation was different, it was meant for the toughest audience of all - kids.
I wanted it to be educational but more importantly fun and interesting while not exceeding 20 minutes so I can leave about 10-15 minutes for questions. And to include visuals. Since most of the material I work with is considered hazardous I had to stick with photos. So I took pictures of my lab space, my bench, my desk, the tubes and pipettes. And brought my oldest daughter (a.k.a child #1) to model the safety gear - the lab coat, goggles, gloves and general lab safety procedures. I also included photos of myself with colleagues and mentors at the lab from college to graduate school and today and some information about why I chose this career path, which skills helped me along the way and what are the pros and cons of this profession as I see them. I tested the presentation on my own kids and after some modifications per their suggestions and quite a lot of giggles, I felt it was ready to be launched.
For career day I came with my usual sport-casual attire that I wear to work and a lab coat. The counselor was very specific and introduced me to the kids as a molecular biologist rather than just a scientist. The kids, I must say, found that extra piece of information very exciting. They were fascinated by even the smallest piece of information and liked my cartoon-like illustrations that were featured on my presentation. I was glad I had left ample time for questions because boy they had so many interesting questions that I just wanted to hear and answer them all (well, at least the ones that I had answers too, these kids are smart!). They wanted to know about school, if I was a good student and if I liked math... I kept my answers politically correct but was honest. I told them that as a child I didn't really liked math and didn't really like to study much either (except a handful of subjects, biology was one) but I also said that I now regret not putting more efforts into math because I now see how all of these things that I thought were just boring become handy, and I meant it... They also wanted to know if I have already found a cure for a disease. I had to tell them that these things take a lot of time and persistence and they consist of small discoveries that build up, and that I feel proud and lucky to be able to take part in making these discoveries that pave the way and facilitate the bigger ground-breaking discoveries, even if I won't be the one to get the credit eventually.
They also wanted to know if I get to make a lot of money or be famous... Well, that brought us back to discuss different important scientific discoveries and sparked a discussion about what success means to each one of us. I'll discuss more info from my presentation on Career day - Part II.
I felt good about being able to contribute a little to these kids' future career choices and make sure they know that science is an option. I was also happy to see how it made my own kids proud. And also to read the thank you letters they brought home from their friends on the next day. I received great feedback, so many good comments and was surprised by the number of kids stated that my talk inspired them to consider science (they actually specifically said 'molecular biology') as a career.
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