Liz
I have always loved science and I started off by going to med school. It wasn’t for me and I dropped out. I remember coming back and thinking, what am I going to do with my life?! I knew I always wanted to be a teacher; all I did when I was little was play teachers over and over. I got a job as a one-to-one looking after a little girl at a primary school and I adored it but knew that I would prefer teaching at a secondary school. I applied to study Bioscience here and now I’m doing my teacher training with Suffolk and Norfolk SCITT at the University.
I think it’s all about making it interesting. Last week I set some hydrogen on fire and it makes a loud pop – but I didn’t warn the kids. The sound was immense and they all cheered! Next week I’m going to be putting different metals in water – potassium, lithium and sodium go absolutely mad in water, they’ll love it.
There’s a thing you can do where you put gas in to washing up liquid, put loads of bubbles of gas on your hands, then get a kid to set light to it and you’re literally holding fire. I like to do anything that’s awesome. Anything that has some sound, fire, colour or explosions.
I know the situation is bad in terms of the number of women in science. I took a group of year ten girls to a women in science event. The fact there is an entire event just to try and interest girls in science, that’s how bad it is. I think the science industry is getting better but when you look in to it, there is still a way to go. I just think, how could you not like science when you’re allowed to do practical experiments and learn about amazing cutting edge developments!
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