I Dare You to Try It! (2011 Version)

More than 11 years ago, I wrote an essay called "I Dare You to Try It," about my new career as a science educator.  I'm normally a fairly slow writer, but I vividly remember where I was when I sat down at the computer to write it and how the entire essay just flowed out of me.  During the past few weeks, I keep on coming back to that piece and I think it is because I've been doing such a wide variety of activities and they are the type of activities that I like to say give me the "fuel" I need to do what I do.  So here's the updated version of my old essay.

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How would you like a job where you are given the freedom to use your imagination, your creativity, and your scientific training to the fullest?  How would you like a job where you feel that you are making a difference?  How would you like a job that makes you feel that in a small but significant way you are changing lives?  Who wouldn't like a job like that and do you even call it a "job" or "work" if it does all of that and more? Yet that's how I describe mine.

How would you like a job where Monday you are attending the ribbon-cutting of an innovative new high school, Tuesday you are chatting with the Commander of the final space shuttle mission, Wednesday you are organizing the Art of Science Competition and then taking a metal-working class, Thursday you are leading a professional development workshop for K-12 science teachers on the scientific method, and Friday you are the guest scientist in a second grade class talking about energy?  Yum, that's a tasty week and welcome to the world of science education.

Turning sunlight into energy with a solar-powered car.

The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma...

This was taken at the ribbon-cutting ceremony
 but I've been feeling a lot of this lately.
  (Photo courtesy of The Sustainability Workshop)

I get into the lab less and less and I miss it.  But vacuum pumps still don't smile and power supplies still don't say "Ah, ha!" Working with students and teachers is even more rewarding than it was 11 years ago.  You don't have to do it formally like I do but you can if you are about to graduate with your PhD or Ed.D.  Or you can start by simply calling up your local elementary school and offering to bring in some of your "toys" for an hour.  Go ahead, I dare you to try it.  You'll never, ever regret it.