How to inspire the next generation of scientists

[hsdrop]

I was watching Star Talk and the topic was women in science fields so I got thinking (which always means trouble) I would love to hear how either you inspired someone else or someone else that you have know has inspired you to become interested in the any field of science

 

[jedishrfu]

As I look back, two of my uncles encouraged me to get into science and math but I didn't realize it at the time. My dads brother would give me science kits like a microscope, a small CRC book of math tables and other science related books which I pretended to understand and would read from time to time.

My other uncle by marriage gave me old manuals on programming in Fortran IV and Basic. He also let me play on one of the earliest teletype machines, the Gunner IV game and I thought the computer was alive.

My parents would always let me get things that were of some educational value so I'd scour the Edmund Scientific catalog looking for interesting stuff (stovepipe telescope, Digicomp I, Think-A-Dot toy computers...) and while in middle school I got my first slide rule and later a bamboo version. I lived the life of a geek before there were geeks but without pocket protectors, And so it goes.

In elementary school, I read a book on Albert Einstein and that got me interested in science. Later I read one on the Trachtenberg Speed Math by Anne Cutler in an attempt to get really good in arithmetical operations.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385061765/?tag=pfamazon01-20

and while I never mastered it fully I was able to fool friends into thinking I was smart.

Also I hated memorizing the multiplication tables and had some real difficulties remembering 9x6 vs 7x8 until I learned the digits add to 9 rule when 9 is a multiplier ie 9x6 = 54 and 5+4=9.

In high school, there was Star Trek...