Thinking about Encouragement for Youth

[James Halifko]

When I was nine years old, my dad left for what would be at least twenty-five years. Our family helped my mother raise me and my two younger brothers. One uncle who took on the role of surrogate father encouraged me to explore my interest in science to the limit a working-class family saw as our "place." He would buy me science and technology kits but didn't understand the limitations of a child.

One kit he gave me was a cloud chamber kit. I was genuinely excited at the prospect of seeing the trail cosmic rays would leave as they passed through the chamber, just like the television program I watched that demonstrated how a cloud chamber worked. What he failed to realize? As a child, I did not have a way to get pure alcohol and dry ice.

The moral of the story: When you encourage young budding scientists, be sure to give them as much as they need to learn: literature, equipment, and expendables. Most of all, a teacher and mentor capable of grasping the situation accurately. And completing the mission.

 

[jedishrfu]

My uncle did that for me. He gave me a microscope and some science textbooks. I would look at the pictures and diagrams, but I couldn't understand them. One was a high school book on physics, and another was on chemistry.

He also gave me a CRC mathematical handbook with log, log-log, trig tables, and integrals. I was maybe ten at the time. I had no idea how the numbers worked in the book, but I kept pondering them, writing them down, and looking for patterns, i.e., a child playing the role of a scientist.

Years later, after getting my physics BS, I went back and found that book, marveling at the fact that I now knew what those tables were used for. I was sad that the slide rule and now the calculator had replaced so much of the book's information.

I'm sure his mission was accomplished because I became interested in science, computer science, and oceanographic and underwater acoustics science.

My uncle aspired to be a medical doctor. However, since he didn't come from a medical family then, he couldn't get into med school. His undergrad grades were excellent and his college wanted to hire him as an instructor circa 1940's.

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From this experience, I developed the humorous notion that we inherit more from our aunts and uncles than we do from our parents.

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Another influence on kids in the 1960s was the space race. Our school in 1968 had gotten some desktop calculator computers aka the Olivetti Program 101. I asked my math teacher about them and he said it was the space race. When Russia launched Sputnik, the US scrambled to "catchup" and initiated a lot programs to get more scientists and engineers from schools using grant money to do it.

My math teacher said it was quite easy to propose a grant request for developing a computer class and getting money for a few computers. I think at the time the machines were about $3200 each or about $30k each in today's dollars and he got three.

 

[dwarde]

I was 16 before I tried the cloud chamber. I could finally drive the 40 miles round trip to get the dry ice. A local druggist gave me the alcohol. Great stories guys.

 

[collinsmark]

I was 16 before I tried did the cloud chamber. I could finally drive the 40 miles round trip to get the dry ice. A local druggist gave me the alcohol. Great stories guys.

Btw, if you have a local ice cream shop in your area, they typically sell dry ice. It's rarely on the menu, but if you ask them nicely, they'll typically sell dry ice to customers.

 

[James Halifko]

My uncle did that for me. He gave me a microscope and some science textbooks. I would look at the pictures and diagrams, but I couldn't understand them. One was a high school book on physics, and another was on chemistry.

He also gave me a CRC mathematical handbook with log, log-log, trig tables, and integrals. I was maybe ten at the time. I had no idea how the numbers worked in the book, but I kept pondering them, writing them down, and looking for patterns, i.e., a child playing the role of a scientist.

Years later, after getting my physics BS, I went back and found that book, marveling at the fact that I now knew what those tables were used for. I was sad that the slide rule and now the calculator had replaced so much of the book's information.

I'm sure his mission was accomplished because I became interested in science, computer science, and oceanographic and underwater acoustics science.

My uncle aspired to be a medical doctor. However, since he didn't come from a medical family then, he couldn't get into med school. His undergrad grades were excellent and his college wanted to hire him as an instructor circa 1940's.

---

From this experience, I developed the humorous notion that we inherit more from our aunts and uncles than we do from our parents.

---

Another influence on kids in the 1960s was the space race. Our school in 1968 had gotten some desktop calculator computers aka the Olivetti Program 101. I asked my math teacher about them and he said it was the space race. When Russia launched Sputnik, the US scrambled to "catchup" and initiated a lot programs to get more scientists and engineers from schools using grant money to do it.

My math teacher said it was quite easy to propose a grant request for developing a computer class and getting money for a few computers. I think at the time the machines were about $3200 each or about $30k each in today's dollars and he got three.

I seemed to have friends whose parents did a better job preparing them for higher learning, while most of my family tended to say, "Don't go up too high with anything; know your place." I overcame the stigma by working through tech school, excelling in U.S. Army Missiles, and returning to school on the GI Bill. From slide rules to computers, from vacuum tubes to solid state, I lived through so many changes. Youthful freedom and a struggle with depression curtailed some of my ambitions. My wife requires much monitoring, but I can read, write a blog or two, and get some time to watch informative programs and British television shows (once she is asleep).

 

[jedishrfu]

Yes, sadly, that happens. Parents can fear that hey can't pay for your education and cannot help you succeed in school to get a scholarship, so they suggest you work in a factory or some trade job and not excel in whatever field you like.

My parents weren't like that. My Dad told us stories of how some of his siblings would downplay his going to college because they didn't. He used the GI Bill and got a BA in English and then, a few years later, an MS in Social Work.

He said he tried engineering, but the courses were tough, and his brother (my scientific uncle) suggested he quickly switch to English.

Dad said it was because he didn't have the necessary math background from high school. I suspect he took Algebra but not Geometry, Trigonometry, and beyond. This was in the early 1940s, and then WW2 started. I think that was why they let me buy a slide rule long before I needed it at school ( it was great) and anything educational (Edmund Scientific catalog stuff).

But my Dad was a people person and excelled at Social Work. I was my dad's guinea pig when he practiced giving and scoring timed IQ tests to teens in the school district.

One joke I used to tell my Mom was that before his MS degree, we'd get the strap when we misbehaved, but afterward, he'd sit us in chairs until we were able to recount what we had done wrong.

The chair punishment didn't work for my brother because he'd always fall asleep. My mother also said Dad never really used the strap on us. It was a threat she'd say to us if we misbehaved on her watch, as in, "You wait until Dad comes home..."

Later, she realized the consequence of her saying that, as I would hide from Dad when he came home afraid of the strap.

 

[pinball1970]

When I was nine years old, my dad left for what would be at least twenty-five years. Our family helped my mother raise me and my two younger brothers. One uncle who took on the role of surrogate father encouraged me to explore my interest in science to the limit a working-class family saw as our "place." He would buy me science and technology kits but didn't understand the limitations of a child.

One kit he gave me was a cloud chamber kit. I was genuinely excited at the prospect of seeing the trail cosmic rays would leave as they passed through the chamber, just like the television program I watched that demonstrated how a cloud chamber worked. What he failed to realize? As a child, I did not have a way to get pure alcohol and dry ice.

The moral of the story: When you encourage young budding scientists, be sure to give them as much as they need to learn: literature, equipment, and expendables. Most of all, a teacher and mentor capable of grasping the situation accurately. And completing the mission.

This a little meandering so apologies but your post struck a nerve. We have had discussions about introduction to science on here before.
Those landmarks.
First chemistry set, a microscope and a friend who interested in bird watching.
No physics! I was interested what was on the microscope slides not how it worked!

No mentor really unfortunately, mum was great but not academic.
An uncle who died young.
School did the rest.

I think I tried to push my son into life sciences, only because I knew more about that than anything else.
I thought we could have conversations about microbiology and genetics!
He decided on physics.
Great, the smallest tool in my tool box. That was ten years ago and could be the reason I joined pf or one of them. The LHC being the other, perhaps some work stuff? I cannot remember.

One pleasure of a little knowledge is passing it on and potentially changing someone, even a little bit.
Two young lasses have joined our company and have shown an interest in science. I went through some stuff with one and she was genuinely shocked and in awe at the slides I put together. She wants more now so cracking on.
I hope I am giving her some ok tools.