杏吧原创

I DIDN鈥橳 have a chemistry set when I was a kid. Instead, my Dad and I raided the shed for glass jars and filled them with varying amounts of water to make our own musical instrument. For me it was the start of a lifelong passion for science 鈥� yet I didn鈥檛 go on to become a scientist. I was a massive fan of painting and writing at school, so I saw myself as an artist. I excluded myself from science because I didn鈥檛 think you could do both.

We need scientists more than ever, not least to work out how to tackle the effects of climate change. Yet like me, many children who initially show an interest in science are rejecting the subject at school. Why is this, and what can we do about it?

I believe that children are natural-born scientists. They have enquiring minds, and they aren鈥檛 afraid to admit that they don鈥檛 know something. If you think about the spirit of science 鈥� deciding what you want to find out, setting out how you鈥檙e going to discover it, then carrying out the experiment and coming to a conclusion 鈥� that鈥檚 how kids work. Unfortunately, most of us lose this as we get older. We become self-conscious and don鈥檛 want to appear stupid. Instead of finding things out for ourselves we make assumptions that often turn out to be wrong.

So it鈥檚 not a case of getting kids interested in science. You just have to find a way to avoid killing the passion for learning that they were born with. I think it鈥檚 no coincidence that kids start deserting science the moment it becomes formalised. Children naturally have a blurred approach to acquiring knowledge. They see learning about science or biology or cooking or how not to close a door on your feet as all part of the same act 鈥� it鈥檚 all learning. It鈥檚 only because of the practicalities of education that you have to start breaking down the curriculum into specialist subjects. You need to have a timetable, and you need to have specialist teachers who impart what they know. Thus once they enter the formalised medium of school, children begin to delineate subjects and erect boundaries that needn鈥檛 otherwise exist.

鈥淜ids see learning about science or cooking or how not to close a door on your feet in the same way鈥�

Dividing subjects into science, maths, English, poetry, art and so on is something that we do for convenience. In the end it鈥檚 all learning, it鈥檚 all information, but just as I once excluded myself from a scientific education, I see children making the same choice today. They look at science lessons and think: 鈥淭his is for scientists, not for me.鈥�

Of course we need to specialise eventually. Each of us has only so much time on Earth, so we can鈥檛 study everything. At 5 years old, your field of knowledge and exploration is broad, covering anything from learning to walk to learning to count. Gradually it funnels down so that by the time you are 45, it might be one tiny little corner within science.

Of course we need specialised scientists to build experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider, and solve problems such as working out how best to store hydrogen for fuel cells to make hydrogen-powered cars. But how many young minds are lost from science because they don鈥檛 see themselves as scientists? Those losses are a shame for society, and a shame for the kids concerned too. They exclude themselves from a fascinating subject when in truth the difference between a 13-year-old scientist and a 13-year-old poet is really not that big.

We need a way to keep children bouncing along and excited about learning and discovery in general, despite the barriers and boundaries they come across at school. Here I think there is a role for makers of popular TV, radio and books. After all, we don鈥檛 have to worry about timetables and teachers.

In my new TV series,, I get together with teams of children in my underground lab and we carry out experiments, from making an apple pie without any apples to keeping a ping-pong ball floating in the air to making a jelly volcano. It gets messy, and I have as much fun as the kids do because I鈥檓 learning along with them. There鈥檚 a shared sense of 鈥淗a, we found out!鈥� Rather than trying to distil a massive catalogue of knowledge and passing it down, as happens in schools, or trying to say 鈥渢his is science鈥�, I wanted to make a programme that passes on to the children who watch it the confidence to go and find things out for themselves.

Making Blast Lab has turned out to be the most fun I鈥檝e had in 20 years of television. It鈥檚 inspiring to watch these open minds, not yet clouded by the pride that we have as adults. It has made me realise that for kids there鈥檚 no boundary between experiments, learning and fun. If we want to inspire more of them to become scientists, we should try to keep it that way. We have to nurture that joy of discovery that characterises all learning, from a child just starting to walk to the cutting edge of scientific research.

This article is based on an interview with Eleanor Harris