• Question: why science? why not maths, or english? or history? why should students take science GCSE? why is it so important? why do you believe in science?

    Asked by anon-361209 on 24 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Lucien Heurtier

      Lucien Heurtier answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      So, let me tell you that maths is part of science. In fact there are a lot of maths in physics, in chemistry, in statistics, even in biology. You just didn’t get to see it yet at school, but maths are really everywhere, and if you are not too bad at it, I would recommend that you don’t give up maths if you want to become a scientist. If you such at it though, there are plenty of jobs in science that don’t really involve maths directly, so please take what I just said with a pinch of salt!

      For me the main reason is that I hate using my memory. You may find it funny but I’d rather think and use logic to obtain results than remember it (I love it because then you don’t need to remember anything, you just need to think hard!). History and languages involve a lot of memorizing, so that was really not for me!

    • Photo: Barak Gilboa

      Barak Gilboa answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      Actually maths underlies many areas of science, especially physics. Maths is the language physics and many other fields use to describe the world, so definitely don’t give up on maths!
      One of the good thing I like about science is that you don’t need to believe in it.
      Science, or more accurately the scientific method, is an objective way to gain knowledge of the outside world. As such, you don’t need to believe in it in order to trust its results. Of course, these come with many caveats. for example, while we say Newton’s theory of gravity works, in the sense that his equations are correct to a certain point in describing the motion of celestial bodies, we also know today that Einstein’s description of gravity is more accurate and radically different than Newton’s. This is why scientists usually use a lot of caveats in describing their work (and if you hear any that are absolute, be suspicious), which sometimes come across as hesitancy, but it’s all part of how science works.

    • Photo: Vicky Fawcett

      Vicky Fawcett answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      because I enjoy it! If I had enjoyed English more at school, I would have gone into English.
      It is important to do what you enjoy, because then it doesn’t feel like work 🙂

      I think science is important because it helps everyone in their daily lives – from the technology in your phone, to airplanes, medicine, communication, the internet etc etc… science underpins everything!

    • Photo: Joshua Bibby

      Joshua Bibby answered on 24 Mar 2023:

      Science is important as it allows us to understand how the world works in a very precise way. Science can tell you if design for a plane will fly, a phone will work, a building won’t collapse. It also tells us how we came to exist on Earth, what might happen to the Earth in the future. Can we grow enough food for all the people on the planet? How can we stop disease? Science allows us to predict, simplify and solve problems and it has done for thousands of years and every day, we learn how to do that just a bit better than before as we learn new things. And we will need more scientists than ever if we are to solve the climate crisis, energy shortages, world hunger etc.

      However, it is also important to remember that other subjects are important too. Maths gives us the tools to actually do science. History teaches us how to learn from our mistakes. Languages allow us to explain and express ideas. Art allows us to express our feelings, beliefs and send powerful messages. I could go on but I hope you get the idea.

      The biggest thing you can learn from school is that all subjects are important. You might be better or more interested in a few but everyone’s knowledge and skills are important so learn as much as you can while you gradually specialise in what you are best at/enjoy the most through your GCSEs and beyond. If that’s science, great! And if not, then just remember that science matters! 🙂

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