Science Clubs: Lighting The Fire In The Young

There is nothing wrong with such parental concern. Only that, when exercised excessively, the good intention may quip something beautifully budding in the young person. It might dash off what should actually be nurtured to flourish.

We are too lucky today, to be around at a time when there are a lot of conveniences to make our life easy. We have defied nature and prolonged the day way into the night with artificial lights, so we can work for longer hours. We are healthier and are enjoying many years more than our forefathers.

The human knowledge and understanding of the world have reached staggering peaks. Almost anything can now be explained. And we are seeing more truths about ourselves today than ever before.

To a great extent, we owe these advances to science, the primary human tool in the quest for realistic insights and a wider awareness of possibilities.

If Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of the giant Microsoft and Apple companies, respectively, were not allowed to experiment and pursue their technical fascinations, the amazing human invention called “the computer” would probably still be filling up whole rooms at a minimum setup. And, in the first place, who thought up of these incredible machines? Dreamers who might have had once sat by the window gazing at the sky.

The human race itself gained its freedom from the complete mercy of nature when it began considering other possibilities. Tired of waiting for the fruit to fall, man learned to climb the tree. Growing dissatisfied with the limited capability of his bare hands, he invented tools.

Our very journey from caves to civilization has been brought about by revolutionary ideas; we must, therefore, continue to seek and support new ones. Adults must take the lead in keeping the fire of curiosity burning. In the first place, they must nurture the passion for discovery in themselves, as well as in the young who rely on them for encouragement.

Many adults, however, even those who are teachers by profession, sometimes find it inconvenient to be explaining things to a curious child. Many parents cut short a child’s inquisitive questions during family conversations after dinner, because engaging them further would interfere with bedtime. Adults often have a sense of inadequacy when confronted with the eager, inquisitive mind of a child.

Science clubs, whether in schools or in the outside community, have been a great help in keeping alive the scientific interest of young people. These organizations answer their members’ need for support; especially their need for complementary, reassuring and enriching company.

It is rather hard for a young kid to sustain, much less develop, his fascination with scientific matters on his own. Going on it alone, he is highly liable to feel like an oddball. At a time when his self-concept is not yet so established, he needs the approval of the other kids to assure him that he’s not embarrassingly different.

There’s a lot more for the dynamic young mind, other than parties or wild adventures. A child studying a speckle of moss through a magnifying glass can have as much fun as, and even more than, the one who experiments on smoking a cigarette or sipping an alcoholic drink. In a science club, he can enjoy time with other kids who share his interest.

If a young person is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of others who can share it with him – whether peers or sympathetic adults, or both – discovering with him the joy, the excitement and mystery of shared nature and of the common world we live in.

Science has already produced highly practical innovations to old ways of living, making modern everyday life not only easier, more productive and more economical, but more fun, as well. Now we can watch a sports game taking place halfway around the globe, right in our own bedrooms. We can cook and reheat food very quickly, and without consuming as much electricity.

Who would have developed all these beautiful, beneficial advances if every young boy or girl who tinkered with a broken-down household appliance was immediately sent outside to sweep the yard, instead? There are a lot more, better involvements for young people. On a rainy day, a trained kid can delight in the droplets on his face, aware of their long journey, their many transmutations, from the earth to the sky and back to earth.

A child’s discoveries are not like mental photographs that lie idle in storage. Rather, they’re like seeds that grow and get nourished by succeeding findings. And, to a young mind whose curiosity has been sparked, there are quite a lot more to find. With science clubs, spending time looking into a microscope or observing a baby butterfly breaking free from its cocoon are no longer some weird things to do for young people.

Indeed, science clubs can help a lot in nurturing the budding scientific interests of the young. One club can build on the work of another, or on the accomplishments of professional scientists. At the most basic level, these clubs can ignite the drowsy spirits of young dreamers and prompt them to begin taking steps towards their dreams. 

Once a young mind has been ignited, a keen sense of the beautiful, the excitement about the unknown, and the eagerness to know begin. From the amazement at every new discovery, from the confidence that every new understanding brings, the drive for further knowledge will follow. True education, after all, according to renowned Irish writer William Yeats, “is not the filling of the pail – but the lighting of the fire.”

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