“WHY?”
Scientists ask this question all the time. Why did that happen? Why didn’t this work? Why did that succeed? Asking “Why?” is where science starts!
When a scientist has a question, the first thing she does is look to see if anyone else has already answered it.
If not, they come up with a possible answer themselves. Is their answer right? They don’t know! It’s just a possible answer. It might not be the real answer.
Next they create an experiment that will show if their answer might be right or not.
If their answer seems right, great! If not, a true scientist thinks about what happened, what they learned during the experiment, and she comes up with a new idea to test, starting the process over again.
Sometimes, scientists can easily put together an experiment to help them find out the answer. Other times, what they need to test is too big or too wide spread for them to do by themselves. With the help of the internet, scientists are reaching out to people like you to help them with these bigger projects!
Some of the steps for the Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey are covered in our other camp activities. To finish the Journey, you need to help with TWO different scientific projects. Here’s how:
- Sign up for a SciStarter account.
- Pick an experiment to help with. You might collect a water or soil sample, measure the brightness of the night sky, or count bugs – there are a lot of things to choose from! We suggest picking your first project from the list of projects flagged especially for Girl Scouts.
- After you complete your first project, pick a second project. You can pick another one from the Girl Scout list or look through the full SciStarter list. The choice is yours!
- Last, congratulate yourself! You have completed the Think Like a Citizen Scientist Journey and you have helped actual scientists along the way!
Check out these amazing scientists who we featured during our 2021 “Camp in a Box”.
Katalin Kariko knows all about perseverance and believing in yourself. In the 1980’s she came to believe that mRNA – a substance we all have in every cell of our bodies – could be modified and used to treat diseases. All through the 80’s and 90’s, she struggled to keep her research going, certain there was something to her idea. In the 00’s, she and her research partner, Drew Weissman, finally found a way to make it work! Their work paved the way for two new bio-tech companies – Moderna and BioNTech – to quickly begin work on vaccines for the COVID virus. Dr. Kariko is still hard at work, searching for ways to use mRNA to treat cancer and other diseases.
Marie Curie was a physicist, chemist and a pioneer in the study of radiation. She and her husband, Pierre, discovered the elements polonium and radium. They and Henri Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, and Marie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 making her one of only 4 people to win more than one Nobel Prize. She worked extensively with radium throughout her lifetime, characterizing its various properties and investigating its therapeutic potential. Her work with radioactive elements led to the development of cancer treatments and the creation of x-ray machines. During WWI, she was able to design and build ambulances with mobile x-ray machines. She and the 150 women she trained to use the equipment went onto the battle fields to help save the lives wounded soldiers.
Shirley Ann Jackson is a theoretical physicist and the first African American woman to earn a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was appointed chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by President Clinton. Barack Obama awarded her the National Medal of Science, the highest award for science and engineering in the United States.
A marine biologist and nature writer, Rachel Carson is considered to be the mother of the environmental movement. Her book Silent Spring outlined the dangers of chemical pesticides, lead to the ban on DDT and other pesticides, and led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Carson received medals from the National Audubon Society, the American Geographical Society, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Son Young-Sook is a cell biologist at KyungHee University in South Korea. She is researching adult stem cells and how they can be used to treat diseases and injuries. Adult stem cells are special cells we all have in our bodies. These cells have the ability to become any type of cell our body needs. Dr. Son’s research has discovered how these cells are able to repair themselves. For her research, Dr. Son received the L’Oreal-UNESCO award for women in 2017. She hopes her research will lead to stem cell therapies that will cure many different conditions and diseases.
“Scientific Inquiry” image from Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook by Workman Publishing.
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