Being curious, creative, and flexible in how you find solutions is what you are being trained to do during a PhD. Instead of just one “right answer” to a problem, most of the time no one knows what the answer is. It’s not five or six years of sitting through lectures, homework and tests. It’s becomes like a regular job, with a boss, deadlines, co-workers, stuff you like to do and stuff you don’t like to do. Because after a certain point you aren’t taking classes anymore. What about classes, isn’t it miserable being in classes for four to six more years? Well no. For instance, would I need to take out loans to get my PhD? No, in engineering and science, you get paid to get your PhD. And I think I knew that I would need a PhD, but it wasn’t until much later that I understood what that meant. I knew I wanted to get a degree in physics.

Talking to the students, I realized how much I didn’t know when I set out to study physics after high school 1. It’s easy to forget how mysterious the process of becoming a scientist is. During the conversations I had with Jason's students, I realized that we were spending most of our time talking about what life as a PhD student and scientist is like. I matched with Jason Bodnar, a science teacher in Indiana, and talked to a few of his classes. Skype a Scientist brings a scientist into a teacher’s classrooms, where they can talk about their work and what life as a scientist is like. It was a bit early for everyone, but that didn't stop us from talking about LEDs, physics, why I decided to become a scientist, and even about my favorite board games! I was talking to students as part of a program called Skype a Scientist.

About a month ago, I Skyped into a science classroom at a high school in Indiana.

Skype a scientist stickers