It’s my first blog of the New Year. The usual craziness of the holidays meant too much alcohol, too much food and not enough sleep. It’s now time for payback in the gym. But what’s this got to do with science?

Well January sees a flood of people and their New Years resolutions for a better life clogging up the machines in the gym. I don’t mind – it’s great to see people trying to better themselves, but within a month or two, the machines are quieter and the new motivation has shrunk away because the results aren’t seen quick enough (perhaps because they didn’t quite put the right amount of effort in).

There’s bound to be a PhD out there about it but my reason for babbling is I see the exact same thing in my sons’ attitude to his science GCSEs (English Secondary Education exams). He got the proverbial kick in the butt when he got his results from his last science module exam. Within an even shorter time this effort diminished to the usual do the minimum to get by and cope with the bad results.

I have tried so hard to make the examples of science he’s having to learn about applicable to the real world he lives in but he just doesn’t share my enthusiasm. I have to take some responsibility here, after all I have a bit of a wish to improve his understanding and enjoyment of science.

However, when I look through how his teachers are passing on the knowledge, the larger share of this lack of engagement is a tad clearer. There seems to be far too much copying out of books and off the board at the front of the class than the actual doing of science. It’s no wonder a lot of kids in the UK don’t enjoy science the way I used to. How can you make science interesting if you’re copying out of a textbook? Hmmm, I can’t wait for parents evening this year!

Any ideas of what I can do to help inspire an interest in science?