In a time of standardized tests and misguided attempts to cover lessons rather than help students understand and apply concepts in real life situations, we’re losing–if not outright outright ignoring–opportunities to inspire pupils to fall in love with science. Intersection‘s sciencebloggers Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum both suggest that we desperately need to get busy finding nascent scientists. Their book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future is a sobering wake-up call.

We can do better. We must do better. We need new scientists and it’s up to us to find them.

How would you describe a potential scientist? Could you spot one in your classroom? Are you doing all you can to nurture these rare individuals? Why are they so rare to begin? Can anyone be a scientist? If educators are going attempt to answer these questions and help budding researchers bloom, they’d be wise to follow the work of Sloan-Kettering Institute Chairman Emeritus, Richard Rifkind.

Once a scientist, Rifkind is now a filmmaker who wants viewers to “stand in the shoes of a scientist at work in a lab, glimpse the world of research as it really is, and understand what it takes to fill an ample pipeline of future scientists.” He’s passionate about finding and cultivating a new generation of scientists. Toward that end, Rifkind has produced a moving documentary called Naturally Obsessed:  The Making of a Scientist. In addtion to producing the film he has also sharing rich resources for exploring ideas presented in the film via the Naturally Obsessed Blog.

Are you curious enough to investigate?

Related resources:

• Two out of three people often continue to hold an unscientific belief even after it is disproven. When conflicts between faith and science arise in your classroom, school, district and community, how are they resolved? Do your students feel safe in asking such questions? Do they have sufficient intellectual freedom to explore potentially unsettling ideas? Are some questions considered “off-limits” to further inquiry?
• Ask (young) students what scientists look like and you’re apt to get some interesting responses. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics, did just that and share the results in the Who’s the Scientist: Drawings of Scientists website.