How many of us have a really bad memory of science at school?

Copying textbooks, lighting little light bulbs that would class as a practical?

Of all my subjects at school, science is one of those subjects I remember least fondly with music coming first. I almost stopped doing music in high school because of the way it was taught, how you weren't treated as an individual, again the copying from textbooks, but also because lets face it, 1st year of high school, what kid wants to listen to Mozart/Beethoven for a whole lesson? but no disrespect to either composer as both of their music changed the world and remains as relevant today as it ever has done and will continue to do so.

From an Education perspective, both are similar in a way if you think about it, if you teach someone in a certain way their motivation towards it drastically changes. Its all finding out a core interest, if a kid wants to write a pop song just like his or her favourite artist or band, teachers of the world need to teach this. I left school about 8 years ago so I don't know if this the case now, but if not, it needs to change.

And so brings me onto science. Being one of the key three along with English and Maths it holds an upper hand on music, but like music, there has never been a better time to get kids interested with the wealth of popular culture. We can look at two huge blockbusters that came out this year in the shape of Spiderman and the Avengers and all of the science references in these and other past big blockbusters. I could also include the Big Bang Theory in this, but a lot of the science dialog is fired off a lightning fast pace and is highly advanced stuff a lot of the time as well.

One headline also dominated the news a few weeks ago. The news of Felix Baumgartner falling from over 120,000 feet, falling faster than the speed of sound, breaking the sound barrier, breaking records and landing safely on the ground to rapturous applause. I love news stories like this that breakaway from the usual awful pointless celebrity stories of who's with who, who's breaking up and who's having a breakdown, not to mention the fear-mongering 'broken Britain' crap.

But Its almost all the time a headline makes the news regarding some form of breakthrough in medical science that could potentially save lives and somewhere out there in the future and I believe cures for major diseases will be found one day. But it starts with new generations and future generations and our approach to teaching what matters now, to motivate, to enthuse and inspire.........

I'm Richard, and you're awesome for reading this.