Math Shmath

Did you ever get the feeling that Chemistry feels an awful lot like Math class?

Even though you might feel a little lost in the midst of all of those complicated stoichiometry problems sometimes (check out the cartoon above by Sidney Harris), the cool part is science concepts are built on more branches of study, all tied together, than almost any other subject matter. Think about it - the ideas we discuss in chemistry are also often tied to:

• biology, agriculture, and earth science (chemistry explains why we see the things we see in around us),


• physics (think particle motion, kinetic energy, pressure, temperature - sound familiar?),


• history (remember that science builds on itself),


• english (anyone who ever wrote a lab report knows that you those research projects in english really do have a purpose),


• technology (technology provides the tools we use in science and, and science, in turn, helps us create better technology),


• health (chemistry is involved in medicines and their reactions in your body, for example),


• and yes, you guessed it, math.

What all of this means is that it's not hard to find some part of science that you like, even if science itself is not your favorite subject. And what that means, is that when you start thinking about careers and fields of study outside of high school, organizations that are closely related to science, (like NASA, museums, chemical companies, etc.) depend on a really wide range of people with wide ranges of interests and skills to meet the goals they have for their organization. It also means that almost any job you choose is going to involve science, one way or another.

So next time you are in science class and you start to think about saying that "you're never going to use this" - think again. Science is everywhere, my friends, and there's no escaping it! :)

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it is tied to everything else in the universe. "
-John Muir (1838-1914) U. S. naturalist, explorer.