Science Literacy and Curiosity | StarTalk

For each one of my guests, if they're clearly not otherwise a scientist, I try to find out what kind of science encounters they had as children. Judging whether some moment with their math teacher or science teacher left a good or bad impression on them, and then see if we can trace the trajectory of their life from then onward. Do they end up loving science or hating it?

And so, of course, I ask that of Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton is, I would count him among the scientifically literate presidents. And so, I don't think you can underestimate the value of having a fun or interesting science class as a kid, because it could set you on a path that, who knows, one day you might be leading a nation. That science literacy would be kind of necessary going into the 21st century.

The issue in childhood is not knowledge. That's how people normally think of science literacy: how much do you know? It's not even, in my opinion, it's not not even about that. What science literacy really is, it's the ability to question what's going on around you. It's to be infused with a sense of curiosity about things you don't know, things you want to figure out what they are and how they work.

In childhood, if you have curiosity, all kids have curiosity, but the challenge is keeping that curiosity through middle school, into high school, and then into adulthood. I've said many times in many places, I think a scientist is just a kid that really hasn't grown up yet. If we define growing up as losing your curiosity, because scientists and children alike look around the natural world and just wonder how it all works.