Name: Michael Wheeler
Children are born as scientists. Scientists conduct experiments to learn about the world around them and answer questions, and that’s exactly what children do every day. Babies put things in their mouths to learn about the world. Toddlers draw and paint on every surface, everywhere. Older children enjoy climbing on everything to see what’s at the top. We are born with curiosity. How does it help us to discover things unknown?
Great inventions and discoveries in history show that curiosity is a door to an unknown world with infinite possibilities. Thomas Edison was still young when his curiosity shaped his future. As a child, he liked to take things apart to see how they worked, and then put them back together again. That was his way of learning about the world. Later he gave us some of the greatest and most important inventions. Isaac Newton famously saw an apple fall and asked himself, “Why did that happen?” This question led to us discovering and understanding gravity. His curiosity led to many other discoveries that help us understand how the world and universe work. The famous American financier, Bernard Baruch, was inspired by Newton’s questions. He said, “millions of people saw apples fall, but only Newton asked why.”
Ted Wragg, a British educationalist, said, “If you want interesting answers, you’ve got to ask interesting questions.” This means the better your question is, the better the answers will be. If you want to ask good questions, just try changing one word in your question. For example, instead of asking ‘how do birds fly?’, try asking ‘why do birds fly?’. It can make the answers more interesting!
Questions are the greatest tool of an investigator. If you want to ask better questions, imagine you’re Sherlock Holmes solving a mystery. Asking ‘why’ can often lead to other, more interesting questions, and you might find some surprising answers you could not have imagined. Here are some interesting questions to get you started on a new adventure of imagination: ‘What is life?’, ‘Are we alone in the universe?, ‘Who am I?’, and ‘Where do we come from? Good luck on your inquisitive quests, and stay curious!