Every child is a scientist. We are born with an inquisitive mind, wanting to know about the world around us. Kids are known for their curious minds, always trying to find out why something works in the way it does. Sometimes they even damage their own toys with their small investigations. If you think about it, these are characteristics similar to those of scientists! Scientists conduct investigations and research to find out more about an area they are interested in. One might wonder then what happens to the little scientist as we grow up.

The loss of the little explorer might be caused by distractions in growing up. The environment we live in can also influence whether our inner scientist continues to grow with us or it ends with our childhood. Another thing is that if people around us do not support our scientific interests, we might end up giving up on them. As adults, we tend to be more focused on surviving our changing society and looking for easy ways to do so that we forget to nurture our innate abilities

There are many advantages to nurturing your curiosity. It will train your brain to maintain your curiosity. This curiosity can assist in finding the necessary information to solve some of our life problems and it opens up our minds to new things. The more questions we ask, the more knowledge we will gain. This acquired knowledge and skills can help us cope with change and different challenges. Another way to nurture the inner scientist is to interact with different people, which will help us with developing good social skills and access to new information and different perspectives.

We have to be deliberate about nurturing our curious minds throughout our lives. But how do we do that? Be aware of the world around you. Spend more time in nature, and participate in active activities which will also assist us in feeding our curious minds. Read up on some of the random questions that pop up in your mind, this will keep open-minded and better equipped to engage in meaningful debates. Visit places like science centres, museums, or art galleries and participate in current discussions. Make time to relax and recharge so that you refresh your mind and prepare it for more information. PLAY – joins clubs or groups of interest where you will also meet different people.