• Question: Why did you choose to study biology in school?

    Asked by LillyM on 17 Nov 2021.
    • Photo: Magdalena Sutcliffe

      Magdalena Sutcliffe answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      I found biology very interesting. I always liked animals and it was great to learn how they work and hoe they live. I also found learning about the human body fascinating, even down to the level of cells and DNA. I also felt like biology was close to life and very logical. Things about biology just made sense to me, for example that birds have hollow bones to be lighter to make flying easier.

    • Photo: Jeffrey O'Callaghan

      Jeffrey O'Callaghan answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      I think the main reason was that I found it to just make more sense and be more useful than other classes. I also recognised that it would be more beneficial to have for university, given that I was more likely to pursue a degree in STEM than arts. It was also one of those subjects that I was just more interested in and didn’t mind going to class for.

    • Photo: Thomas Nicol

      Thomas Nicol answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      I loved all of science and wanted to understand as much as I could in any field. Biology had been an interest of mine from a young age so it was natural to continu with it through school and on to university.

    • Photo: Emma Hall

      Emma Hall answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      My dad was a biologist so I was always interested in what he did. But to be honest, although I took biology at A level I added it at the last minute, I preferred maths at school to biology. But I do use a fair amount of maths every day.

    • Photo: Joaquin de Navascues

      Joaquin de Navascues answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      I wanted to understand processes at the microscopic, molecular level. I had a relatively good intuition (or so I thought!) about how physical and chemical processes worked, but back then I was completely in the dark about how molecules within cells worked to make them move, grow, divide, etc.

    • Photo: Isabelle Boothman

      Isabelle Boothman answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      I found it really interesting and I loved learning about the human body, about cells and genetics and also about plants.

    • Photo: Isabelle Storer

      Isabelle Storer answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      Honestly because my parents said I had to take one ‘academic’ subject as I only wanted to study the arts. I’m glad I did though because it became my favourite subject!

    • Photo: Holly Kerr

      Holly Kerr answered on 18 Nov 2021:

      I was encouraged not to drop all the science subjects by my guidance teacher which I had originally intended! I didn’t think science was for me until I was inspired by one of my high school biology teachers and my interest in human health and disease grew and grew. Once I knew I wanted to further study biology at university, I crash-coursed chemistry in my final year of high school to give me enough foundational knowledge. Changing your mind is always possible!

    • Photo: Mukta Deobagkar

      Mukta Deobagkar answered on 18 Nov 2021:

      In school we didn’t have a lot of choice about what to study, we had set subjects and biology was one of them. But I am really glad that I did study biology because I was completely fascinated by all the weird and wonderful facts.

      For example, I really wanted to know things like what decides where an ear is going to be and why we don’t usually have legs growing on top of our heads. Imagine the level of planning and co-operation needed to be able to make such complex structures!

    • Photo: Yasmin Dickinson

      Yasmin Dickinson answered on 19 Nov 2021:

      Hi Lilly!

      Biology was always my favourite subject in school. The human body is so complicated and amazing. How does the heart continuously pump all the time, doesn’t it get tired? How does your body fight off an illness and keep you safe? How does the nervous system work? What are the different sections of the brain and how do they all work together? These are the type of questions that would always fill my mind and it made me want to learn more.

      The first time I saw the structure of the cell I was blown away, so many tiny tiny organelles working all the time making sure our bodies are functioning properly. I knew then that this is a subject I love and I want to have a career related to it. So when it came to my GCSEs and A-levels I made sure to choose Biology 🙂

    • Photo: Madeleine Heep

      Madeleine Heep answered on 19 Nov 2021:

      I was actually more interested in Chemistry. I had a great Chemistry teacher and everything seemed so logical to me. To avoid Physics, I decided to study biochemistry which led to my working as a biologist/ biochemist ultimately.

    • Photo: Elston DSouza

      Elston DSouza answered on 22 Nov 2021: last edited 22 Nov 2021 10:13 am

      I’ll tell you this! Unlike the other scientists here, I didn’t choose to study biology in school! I wanted to be a physicist during that time, so rather than take biology I took my school’s other choice which was economics.

      My love for biology came when I started uni where I could mix and mash-up computing and maths which I did enjoy, with biology where you could ask meaningful questions and be a part of really cool discoveries!

      So the thing to take away is that (a) you probably won’t know what you will end up doing, and (b) that is totally and completely okay! You are allowed to change your mind!

      In fact, one of my co-workers was studying to be an archeologist for a really long time before becoming a geneticist!

    • Photo: Julia Spindel

      Julia Spindel answered on 26 Nov 2021:

      I loved the natural world and the more I learnt about it (even at microscopic scale!), the more I was fascinated. I still find it amazing how complex and effective some biological systems can be.

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