What do you like best about Science?

ScienceGirl caught up with Dr. Catherine Anderson at the Geneskool summer camp at AMBL, a fun outreach program where students get to try molecular biology techniques. ScienceGirl asked a bunch of questions about what Catherine likes best about her job in science.

ScienceGirl asked: What is Geneskool?
The Geneskool summer workshop is a week-long program where high school students collect evidence at a crime scene on Mondays, analyze their evidence Tuesday to Thursday, and then present their case on Friday. It is a lot of fun! We have just finished our first week for this summer and every group convinced a jury with their evidence that their suspect was guilty.

Did you like Science in highschool?
I didn’t like science in high school. There was all this great information at the end of the textbooks but we never got there – too busy memorizing lists of boring stuff. I liked the material, just not the classes. Once I got to university, I loved the freedom to think about all these great experiments.

What kind of Scientist are you now? What do you do for a job?
I’m trained in Medical Genetics and most of work now is teaching. I teach for the faculties of Dentistry and Medicine at UBC. Plus, I run education programs for Genome BC, including the Geneskool program.

What do you like best about your job in Science?
I love the variety of my job; I learn something new every day. There are so many great things happening in science and I feel lucky to have the job of understanding and explaining new ideas.

I also love the flexibility of my job. For example, I can rearrange my schedule to allow me to visit places like the Galapagos Islands and Antarctica.