Discovering Astrophysics
I did not always want to be a teacher because I wanted to be an astrophysicist.
If you met me between the ages of eight and seventeen, I would have told you I wanted to be an astrophysicist when I grew up. I wore this dream, this ambition, like a badge of honor. My interest in space arose during my first visit to the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. As I leaned back, looking up at the projected cosmos, I became absolutely mesmerized. I thought to myself, Wow! People can spend their whole lives studying space? Okay, cool, sign me up!
Curiosity is a powerful force. Curiosity propels. It kept me going for my whole childhood. When my third grade teacher asked my class to write and draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up, I raised my hand and asked, “How do you spell astrophysicist?” Throughout the rest of elementary, middle, and high school, the dream of becoming an astrophysicist guided me forward. Even while attending specialized middle and high schools for theater, my north star was, literally, always in space.
This dream took me full circle, right back to the place my curiosity was initially sparked. In my senior year of high school, I returned to the AMNH as an intern, doing research in the Astrophysics department on brown dwarf binaries—celestial objects with properties similar to planets and stars. A few months into our research, the remarkable happened. Our research group discovered a brown dwarf in space 66 light-years away!
As I reflect on my astrophysicist trajectory, I see how curiosity played an essential role in my journey, shaping my belief in its foundational place in the classroom. As an educator, I believe that learning environments must be spaces where children are encouraged to think creatively and boldly. I believe that classrooms must be places where children are celebrated for asking “why?” It is through being curious and thinking critically together that some of the most exciting light bulbs turn on, guiding and propelling children throughout their childhoods.