Thirteen-year-old Joshua plans to pursue a career in biology so that he could spend time with two of his favorite subjects — plants and animals. He's testing the waters in Bacterial Epidemiology at EXPLO.
I’m taking the Bacterial Epidemiology course. I want to become a biologist. I don’t really want to become a marine biologist; I’ve been thinking more about something with plants and animals. I just find them interesting. They are so different from each other, but at the same time kind of similar. Plants can’t technically “move” but they can move their roots and move around that way, while animals can actually move and go somewhere else. I like the idea of how everything is connected. Plants get their energy from the sun and they pass it on to the animals, then when the animals die they fertilize the soil for the plants — so it’s a cycle, and it goes on and on.
Bacterial Epidemiology has taught me how to streak plates, which is something we have to learn how to do if we want to be biologists. It’s when you put bacteria on a plate, but you have to do it in a specific way so that it works. It definitely has made me more certain that I want to become a biologist. In some cases you have to dissect animals, which isn’t the greatest. I’ve dissected a frog and it wasn’t horrible, but I wouldn’t want to do it again. I would dissect an animal once just to see and learn about it, but I feel like it’s not a very good thing to do.
I think my interest for biology probably comes from my grandma because she was a biology teacher in a university. To become a biologist you have to get a bachelor’s degree in biological science. If I can get into Princeton, I want to go there, but that’s really hard so I have some alternative options as well. Before I go to college I want to go to a special high school that focuses on math and science. It will be very hard, like a lot harder. There’s a lot more homework, but it will make it more likely that I can get into a good college.
I like how EXPLO is also a bit like college. You have dorms and you have to manage your own time. You have a lot of freedom here. I’m going to miss that the most.
Fidelia Randmäe