It is in children’s nature to be curious. Their questions often probe the very fundamentals of the physical world. However, they can lose the spark for asking the most interesting questions when they become self conscious in early adolescent years.
This is where "Ask a Scientist" comes into play. For graduate and undergraduate students at GWU, it will develop writing skills and abilities to explain important physical concepts For middle school students it will create an atmosphere of learning, build an understanding of the world and nature, and foster an habitual interest in science. The GWU team will seek to answer questions that are most difficult to answer in an intuitive way with simple language and metaphors, getting to the heart of scientific inquiry. Albert Einstein once said, "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself." While our participating students are twice as old, it is in this spirit that we will proceed.
