What Was Your Spark?

In early May, 2008, we wrote to all our members, nearly 60,000 strong, and asked them for their "spark." What was that spark you were hit with as a child or teenager that helped or made you decide that you wanted to be a scientist or an engineer? Was it a teacher at school? A visit to a local museum? A parent explaining why the sky was blue, or not knowing why the sky was blue? A magical book read under the covers at night? The ant that walked across your lunch one day or the snow flake that tipped your tongue?

And we told them why we wanted to know. We were wondering that if perhaps this information was collected in an anecdotal manner, and shared among our members, teachers, parents and grandparents, that perhaps your stories could create further opportunities for us to help generate our own sparks to catch the imaginations of the children we have contact with.

In asking we did indeed generate our own spark; the onrush of memories was significant. All your stories were collated into an informational paper. Please click here for your copy. We anticipate that this paper will be updated as new "sparks" come to hand, thus please feel free to e-mail us with your stories (development@sigmaxi.org), and we’ll let everyone know when an updated version is available. And please let us know whether we can include your name and/or e-mail for those who may wish to follow up with you.