Mark's journey into teaching science

Mark's story

My name is Mark and I’ve been teaching for 23 years. During this time, I've taught all three sciences at GCSE, and A-level biology, and A-level psychology, as well as special educational needs and STEM clubs.

As a dyslexic, my school learning wasn't a dream, but more of a nightmare. I didn't do very well and left with no qualifications. It was a lot harder than it should have been. Looking back at my school books and notes it would seem I just didn't fit into the system. I was thinking differently and that made a life a lot harder learning wise than it should have been.

My neurodiversity, as it's called nowadays, was never going to fit into a school setting. The school experience not only put me in a place where I would never have thought about teaching, but worse, put me off anywhere near teaching as a profession. Then a life-changing experience happened.

"I could fill in the gaps in my knowledge that I’d missed from school."

One day a friend and I while waiting for a train popped into the local science centre. It was called The Exploratory and its approach was hands-on. I really enjoyed it so much I ended up catching a much later train because I had to stay there until it was closed, I was worried I was going to miss something. In short, it was the accessibility of all of it that I loved. This was stuff I was interested in but didn’t understand at school. Here I could access it. The range of experiments through demonstrations was literally science for the first time I could handle. This 'in your face' way of dealing with learning worked not just for me, but I could see it working on the other people there as well. By turning handles, I could see Chaos Theory; by moving a magnet I could see Faraday's coil generating a current. There were some giant parabolic dishes, and I could hear voices and uh sounds from across the floor. And then there was the illusions and the mirrors. I could see it all and I could hear it all by moving stuff about. On the way out I asked for an application that I filled out that day and returned when I got back to Bristol.

"I believe the positive experience of visiting that centre and working there will last beyond my career."

After joining, I could fill in the gaps in my knowledge that I'd missed from school. In the planetarium I could easily explain how easy it was to see constellations and to spot the difference between a planet and a star. I did other shows on bubbles, gases, biology, the lot!

The whole range of people came to visit this - grandparents, grandchildren, rich and poor, and I could share with them this way of learning and see their interest. Sadly, the science centre had to come to an end, and it closed. My bread-and-butter income was coming to an end, so there was a natural progress to move to becoming a science teacher.

I would have never ever ever considered doing this before working in the science centre. It was the gateway I needed to complete my knowledge and to give me the explosion of confidence that I could teach. The positive effects, I believe, have lasted and I'm still teaching now. Just last week I did a space lesson with a class that was based on stuff that I was doing 24 years ago. These benefits I've passed on to new student teachers that I've helped over the years. Therefore, I believe the positive experiences of visiting that centre and working there will last beyond my career.

"I would never ever ever have considered [becoming a science teacher] before working in the science centre."