Hi, I’m Tracy, and this is my blog to inspire you to bring a love of science to your kids.
I am an engineer by degree, and I have three kiddos – a precocious daughter, Allie, a perpetual motion son, Andrew, and our little lovebug, Avery.
I am writing this blog to document conversations I want to have with my son and daughters, to encourage their love of science and to develop confidence in their own abilities. In sharing these conversations with you, I hope to inspire you to bring science to your kids, while cooking in your kitchen, talking in your car, and playing in your own backyard. Together we can create a world where our kids fall in love with science and believe that their lives are full of unlimited possibilities.
In 2016 I published my first book “She Loves Science: A Mother’s Guide to Nurturing the Curiosity, Confidence, and Creativity of Her Daughter.” It is sold on Amazon here. It is a guide for parents to help your daughter say that she loves science!
In 2017 the first book of the Halley Harper: Science Girl Extraordinaire series was published. It is the first book in a five book series about the girl science hero I wish I had growing up. Check it out here.
How did I start loving science so much? You can credit my mom and dad, who were science teachers, and my older brothers, who let me tag along to do their science fair projects. I loved asking questions – I loved wanting to know what makes the world work. I was curious and, yes, also precocious. Today, I think back and realize that some my favorite childhood memories involved science.
Like when my best friend and I had a perfume lab in my mom’s bathroom. We were really just mixing soap, shampoo, and colored tissue paper, but we thought we were creating something amazing.
Or the time I started making a design for my very own Back to the Future time machine. That one never got past the design stage.
And how can I forget the many times I looked out the car window in search of the Big Dipper? Or the time mom pulled out her microscope to show us a strand of our own hair?
I love chemistry, and I wanted more than anything to grow up to be an inventor. When it came time to decide what I would study in college, I checked the admission box for chemical engineering.
I worked my tail off. Engineering was not easy for me at all, but I had many special people along the way who motivated me not to give up. They reminded me that there were amazing things in store for me after graduation. One of those special people included my husband Matt, my college sweetheart and engineering study buddy! He is still my inspiration and my best friend.
After graduation, I had a very exciting career in the oil industry for 9 years – I occasionally flew in helicopters to offshore oil platforms! I used science everyday to fix problems and to ensure the safety of people working on the platform.
Fast forward to today. My precocious kids constantly ask me questions about how the world works. “Mommy, why does water flow downhill? Is there gravity in outer space? Why does the balloon not float anymore? Why does a car need gas? Where does gasoline come from?” I find myself digging way back to my childhood memories to explain things to them in their own terms.
I want them to keep asking questions, why this works and what makes that tick. I want them to fall in love with science like I did. I also want my daughters to know there are a lot of women out there who use science everyday – some are very good friends of mine. I want to show her role models and inspire her to never stop being inquisitive. I’m not the smartest girl in the world, but I never saw myself as a girl who couldn’t do science. As a kid, science was always a part of my everyday life.
This blog is about making amazing memories and to document this journey, so one day they will apply their childhood science to solve their world’s problems. I hope it will inspire you, too.
