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How DOES magnetism work?

July 13, 2010 in Evaluation, IAS event, scientists by SophiaC | 2 comments

He doesn't know either: Gilbert demonstrating the magnet before Queen Elizabeth /Wellcome Images

Last year I saw A C Grayling talk on happiness and it’s importance. He said that he bans his students from using the word ‘happy’, that it’s a lazy portmanteau word. He thinks that if you are forced to choose a different word – hopeful, exhilarated, content – you’ll think about what you really mean far more clearly.

I think the same can sometimes be true of jargon. Scientists taking part in I’m a Scientist have told us before that explaining yourself without using jargon is hard work, but unexpectedly rewarding. It means you have to think through what you mean and it exposes your mental shortcuts.

We saw a great example of this in Imaging Zone. A fairly innocuous-seeming question (Why do magnets attract and repel?) pretty much lead to the scientists realising that they don’t actually know how magnets worked. Not really. Not when they tried to actually explain it to other people, without using jargon.

Now these scientists include a man who spends many of his days working with an fMRI scanner, containing a magnet so powerful that you have to remove any ferrous object from your person before entering the room. But still, magnetism turned out to be one of those things that he learned about years ago, and sort of assumed he understood.

I’m expecting that some of you have the same feeling I did when reading that Q+A – ‘OMG, I don’t REALLY understand how magnets work either. How did I not notice that before?’ I think the thing is, most of us rarely discuss how magnets work. And when we do, we use technical words (‘dipole’, ‘electromagnetic’, ‘electron shell’) which we and our listeners all know, which can obscure the fact that you don’t truly understand the underlying mechanism.

By all accounts this question, and the attempts to answer it, lead to an awful lot of magnetism-related discussions at scientific breakfast tables and coffee machines around the country. So, one outcome, of just this question, has been much thinking about and discussing the mysteries of physics, by scientists, with colleagues, and others, about a subject they all thought they understood, but actually it turns out they’ve got lots of questions about it.

If the essence of science is asking questions and taking nothing for granted, then I’d call this a result.

This post started life as part of a mammoth post I’ve been writing about how June’s I’m a Scientist event went. The post has taken about three days so far and we’re up to 3,000 words. So I thought I should really break it into bits and start bunging some up now.

Press announcement: IAS2010 winners

June 25, 2010 in IAS event by SophiaC | 1 comment

I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here! has found its very own kings (and queens) of the laboratory, as chosen by 5,000 school students from across the UK.

For two weeks 100 scientists, in 20 different zones, have been answering questions from school students and having online live chats with them. The students have now voted for who they think should win and the final votes have now been counted.

It really does give us the most enormous pleasure to announce that the winners are…

Zone Winner
Beryllium Ian Sillett
Boron Hywel Vaughan
Nitrogen Joanna Buckley
Oxygen Tom Hardy
Fluorine Mark Roberts
Neon Jon Copley
Sodium Ben Still
Magnesium Dean Whittaker
Aluminium Katy Mee
Silicon Andrew Maynard
Clean Panos Soultanas
Brain Joanna Brooks
Cancer Joanna Watson
Chemicals Joe Cook
Drugs Deuan Jones
Evolution Ceri Thomas
Genes Steven Kiddle
Imaging Stephen Curry
IVF Vicki Onions
Sports Sally Fenton

This has been the largest I’m a Scientist event ever staged – four times the size of earlier pilot events. All thanks to a generous grant from the Wellcome Trust.

The event puts young people in the driving seat and gets them truly engaging with real science and real scientists. It gives them an insight into issues like ‘how do we decide what science to fund?’  shows them that scientists are real people they can relate to and inspires them with a taste of what it’s like to study cutting edge science.

For the scientists it’s a rollercoaster masterclass in communicating what they do. It’s a chance to connect with young people and find out how they view science. And it’s an inspiring and energising experience.

The event has involved people in a way science engagement activities rarely do. Students have been forming fanclubs in school and cheerleading for their favourite scientists. Scientists have been staying up all night making videos for the event. They’ve been so dedicated to making the live chats that one requisitioned a stranger’s computer at a conference, another got up at 4.30am to take part from the States while another was typing away in the toilet queue at Glastonbury!

Scientists have also been meeting scientists from other research areas and getting support from other scientists both on twitter and in their departments. It’s got students and scientists making new connections and excited about talking about science.

Scientists:-

“If any scientist is feeling jaded, run down, disillusioned with their lot, I thoroughly recommend IAS therapy. The energy, the intensity, the free uninhibited approach to asking science questions displayed by a class of energised and interested teenagers, is far better for the scientific psyche than any shrink could manage, it got me pumped again.”

Dr Mark Fogg, York University, in a moving blogpost about the event

Students:-

“thankyu for this whole experiance ive learnt loads in this experience and we ar deffinatly voting for you good look with ur phd and hope u will b called the doctor soon and become very succesful!”

“Science really is truly mind baffling and you have all just made it even more fascinating, therefore tres bien! Good luck with the eviction Joanna you are my favourite.”

“This has been the best chemistry lesson ever”

Teachers:-

“The I’m a Scientist event is one of the most exciting, interactive, cutting edge activities that my pupils and I have taken part it.  My pupils love being in contact with real Scientists and finding out about their research.”

“They worked so hard during this event, but they didn’t seem to think of it as work”

Notes for Editors

Interview opportunity
Participant pupils and scientists from this, or previous pilot events are available for interview on request.

Scale of event
This largest event ever has run from 14th – 25th June with:-

  • 20 zones
  • 100 scientists (five scientists in each zone)
  • 5,100 students
  • in 152 schools and colleges
  • 7,500 questions asked
  • 68,000 visits to the site
  • 493,075 Pageviews

About ‘I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here!’
‘I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here!’ is a science dialogue event where school students talk to real scientists online for two weeks. It’s in the form of an X Factor-style competition between scientists, who compete for a prize of £500.
For two weeks students read about the scientists’ work, ask them questions and engage in live text chats with them. The students vote for the scientist they want to get the money. The scientists with the fewest votes are evicted until only one is left to be crowned the winner in each zone. The event is supported by carefully developed and tested teaching resources that develop students’ skills and deepen their understanding.
The event is funded by a Society Award from the Wellcome Trust, with additional support from the National Science Learning Centres and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement.
http://imascientist.org.uk/

Information about the scientists taking part in the June event.

The names of all the schools taking part in June

The hashtag to follow the event on twitter is #ias2010

About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charity dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust’s breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.

Don’t Panic! More advice for our scientists…

May 18, 2010 in IAS event, scientists by SophiaC | No comments

OK, judging from Twitter you are all getting worried about what you’ve let yourselves in for and fretting about getting evicted. I’m writing this to reassure you, although, I’m afraid most of you are going to get evicted and there’s not much I can do about it. Sorry!

The moderators and I do hate the evictions. It’s excruciating having to say goodbye to people who’ve put in lots of effort and been great contestants. But evictions are a big part of what makes the event exciting for young people, they create a buzz and a tension. And I guess we should all remember that it’s the taking part that counts (tell that to my Dad on pub quiz night…).

However, these are my top tips on surviving evictions, based on running events in this format over 6 years. I think the things that make students vote for someone are:-

1. How worthwhile they think your work is – in IAS terms curing cancer scores high. As does stopping people starving in the developing world. It’s not only heroic lifesaving scientists who have won the event in the past though – but it is worth thinking about how you explain to teenagers what benefit your work brings to the world.

2. How much they’ve interacted with you and how they felt about that interaction. Common comments when we ask students why they voted for a particular scientist or councillor are ‘They answered our questions’, ‘They weren’t patronising’, ‘They listened to us’, ‘They seemed nice’.

3. Smiley photo. In my exp, kids don’t vote for the best looking person,  but they do vote for the one who looks genuinely friendly. We actually did a test of this once with I’m a Councillor by getting friends to rate the attractiveness and smileyness of councillor photos then comparing to who won. It was only a small sample but attractiveness did not correlate with winning, smiley photos did. But of course we can’t rule out the fact that perhaps a person with a smiley photo does much better at number 2.

There is a discussion of what made students vote for particular scientists in the I’m a Scientist evaluation report, in section 1.1.7, if you are that keen!

Advice to our scientists

May 17, 2010 in IAS event, scientists by SophiaC | 1 comment

We’ve had a lot of emails asking practical questions about taking part in June, and I think the best thing is to put the answers here for everyone to see. I suspect many of you who haven’t written would still like to know the answers!

Zones

There will be 20 zones on June. The last event in March only had 5 zones, so this time is a lot bigger! In each zone there are 5 scientists, competing for a prize of £500. There are 20 classes of students per zone, usually this will mean about 400 students. Only those students can ask questions, have live chats and vote in that zone, although everyone can read the questions and answers and so on.

Themed zones

10 of the zones are themed. The themed zones are:-

Brain
Genes
Are we too clean?
IVF
Imaging
Evolution
Cancer research
Sports Science
Drugs Development
Use of chemicals in everyday life

One or two of you worried that you aren’t expert enough in the zone topic. Please bear in mind that the students you will be talking to are mainly 13/14 years old. Of course as academic scientists you have exacting standards of what constitutes expertise in an area, but in terms of the students level of knowledge and what’s in their curriculum you really are an expert!

Also, the zones were suggested by teachers and scientists, and then voted for by the teachers taking part (there’s nothing you can teach us about two-way engagement!). They reflect what teachers want to cover in their classes. It wouldn’t always be possible to provide five scientists whose work epitomised the topic, but we’ve tried to make sure they all overlap with the topic in some way and that each scientist brings a different perspective to the topic.

General zones

The other zones are all general zones – meaning they have a diverse collection of scientists from completely different areas and no overall theme. These zones are named after elements. The general zones are:-

Beryllium
Boron
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Fluorine
Neon
Sodium
Magnesium
Aluminium
Silicon

What do we need from you right now?

At the moment, just your postal address (apart from scientists outside the UK – we will send you electronic versions of everything instead). And a photo. You can change the photo later if you decide you don’t like it, but we need something this week in order to create your profile pages.

What is involved in taking part?

Before the event starts you need to put up some information about yourself and answer some profile questions. It’s very helpful if you can do this by 1st June so that teachers can start doing background work with students. You can have a look at the profiles of the scientists from March, to see what the questions are.

During the event scientists usually spend 1-2 hours a day participating, for the ten weekdays that the event is on. This will vary according to how busy your zone is and how much detail you go into with your answers. Don’t worry if work is taking you abroad during the event, you can easily take part from there, as long as you have access to the internet and some free time. In fact several of our scientists are permanently based outside the UK.

Questions

About half of this time is spent answering questions submitted on the website – you can do this at whatever time is convenient for you. They will include questions about your work, general science questions, questions about you as a person and about what you plan to do with the prize money.

Some of the general science questions will be about topics well outside your area of expertise (for example rainbows, or chameleons…) but please don’t just ignore them! Many of the students have never had the chance to speak to a real scientist before and it is a big deal to them. If we just ignore their question then it’s not very encouraging for them. If you feel you don’t have the expertise to comment, please answer by saying that, and perhaps suggesting where they might find out, or what area of science it is.

Part of the point of the event is that students come to realise that real scientists are not like in the movies – they don’t know about everything! But also that they have conversations with you and feel they are engaging with real scientists – whatever you have to say in response to their question is a valid way to start that conversation!

Live chats

The other half of the time is spent having live chats with students. Everybody loves this part of the event – scientists, teachers and students all give chats the highest rating in feedback. The chats are text only, a bit like MSN or google chat. You don’t need any special software or anything, just your computer and access to the internet.

Chats are are booked by the teacher, to coincide with their science lesson, so the time is fixed, but we don’t expect all the scientists to make each one as we know you all have other commitments. We do explain this to teachers and students.

As long as a couple of scientists attend each chat the students will get a lot out of it. Although, be warned, students are most likely to vote for scientists they have chatted too! Maybe you think it’s the taking part and not the winning that counts, but you might change your mind when the first eviction is looming:-)

We don’t know when the chats will be yet, but as bookings are made you will be sent an email with the details. There will also be an online calendar you can consult telling you of all the chats in your zone.

I hope this answers all your questions for the moment. Do get back to us if you want to know more. We are here to help! But also feel free to use the comments section below to ask questions or make comments, as many people will have the same questions as you.

Latest event news: Who’s taking part in March?

February 25, 2010 in IAS event by SophiaC | 1 comment

I’m sure you are all on the edge of your seats to find out who’s taking part in the next I’m a Scientist event, so here they are!

We are having five ‘zones’ in March (in each zone there are five scientists, talking to 20 classes of students, with one prize up for grabs in each zone). Two of these zones have a theme (the Genes Zone and the Brain Zone) and the other are general, with a broad mix of scientists. The general zones are named after elements.

The themed zones are a new thing we are trying out for this event, and teachers seem to really like the idea, so I think they’ll turn out well.

The event runs 15th – 26th March, and you can watch everything that happens on the website.  Only the students taking part can ask questions, chat to the scientists and vote, but everyone is welcome to read all about it and see what’s going on.

Brain Zone

Scientists

Nick Bradshaw University of Edinburgh I study a set of proteins which are believed to be involved in schizophrenia
Joseph Devlin University College London My work focuses on what happens in the human brain that allows us to use language when other animals cannot.
Carolyn McGettigan UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience I use neuroimaging to investigate how the brain processes speech and voices.
Anne Seawright University of Bristol Looking at measuring emotions in dogs.
Mariana Vargas Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics Learning and memory. Neurons and Synapses.

Schools

Swanlea School Stoke Newington
Unity College Lancashire
Harrogate Ladies’ College Harrogate
Castleford High School Technology And Sports College Castleford
London Academy Edgware
St Cyres School Vale of Glamorgan
Burnage Medi Arts College Manchester
Wye Valley Bucks
Garibaldi College Mansfield
Bacon’s College Rotherhithe
Beechfield Secure Unit Copthorne
Heanor Gate Science College Derbyshire
St Columba’s High School Renfrewshire
The Park Community School Barnstaple
Queen Elizabeths Grammar School Faversham

Genes Zone

Scientists

Olivia Hibbitt Oxford University Gene therapy for high cholesterol
Lorna Houlihan The University of Edinburgh Searching for genes involved in intelligence and age-related change in intelligence.
Chris Needham School of Computing, University of Leeds (I’m an RCUK Research Fellow) I am interested in computational biology and bioinformatics, such as modelling gene regulatory networks from high throughput gene expression data, and using machine learning to predict protein function.
Kay Penicud London Research Institute (Cancer Research UK) I research how our cells repair their DNA when it becomes damaged, and how unrepaired DNA can lead to cancer.
Kerstin Zechner Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford I’m looking at how a stretch of DNA coding for a gene is copied into another molecule known as RNA and how this copying process is kept under control in worms.

Schools

Broadoak Maths And Computing College Weston-super-Mare
Abbeyfield School Chippenham
British School Muscat Sultanate Of Oman
Balby Carr Doncaster
Tiffin School Kingston upon Thames
Broadgreen International School Liverpool
City Of Portsmouth Girls’ School Portsmouth
Middlesbrough College Middlesbrough
Ripon Grammar School Ripon
The Woodlands School & Sports College Coventry
The George Ward School Melksham
Sacred Heart London
Abingdon School Abingdon
Bury St Edmunds County Upper Suffolk
St Leonard’s St Andrews

Hydrogen Zone

Scientists

Louise Buckley Scottish Agricultural College Hungry chickens find it more difficult to learn complex choice tasks
Pamela Docherty University of Edinburgh I work in the area of integrable systems in mathematical physics, which roughly means trying to predict how certain real-world objects move in time, for example, planets.
Freya Harrison University of Oxford, Dept of Zoology I use experiments and simulations to understand why and how cooperative behaviour has evolved
Katy Milne Imperial College I develop inspections for jet engines to ensure that they are safe
Helen Vaughan University of Durham I use really powerful lasers to blow up molecules in order to develop new materials for use in highly efficient plastic lighting applications and flexible television screens!

Schools

Queen Ethelburga’s College York
The George Ward School Melksham
Twynham School Dorset
George Heriot’s School Edinburgh
Pembrokeshire College Pembrokeshire
St Joan Of Arc Catholic School Rickmansworth
Mid Cheshire College Cheshire
Rochester Grammar School Rochester
Cheadle And Marple Sixth Form College Stockport
Samuel King’s School Cumbria
Kinlochbervie High Sutherland
Brockenhurst College Hampshire

Helium Zone

Scientists

Martin Coath Centre for Robotic and Neural Studies Designing sensory systems for machines that work just like biological systems.
Emily Cook Barts Hospital X-ray vision: probing your body and luggage
Chris Cooper Dept of Biological Sciences I make (or rather try to make) artificial blood to replace blood transfusions.
Tamsin Gray British Antarctic Survey I am trying to work out how fast Antarctica is warming up and when the hole in the ozone layer is going to get better.
Natalie Stanford University of Manchester I build electronic versions of cells so we can subject them to extreme disturbances in order to increase our understanding of their function.

Schools

Francis Holland School London
Pate’s Grammar School Cheltenham
City Of Westminster FE College (Maida Vale Campus) London
Ashington High School Northumberland
Keswick School Cumbria
The Compton London
Birkdale High School Dewsbury
King Henry Viii School Coventry
Highbury Fields School London
Addey & Stanhope Lewisham
Elton High School Bury
Kingsmead Commuity School Somerset
Shimna Integrated College Co. Down
Bishop Thomas Grant School Streatham
William Farr C Of E Comprehensive School Licolnshire

Lithium Zone

Scientists

Kiran Meekings Decision Resources A trained molecular virologist by nature, I now work in pharmaceutical research building drug forecasts for cancer drugs in all stages of clincial development for many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical firms.
Sarah Mount University of Wolverhampton I try to find new ways for scientists and artists to use small computers embedded in the environment
Duncan Murdock University of Bristol I am using pioneering x-ray techniques to work out how skeletons evolved in animals.
Sharon Sneddon University of Manchester I am trying to find ways of creating ethically acceptable human embryonic stem cells.
Paul Stevenson University of Surrey I try to understand what makes protons and neutrons stick together and so form all the elements.

Schools

Kingsbury High School Brent
Ryton Comprehensive School Tyne & Wear
Hardenhuish Chippenham
Clydebank High School West Dunbartonshire
Broxburn Academy West Lothian
Presdales School Herts
South Thames College (Merton Campus) Surrey
Saltash.Net Community School Cornwall
John F Kennedy Catholic School Herts
The Long Eaton School Nottinghamshire
Broadgreen International School Merseyside
Longridge Towers School Berwick upon Tweed
St John’s, Marlborough Wiltshire
Forest Education Centre Hythe

Latest event news: Schools chosen, scientists next week

February 12, 2010 in IAS event, Uncategorized by SophiaC | No comments

We’ve now chosen the schools to take part in I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! March 2010. 70 teachers, in every setting from selective grammar schools to young offender institutions, will be logging on with their students and talking to real scientists. Then those students will be choosing which scientist gets a public engagement grant of £500.  Nothing engages young people like giving them some power.

Choosing the schools has been agonising as we’d love to include everyone but we’ve been very over-subscribed with five classes wanting to take part for every space. We’ve tried to ensure a mix of types of school, types of class and school location.

Many teachers wanted to take part with a whole year group (or two or three whole year groups in some cases!), which is great. We know from I’m a Councillor that getting the whole year group involved really adds to the buzz about the event and has students talking about it outside the classroom. However, as March is a fairly small scale event we have restricted it to one or two classes per school.

I hope that the teachers will see March as a way to test out the event, and then take part in June with many more classes. We know that having seen it in action once helps teachers make the most out of the event the second time.

Teachers can now register their interest in the June event

Scientists

We are still taking registrations for scientists who want to take part in March. We’ll close registrations and choose the scientists next Friday (19th Feb). So far all sorts of fascinating scientists have signed up. Here’s just a few of the things they are studying:-

  • Climate change in Antarctica
  • What happened just after the big bang
  • Undersea volcanoes
  • The origins of co-operative behaviour
  • The molecular basis of schizophrenia
  • Ways to reduce the use of animals in research

And loads more! Choosing the scientists next week is going to be every bit as agonising… But, there’s still plenty of time to sign up if you are interested in taking part. Please pass it on to any scientists you think may be interested.

Info for scientists here

Registration for scientists here

I’m a Scientist March 2010 FAQs for teachers

February 4, 2010 in IAS event by SophiaC | No comments

I’m getting a lot of requests from teachers for more info about the next event, so I thought I should put up the answers here and save people writing to me. Not that I mind people writing to me, I hasten to add, but hopefully this will save time all round.

When is the event?

Teacher registration closes: 9th Feb – we will let everyone know that day if they have been selected
Scientist registration closes: 19th Feb – we will let everyone know that day if they have been selected
Event begins: March 15th
Event ends: March 26th

The event lasts for two weeks. The first week is ‘getting to know the scientists’ week, the second week is chucking them off week:-D. We have evictions almost every day in week two, with the winner in each zone being announced on the Friday.

Where is the event?

It’s online! You can take part from anywhere with an internet connection. Your students don’t need to go anywhere.

When do the students talk to the scientists?

Students interact with the scientists in two ways:

Sending scientists questions can happen at any time (students can even log in at home. Yes, we moderate the questions…).

Live chats are booked by the teacher for the time that suits them. We are very happy for chats to be at lunch time or after school (e.g. if you are taking part with the science club). Scientists, of course, have their own jobs to do so won’t be able to make every chat. The important thing is that the students get to talk to some scientists and (hopefully) realise they are normal people, and possibly even quite nice.

What age groups is it suitable for?

In the pilot we had a post-16 zone and two pre-16 zones. The classes in the pre-16 zones were mostly year 9s, with some year 10s and 11s (S2-S4 in Scotland). The post-16 classes included A Level, AS level, BTEC and Higher classes. All of these students got a lot out of taking part.

We produce three sets of supporting resources

  1. Post-16
  2. Pre-16 foundation
  3. Pre-16 extension

The resources will probably be too advanced for younger groups, but the format of the event itself is very flexible. Because students ask the questions they want to, they can take part whatever their level. Our sister event, I’m a Councillor, Get me out of Here! often has primary schools taking part and they really love it.

However, I’m a Scientist has mainly been designed to support How Science Works (HSW) for GCSE and above. If there’s enough interest in it we might run a version for younger students in the future.

If you want to have a look at them, the teaching materials from the pilot are here. This may help you to see whether they would be suitable for your students. We will be making some minor changes, but mainly the resources will be the same.

Can my Scottish/Irish/Welsh school take part?

Yes! Scottish and Welsh schools have taken part in the pilot and Northern Irish schools have taken part in I’m a Councillor, our sister event. We are also happy for schools in the Republic of Ireland to apply. As long as you feel it will help with your curriculum then you are very welcome.

Can my SEN pupils take part?

Yes! Oak Lodge Special school took part in the pilot event and found it worthwhile, here is a case study about their experience.  The supporting resources will not be geared towards your pupils, which may cause you extra work, sorry. We hope to be able to produce specialized resources for SEN at some point, but we don’t have the resource to do it at the moment.

How do I register?

Fill in this form

You will then get sent a confirmation email and you need to click the link in it to confirm. If the email hasn’t arrived in a few minutes then check your spam folder as some of them have been going in there.

You haven’t answered my question!

Sorry. There is more info about the event and what’s involved for teachers here. If you still have a question, please email me (or put it in the comments below). But please make your question specific! I’ve got several emails saying ‘please send me more info’ and it’s hard to know what they want me to tell them. There is really a lot of info on the website already…

I’m a Scientist 2010 Registration open

January 26, 2010 in IAS event by SophiaC | 1 comment

This is a weird moment. I can’t quite believe I’m actually doing it. I am now declaring registrations open for the first full scale I’m a Scientist event!

We are ready to hear from classes and scientists who want to take part in I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! 2010.

Teachers should register here.

Scientists should register here.

Getting us this far has taken a large proportion of my professional life for the last three years. Too large a part, Mr McCracken would say. It’s also taken loads of work from dozens of  other people – the lovely (and long-suffering)  teachers panel, all the previous participants, the people who’ve worked with us and the many people who’ve supported us.

I’m proud of what we’ve done. Thank you everyone. The event this year is going to be amazing. But I tell you what, if I’d known what hard work it was all going to be, I might have kept my mouth shut when I had that bright idea, all those years ago.

We are making a lot of improvements to the event this year, building on the things like live chats that we know really work. We think we’ll be making the site easier to use, more interactive, more personalised, but also more thought-provoking. Come and join in!

Timetable for March 2010 event

9th Feb: Teacher registration closes
19th Feb: Scientist registration closes
March 15th: Event begins
March 26th: Event ends

More info

Hear from Professor Peter Styring, one of our previous participants…

…Or read more about what’s involved

For scientists

For teachers

Or you can register here.

If you simply want updates without registering to take part then give us your email address below:


Registrations for this year’s I’m a Scientist opening very soon

January 19, 2010 in IAS event by SophiaC | No comments

This is just a quick post to keep you all in the loop. My pre-publicity has obviously been too successful and I keep being contacted by people who want more info about taking part in the event this year!

We will be running two I’m a Scientist events this year (details below). If everything goes to plan we will open registrations on Friday this week (22nd Jan).

March event | 15th-26th | 5 zones | 25 scientists | 100 classes

June event | 14th – 25th | 20 zone | 100 scientists | 400 classes

If you just can’t wait to let us know you want to take part, then feel free to email me (sophia@gallomanor.com), but it will just mean I send you an email on Friday telling you how to register:-). There’s more info about the event here, but, of course, if you’ve got more questions then get in touch.

I’m a Scientist gets funding!

November 18, 2009 in IAS event by SophiaC | 1 comment

Our I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! event has been awarded a grant of £209,000 by the Wellcome Trust, so that we can roll it out nationally over the next two years. Hallelujah!

Yay! Time to celebrate

Yay! Time to celebrate

Long bit of waffle about how this came to pass

Long time readers will remember that we ran a pilot of the event in June 2008, funded by Wellcome. We then ran a second event in March 2009, funded by us, with assistance from Bristol University. These events went really well. As you can see from the evaluation reports, they got students really engaged with science, changed students views of science and scientists and were memorable and exciting learning opportunities.

Since then we have been chasing the funding to roll the event out bigger and better and give the same great learning experience to thousands more students. It’s been a frustrating experience – so many people have said ‘It’s a great idea, but we don’t have any money to give you’.

In February we applied for a Wellcome Trust Society Award. We got though the first round. We submitted a more in-depth application. We got the reviewers comments, which were mainly brilliant, “This is one of the most imaginative ideas that I have come across in 30 years of working in this field” particularly sticks in my mind, natch. We responded to the comments. And then, last Wednesday we had to go and present to the committee, at Wellcome’s Headquarters in London.

It must be said, I did not enjoy the experience. Imagine, three years of work, on something you completely believe in, all riding on one 20 minute presentation. I kept having this dread that there would be something we’d forgotten – like in one of those dreams where you are sitting an exam but it all goes wrong in some crazy dream-like way. “Oh no, we were supposed to bring a kangaroo butler! Where can we get a kangaroo and a dinner jacket in the next five minutes?”

My heart was in my mouth from the moment I woke up. I know that I know the event, the feedback and our plans inside out. But sometimes you feel like you know far too much about something to explain it or to answer questions with any sort of clarity.

I tried desperately, in my over-earnest way, to get across just how wonderful the event is, and answer some pretty harsh questions clearly and persuasively. Shane did a great job of explaining his bit (even if he was going extremely fast by the end). But the committee looked unconvinced.

We walked out of there, straight into the nearest pub, convinced that we hadn’t persuaded them. After getting the train home to Bristol I frogmarched my flatmates to another pub and made them listen to me moaning all evening about how we’d blown it. And then on Thursday we got the best phone call ever. The committee had been very impressed by the idea and were giving us the money!

Apparently the committee deliberately put on serious faces so they don’t give anyone false hope. I have to say I have now just about forgiven them for this. In light of the £209,000.

Just how much do I love our participants?

Loads! The students, teachers and scientists who’ve taken part have all been such fun to work with, done so much with the event, and helped us so much with their input, support and advice over the last two years. But now I love them even more.

We especially wanted to get across to the committee just how much people get out of taking part. So we emailed the scientists and teachers asking if they could record something to show to the committee.

Loads of them did. Even though for many it was 18 months since they’d taken part, their enthusiasm shone through. I’m sure that was very persuasive with the committee. Cheers everyone! I will look into the possibility of putting up some of the clips. If the students from Heanor Gate Science College don’t make you laugh then you haven’t got a heart.

What we’ll do with the money

You can read lots more about the money stuff and what this means for the company here. (For some strange reason my boss sets more store by this side of things, whereas I just care about getting kids thinking. I realise this is one of my many flaws as a private sector employee.) But basically,  over the next two years we can run the event with:-

50 zones altogether, which means

  • 250 scientists
  • 1,000 classes
  • 20,000 students

All (students, scientists and teachers) breaking down barriers, learning new skills and changing the way they think about each other. I can’t wait!

And best of all, we take on a full-time admin assistant and I need never address another envelope. Is that shallow of me?

*Photo credit Tony Hisgett

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