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I’m a Scientist: A student speaks

October 12, 2010 in IAS event, School, science education by SophiaC | 4 comments

Here is an article written for a school newsletter by a teenager, about the experience of taking part in I’m a Scientist.

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here!

Sound familiar? One small change – we’ve swapped a group of celebrities trying to eat the entire jungle for a group of buzzing scientists – each in a jungle of questions and comments.

Another textbook science lesson? Maybe not! I’m a scientist is a website aimed at all teenagers – interested in science or not (but believe me, by the time you finish the project, science will have taken over your brain and made you love it for the rest of your life). Each pupil is given a login, leading to their individual area which can be personalised with pictures of famous scientists, exploding chemicals and swine flu particles. The login works for a specific zone. In each zone, there are five scientists.

The aim of the game is simple – you ask questions (on practically anything – from “do aliens exist?” to “have you ever exploded any of your experiments?”) and the scientists reply. Then, at the end of the week, you vote for the one you think has answered your questions the best.

And it doesn’t stop there. To make the website more appealing I’m a scientist have come up with the clever idea of a live chat; you book a session where the scientists speak to you face-to-face! (Virtually anyway).

The scientists talk about general science – what topic you’re studying at the moment, and maybe even give advice on what you should study to be able to go into certain scientific fields.

In the end, everything is drawn to a climax – the votes are counted and the winner is presented with the grand title of “I’m a Scientist winner” and £500 to spend on teaching young people about what they are currently researching.

Your vote shouldn’t just be a split-second decision, a quick click and then nothing… a single vote has the power to change the world. The scientist who gets your vote may invent a cure for cancer, discover what all that ‘junk DNA’ codes for, or make a GM crop which could feed starving populations. So whilst I’m a scientist is fun, challenging and educational, it is a door into the future of science, which, with any luck, we will all be able to walk through one day.

The reason I’m a Scientist is supporting the Science is Vital campaign is because we too want today’s teenagers to be able to walk through that door one day, if they want to.

Doors open!

May 5, 2009 in IAS event, School by SophiaC | No comments

I’m a Scientist is a FREE online science enrichment activity where your students talk to real scientists, learn about How Science Works (HSW) and get inspired.

We are now taking applications for classes to take part in I’m a Scientist June 2009. It should be even better than last year and we are looking forward to hearing from you!

Event dates: 15th-26th June 2009
Deadline for applying: 15th May 2009

Spaces are limited, so get in early. Although it won’t be strictly first-come-first served as we want to make sure we have a good spread of schools.




Teacher Application Form for IAS June 2009
* indicates required field

To find out more before applying:-

The event site is here, and you can look back at the March 2009 event, or the pilot last June, and see the kind of questions young people asked and the answers scientists gave. Please note, this doesn’t give you an idea of the energy and usefulness of live chats, which many teachers, students and scientists say are their favourite bit.

Our evaluations of the pilot and the March event are here, where you can find out what students, teachers and scientists said about taking part and what they got out of it.

Teaching materials specially designed for the event are here and you are free to download them and use them as much as you want, whether you take part in the event or not. Most of them work fine as stand-alone activities.

Or feel free to call or email me for a chat about it. I’m really very friendly (once I’ve had my morning cup of tea:-)). (Sophia Collins, the event organiser) or call 01225 869413.

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Are schools a really bad idea?

March 18, 2009 in School, science education by SophiaC | No comments

I’ve been intrigued today by this piece of research. To summarize (for those of you who don’t feel like clicking), researchers looking at behaviour in Przewalski horses found that in groups with low adult/young ratios “young horses were more aggressive and more segregated from adults and they established tighter bonds with other young.”

The scientists go on to speculate. “Tighter bonds between young in groups with low proportions of adults could be a factor which decreases the attention paid to adults and probably reduces their influence as regulators of the behaviour of young, in particular their aggressive behaviour.”

Of course this mimics the environment we artificially create for our young people, in schools. I have often thought that it’s odd the way we lock children away from the rest of society and designate a small number of adults to interact with them, while the rest of the adult world effectively washes their hands. Does this research suggest that this model increases aggression and makes young people less likely to respect and pay attention to adults – and, by extension adult society? Are we deliberately making it much harder to socialise our children? How does this chime with your experiences as a teacher?

And if the basic concept of schools is largely to blame for juvenile delinquency*, can the Daily Mail stop pillorying teachers, sex and relationships education and whatever else they think is responsible?

*Yes, I know, I’m wildly over-extending the evidence.

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Another video format question

April 15, 2008 in General, School by SophiaC | No comments

Thanks to all the teachers who checked what video format their school systems would allow. We found that none of the formats worked consistently in all schools. Cue lots of headscratching here and thinking we weren’t going to be able to have video clips on the site at all. But then Sai Pathmanathan suggested trying Google Video, which she says worked for her on a previous project with schools.

If you’re not all too fed up of the music, please could you try watching this 15 second clip on Google Video, on your school system and telling us if it works. Cheers!

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What video will work in schools?

March 25, 2008 in General, School by SophiaC | No comments

We want to be able to put video clips up on the site, but we need to work out what format works for school systems (embedded links to YouTube are easiest, but many school systems block YouTube, for obvious reasons). We’ve put very short test clips up on this page, if you get a minute it would be fantastic if you could test these on your school system to see which ones work (if any).

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Do you think scientific speed-dating would work?

March 12, 2008 in Evaluation, How Science Works, School, science education by SophiaC | 2 comments

Well we’ve been beavering away here in I’m a Scientist Towers. We’ve taken on a freelancer to develop the teacher packs. Becky Davies usually works at Techniquest Read the rest of this entry »

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We never had YouTube when I were at school…

January 30, 2008 in General, School by SophiaC | 1 comment

Yesterday we did our second school visit, to watch a modern science lesson in action. Shane and I realised it was a long time since we were in a secondary school science lab, so thought we’d better see how it’s changed. Read the rest of this entry »

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We have lift off

January 29, 2008 in General, School by SophiaC | No comments

Welcome to the blog for I’m a Scientist development. This is here mainly for stakeholders (apols, I will try to keep management-speak down to a minimum) and interested parties to get a little window into how the project is progressing behind the scenes. But it’ll be interesting snippets, rather than a blow-by-blow account, as I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to hear.

So far we’ve been developing the design, putting up this site, recruiting advisor teachers, researching the curricula and lots of other bits and pieces. Please feel free to use the comments section to add your two-penn’orth, or contact me with suggestions or for more info.

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