For Scientists

Do you have a passion to explain your work, and to engage with young people in an innovative new project?

“I think it engaged the kids in a way I’ve never seen before.”

In June 2008 we ran a pilot event of ‘I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here!’. Hundreds of young people talked to 15 scientists for two weeks, asking them over 1,000 questions, learning about real science and having fun!

The scientists, the teachers, and most important of all, the young people, really enjoyed themselves and learnt a lot, so we want to keep doing it and giving this chance to many more students.

We’ve now got funding from the Wellcome Trust to scale the event up this year, so we are looking for lots more scientists to talk to lots more students. Would you like to give it a try?

How does it work?

• It’s like the X Factor. For scientists. Online. Where school students are the judges.
• 5 scientists in each group compete for a prize of £500 to communicate their work
• Young people ask you questions, chat live online and vote for who they think should get the money.
• The scientist with the fewest votes gets evicted, until only one is left to be declared the winner.

The event injects some of the excitement of reality TV shows into school science lessons, and uses technology young people are comfortable with to create real dialogue and break down barriers.

What did scientists who took part in the pilot have to say about it?

It was fun, and the medium really broke down barriers.

“I didn’t realise just how much fun the live chats would be and what a great rapport we would build up over a computer!”

“Enabled students to ask questions they might not have asked if they were face to face with the scientist in a classroom.”

It got a brilliant level of engagement.

“I think it engaged the kids in a way I’ve never seen before.”

“How else could you have almost one on one contact with so many young people, all over the country?”

It was inspiring, and great training at communicating your work.

“I am now excited about my work again!! I also FINALLY managed to explain my work to my Dad in a way that he understood!!!”

It was thought provoking.

“It’s really interesting the questions they come up with! Some of them are really intelligent questions I haven’t considered before.”

What would I have to do?

• Put up an explanation of your work and answer profile questions on our website before the event starts
• Answer questions and have live chats online for two weeks
• Engage willingly with young people
• Time commitment: approx 2 hour per day (for ten days)

To find out lots more about the event, and especially, what other scientists and teachers and students got out of taking part, you can read our evaluation report on the project.

How do I get involved?

If you think you might be interested in taking part in this innovative approach to science dialogue, please register your interest here,
email Sophia Collins, the event organiser, or call 01225 869413 for more information.