We provide Equality. Schools get the same experience, regardless of their geography. A school in the Outer Hebrides has the same experience as one in inner London.
We’re Inclusive. 89% of students actively engage in our activity: that’s the shy students, the confident kids, and everyone in between. Mainstream schools, SEN schools, PRUs. It works for everyone.
We support Diversity. Students can learn about 30 STEM professionals within any one theme, including some from industry, others in research, and with diversity of education and background. Students are likely to find someone they relate to, and see themselves as a future scientist.
🎓 Impact on students
I’m a Scientist engages all students. It supports their Science Capital through showing STEM to be personally relevant to students lives; eliciting and valuing students’ questions and experiences, and providing support for building dimensions of science capital.
The I’m a Scientist activity can play an important role in helping young people see that science just might be ‘for me’. This, in turn, can contribute to nurturing science aspirations. Read more about student impact…
💼 Gatsby Careers Benchmarks
Schools are challenged to create an effective careers programme with often limited resources. Careers Advisors are increasingly being measured against the Gatsby Good Careers Guidance Benchmarks.
I’m a Scientist and the other I’m a… projects support schools on six of the eight benchmarks.
Themed activities mean that teachers can closely match the I’m a Scientist activity to their class’s current curriculum learning. Teachers can also opt for a more general science theme or celebrate a special event (e.g. British Science Week) with their students.
There are over 100 activity themes for teachers to choose from. Every class can take part at any time during the school year and within as many themes as they like – when students study genetics in October, teachers can request a Chat with geneticists and technicians in October, for example.
🌟 Impact on scientists
Online public engagement helps bridge the divide between institutions and schools – and it’s not only school students who benefit.
“I didn’t really know much about public engagement before taking part… I’m a Scientist really inspired me to get involved with more!”
– Suzi, PhD researcher
Taking part in I’m a Scientist is a great way for early-career researchers to experience low-pressure public engagement. Participants report renewed enthusiasm for their careers and students’ keen interest in their work gives researchers the confidence and motivation to do more outreach. Those with less previous experience increase their public engagement activities by 130% in the year following I’m a Scientist. Read more about scientist impact…
🛣️ Why distance matters?
Funders of public engagement and outreach activities have made a priority of reaching underserved audiences.
Wherever we looked we found anecdotal evidence that while, as a sector we were becoming increasingly effective at reaching schools in deprived parts of our metropolitan areas, rural communities continued to miss out.
But anecdotal data only gets you so far. We wanted to find out just how much the more remote schools were missing out.
We also wanted to know what constitutes a remote school in this context.
