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.
