Yearly Archives: 2011

We've cut our teacher survey from 41 to 18 questions

This morning I cut down the survey we ask teachers to fill out after taking part in I’m a Scientist. The old survey was a hefty 41 questions long, and the new one has just 18 questions. By looking at teachers’ previous responses to the 41 questions we were able to identify the questions which worked, and the questions which didn’t. Using this information we’ve made the survey simpler. It’s also more quantitative. Funding from the Wellcome Trust for the next 3 years allows us to improve the way we evaluate I’m a Scientist, and move to evaluating outcomes through more quantitative measurements. My next task is to do the same for the scientist and student surveys, and cut them down from 28 and 25 questions.

Posted on November 23, 2011 by in Evaluation, IAS Event, News. Comments Off on We've cut our teacher survey from 41 to 18 questions

Evaluating the Impacts of engagement

How can we evaluate the impact on students taking part in I’m a Scientist? Can we measure if they’re more likely to take a STEM subject at A Level? If they’re more likely to study science at University? How should we use the large amounts of data generated by online projects? How can we share our evaluation in a more useful way? These are just some of the questions we’re trying to answer about evaluating I’m a Scientist and other Gallomanor run projects. Judging from the first in a series of seminars looking at Evaluating Impacts of Public Engagement and Non-Formal Learning, last Friday 4th November, others are thinking along the same lines. The Core Issues & Debates seminar kicked off the series at the Dana Centre in London, and bought together a range of researchers, evaluators and learning and communication practitioners. Future seminars focus on areas such as how … Continue reading →

Posted on November 9, 2011 by in Evaluation, IAS Event, News, Science Engagement. Comments Off on Evaluating the Impacts of engagement

What’s the BEST I’m a Scientist question?

We’ve been wondering what’s the best question in I’m a Scientist, and we’d like you to help us choose. So we’re running a competition. There are so many amazing questions in I’m a Scientist, from ‘Would You Lick Jam Off An Old Man’s Foot Or Drink Toliet Water For An Hour And Why?‘ to ‘If gravitons travel at the speed of light, and the escape velocity of a black hole is greater than the speed of light, how is it that the gravitons can escape from the black hole?‘. And a question which often perplexes me, ‘Why are people annoying?‘ Some of them are clever, and insightful. Some of them are deceptively simple, but pose questions most scientists have stopped asking themselves. Some are just hilariously funny. Sometimes, a seemingly simple question gets an unexpectedly interesting answer. A student in March’s Forensics Zone asked, ‘What’s your ringtone?‘. Mark Hill, who … Continue reading →

Posted on August 8, 2011 by in Event News, News. Comments Off on What’s the BEST I’m a Scientist question?

Who’s taking part in June?

We have now chosen the scientists and schools for I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! in June. Zones This June is our biggest ever event, with 23 ‘zones’. 12 are general and named after elements, containing a broad range of scientists and research areas. 11 are themed zones, with themes from Microbiology to Energy Generation, Ecology and Marine and Underwater Science. Due to popular demand we are repeating some themed zones from previous years – Sports Science, Genes, Brain, Forensic Science and Evolution. We’re particularly excited about the Healthy Ageing zone sponsored by RCUK’s Lifelong Health and Wellbeing programme, and the Quantum zone which is sponsored by the Institute of Physics. Schools There’s a big variety in the schools taking part, with students involved from Singapore and Hungary to the Isle of Skye. We hope that, as in previous years, classes at these schools are going to have a great experience taking part. … Continue reading →

Posted on June 3, 2011 by in Event News, News. Comments Off on Who’s taking part in June?

Announcement: Zones for June

The next I’m a Scientist event, in June, will be the biggest ever. Wondering what zones we’ll have? Well wonder no more! Themed zones Sports Science Zone Quantum Zone (sponsored by the Institute of Physics) Microbiology Zone Marine and Underwater Science Zone Healthy Ageing Zone (sponsored by Research Councils UK) Genes Zone Forensic Science Zone Evolution Zone Energy Generation Zone Ecology Zone Brain Zone General Zones Phosphorous Sulphur Calcium Scandium Titanium Vanadium Chromium Manganese Iron Cobalt Nickel Copper Themed zones will have scientists who all work on something related to the topic of the zone. The topics were mainly chosen by teachers, because we believe in listening to our participants as much as possible. General zones will have a mix of scientists, from all different areas of science. We’re particularly excited about our two sponsored zones – Quantum Zone (all about very very small things), sponsored by the Institute of … Continue reading →

Posted on May 5, 2011 by in Event News, News. Comments Off on Announcement: Zones for June

Congratulations to the March event student winners!

We would like to congratulate the following winning students from the March 2011 event. The moderators thought they all asked good questions and really engaged with the event. The students winners of I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! are: Name School Zone Andrew Wood Tiffin School Argon Benjamin Case Mangotsfield Secondary School Chlorine Erin Ibbetson Broadoak Mathematics & Computing College Forensic Science Samuel Porter The Kings School, Devon Potassium Ahmad Dehghani West Thames College Space Calvin Mallion Chafford Hundred Campus Stem Cell Research Well done to all the students above! They have now received their student winners certificates and WHSmith vouchers. We would also like to thank all the other students who participated. Everyone contributed to the brilliant chats and thought provoking questions, which made this year’s I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! one of the most exciting and fun events yet.

Posted on April 7, 2011 by in Event News, News, School. Comments Off on Congratulations to the March event student winners!

Choose themed zones for June I’m a Scientist

It’s time to choose the themed zones for the June I’m a Scientist event. Here’s a list of suggested topics (these include ones we’ve used before, but there’s no reason not to use them again!). Teachers, please vote for which themed zone(s) you’d most like your class to take part in. There’s more explanation about zones under the poll. If there’s another theme you’d really like to see, then email us (rosie@gallomanor.com) or let us know in the comments. [poll id=”6″] Further explanation about zones How do I decide what themed zone to pick? It’s not a huge deal. The main point of the I’m a Scientist event is that students get an insight into How Science Works/HSW (particularly, how it really works). They are talking to real scientists, getting to see scientists are real people. They get insight into issues like science funding. So don’t get too caught up … Continue reading →

Posted on March 30, 2011 by in IAS Event. Comments Off on Choose themed zones for June I’m a Scientist

Once upon a time in the land of I’m a Scientist

We’ve started using a new toy here at I’m a Scientist. It’s called Storify and is “a way to tell stories using social media”. Storify allows you to build up a story by gathering media such as tweets, blog posts and photos in one place. You can re-order the content how you like, and add descriptions and commentary to explain what’s going on. Creating a story of the event will be helpful in a few ways: Firstly, it will provide commentary during the event, all in one place. Anyone interested in the event, from teachers to scientists and sponsors, can easily get a feel for what I’m a Scientist is about. Secondly, we’ll have a record of the event to look back on. Whilst we follow what’s being said about I’m a Scientist on sites such as twitter at the time, it’s easy for updates to get lost and forgotten … Continue reading →

Posted on March 21, 2011 by in Project News. Comments Off on Once upon a time in the land of I’m a Scientist

I’m a Scientist – latest news

You’ve all been asking questions like crazy and having lots of live chats with our lovely scientists. The website has been about 50% busier than at the same time last year! We were worried that you’d be wearing out the scientists, but they seem to be loving it. One said they are now addicted to live chats. And another says he’s learning new skills  – like the ability to write answers to questions really really fast. We hope you are having fun. Remember, you’ve got until Friday 25th March to ASK questions CHAT to scientists And, most importantly, VOTE for who you think should get £500! Don’t forget to ‘like’ scientists’ answers if you think they are good – otherwise how will they know what sort of answers you want? Remember, this is the event where YOU are in charge.

Posted on March 16, 2011 by in Event News. Comments Off on I’m a Scientist – latest news

Day One Gremlins

We prepare a lot for I’m a Scientist. We check our lists, we cross off tasks, we write new lists of things to check. The one thing we can’t really do is test how the site will operate under stress. It really helps to have a couple of hundred students trying to access the live chats for that. This morning you obliged and we found something was lacking. A piece of technical wizardry called MemcacheD wasn’t running. MemcacheD basically stores the most used parts of the database in memory and it means less work for the database. Without it the database gets overloaded. This morning with three live chats all at the same time it got overloaded and eventually the server stopped working. The good news is we got MemcacheD started again just before we needed to reboot the server. Since then the site has been used very heavily again … Continue reading →

Posted on March 14, 2011 by in Event News. Comments Off on Day One Gremlins

Exciting changes here at I’m a Scientist

On Monday we’re faced with the daunting task of selecting 30 scientists out of over 200, to take part in the March 2011 event. Whilst looking through the list of scientists this morning I was struck by how many volcanologists have registered, given my background in Geography and Natural Hazards. I also realised that I’ve been working here at I’m a Scientist for a whole month now and, despite regular reminders from Shane, I still haven’t introduced myself. So, here goes! I’m Rosie and I’ve joined the team as ‘Project Executive’ so I’m dealing with the day-to-day running and admin of I’m a Scientist. Sophia is still producing I’m a Scientist but she’s now working part-time, giving her time to get involved with other exciting projects. I’ll be taking over as the main point of contact for the event, so you’ll be hearing a lot more from me! Sophia and I will both … Continue reading →

Posted on February 4, 2011 by in IAS Event. Comments Off on Exciting changes here at I’m a Scientist

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What can you do?

I want to take part with my class ❯

I want to take part as a scientist ❯

I want to find out about funding I’m a Scientist ❯

What is I’m a Scientist?

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here is an online activity where school students get to meet and interact with scientists.

It’s a competition between scientists, where the students are the judges.

Students challenge the scientists over intense, fast-paced, online live Chats. Then they Ask the scientists all the questions they want to, and Vote for their favourite scientist to win a prize of £500 to communicate their work with the public.