Anaïs came second in the Molecules Zone of March 2015 and was awarded the £500 after Peter Maskell found alternative funding for his project. Anaïs got straight to work making the most of this opportunity and here she fills us in on what she was able to do with the money….
I really enjoyed I’m a Scientist and, although I came second, I was fortunate to be kindly awarded the prize money by the winner, Peter.
I wanted to use the money to set up an outreach activity for to inspire young children to look around them and think about science. Initially I contacted people in charge of outreach activities at Antikor, where I work, but unfortunately they didn’t have an event planned in the near future. As people couldn’t come to me I decided to look for a place where I could go to them!
One day I received an email from Science Grrl, in which I learnt that Fun Palaces were looking for scientists to do workshops. Fun Palaces take place in libraries around London every year in October. They mix art and science and are open to everyone. Libraries don’t have much funding available, so when I contacted Brixton Library they were delighted about my interest in doing a workshop with them.
Anaïs (left) brings light into the library
I decided to base my workshop around light. I felt it was perfect for children and adults, mixed chemistry and physics, and was a way to relate science to art. I used the prize money to buy items needed to run the activity, including some chemicals. In the workshop I started by first explaining how the colours in light can become visible, answering questions such as “why the sky is blue?”. I then explained and showed the effect of UV light on quinine. We finished by encouraging the children to mix some chemicals, causing luminol to react with a flash of light. The children were really happy, and were especially impressed by the experiment with luminol!
I also prepared posters and a display about the activity to attract people to come see us. On the day I asked a friend to help out with the event. We ran it all day with an audience of children aged between 6 and 13 years old, with and without their parents.
South London Press covered the event and featured Anaïs’ workshop
We also had a visit from a journalist from South London Press which covered the event and published an article about our experiments. It was a really great day and thanks to I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here I can run this workshop again soon.
