The online event gave school students, the viewing public, and the LECTURES attendees the opportunity to continue the conversation about the Royal Institution’s CHRISTMAS LECTURES series, “Who am I?”, as well as the surrounding scientific, societal, and ethical themes.
This Zone Report contains key activity data from the zone, here is what we learnt:
- This was the busiest CHRISTMAS LECTURES Zone run to date; recording the highest numbers of registered users and schools taking part. The Zone saw double the average number of live CHATs run, and set a new record for lines of live CHAT in a CHRISTMAS LECTURES Zone, beating the previous record by more than 5,000 lines.
- School uptake continued to improve on previous years, with students from 41 schools actively taking part in the Zone.
- 170 members of the CHRISTMAS LECTURES studio audience submitted questions using cards provided. This is a significant improvement on the previous year, where 18 audience members used cards to submit questions to the Zone. Increased awareness of the cards this year is likely what led to more questions being submitted.
- 20 experts actively participated through answering students’ questions, and taking part in live chats.
- The questions in ASK and live CHATs covered a wide range of themes and ideas related to genetics and identity. “What would happen if…” scenario type questions were popular, as were questions about the future of humanity, and experts’ motivations to get into STEM.
- Differing to previous CHRISTMAS LECTURES zones, experts were invited to take part for the duration of the event, rather than being allocated specific weeks. This was done to allow experts more flexibility in when they would take part, and reduce the admin required by organisers. Data shows that this change was successful, and did not adversely effect weekly contributions from experts.
