Stephanie was voted the winner of the Climate Zone in March 2018. Here she writes about how she has used her £500 prize money to buy filming equipment and software to start up a science YouTube channel.

If you’d like the chance to win funding for your own public engagement work, apply for the next I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here: imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply

I have started a YouTube channel called Science with Steph. I have been a consumer of online video for a long time and know a few small creators, and so I decided to take the plunge and start a channel myself! It has been hard work (growing a channel from scratch these days can be very slow going), but very enjoyable. I have learnt many skills such as producing, editing and filming videos. I have also learned how to talk about quite tricky subjects in a simple way.

YouTube is a great platform as it’s the world’s second biggest search engine. Having said that it can be quite hard to have your voice heard (there are 500 hours of content uploaded every minute on YouTube). I hope my small channel will improve the platform as a place of learning and where people can improve their scientific understanding.

I spent £180 on a second hand camera, £250 on a microphone, and £70 on accessories like a tripod, lapel mics, and editing software. I have been making videos every week (with a break of 2 months when I moved house) and so far I have over 4500 views, 200 subscribers and nearly 150 hours of watch time on my channel! I hope to use my connections in the Stem Ambassadors network and also other educational content creators to grow my channel and increase the impact I have.