Alison won I’m a Scientist, In the Zone in July 2012. Here she tells us how she spent her winnings:
The I’m a Scientist, In the Zone event was such an incredible experience. I had such a wonderful time interacting with students and their teachers through the live web chats and the forum Q&As – I think I learned nearly as much as they did during the process. I tell all the scientists I know that they should sign up to take part!
I was really honoured to be selected the winner of the 7-11 zone and I want to thank all of the students who voted for me. THANK YOU!
I really wanted to do something with my prize money that would reach as many people as I possibly could – and so this meant setting up a website. It can be accessed by all the students in all the schools that have ever taken part in I’m a Scientist, but it can also be accessed by students (and anyone else) from anywhere in the world!
When I was in school one of my favourite things was a radio show called Quirks and Quarks (and it’s still one of my favourite things now). It allowed me to learn about all different kinds of science and research in a really interesting and easy way. I wanted to create something a little bit like this and that is how Penny University came about.
While we’re working on getting the podcast up and running, we’ve been posting up written interviews with researchers – focussing on the newest research out there, which is done by students (PhD) and people who have just finished university (post-docs and early career researchers). I think these researchers are a great example of how you continue to learn every day, even after you leave school, and that there are LOADS of subjects out there for you to get interested in.
So far on Penny University we’ve featured people who study fat cells and diabetes, really old magnetic rocks, medieval teeth, kids and dyslexia, and even Romans! We are also starting to add even more features to the website and in the future we hope to seek out researchers who can answer questions that our readers (and listeners) have sent in to the show.
The £500 helps to cover the cost of setting up the website and maintaining it – and helps us to add new features as it grows. So far we’ve had over 2050 people visit the website from every continent in the world (except Antarctica)!
One of the most recent things we’re working on is a live show for the Manchester Science Festival. You can check our blog for updates on that event and for all the other exciting things we get up to! You can also follow us on Twitter: @penny_show
