Author Archives: modemily

Reflecting on I’m a Scientist participation: Academy Zone pilot

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I found a lot of students were asking questions that weren’t directly related to my work, so initially I kept quiet, but then talking about it with Hannah and the other scientists, and reflecting on the Academy Zone questions made me consider my work in terms of ‘social influence’

Ian, PhD researcher

As part of the ChallengeCPD@Bath project, last year we showed that engaging with school students in I’m a Scientist (IAS) functions as effective, accessible, experiential learning, especially for communication skills.

We wanted to further improve IAS as a training opportunity for researchers. The Academy Zone was created to help participating scientists better understand principles of good public engagement through reflecting on their IAS experience while it was happening. The ultimate goal: help build capacity for effective, high quality, public engagement in the research community. Continue reading →

Posted on July 25, 2019 by modemily in Evaluation, News, Scientist Benefits. Comments Off

Kickstarting an award winning public engagement career

I didn’t really know much about public engagement before taking part… I’m a Scientist really inspired me to get involved with more!
Suzi Gage, researcher and lecturer at Liverpool University

Suzi won the Brain Zone back in June 2011 as a PhD student at the University of Bristol. She wanted to put her prize money towards starting a podcast that explained the science of substance use. Continue reading →

Posted on July 24, 2019 by modemily in News, Scientists. Tagged Case Study, suzigage, Suzy Gage. Comments Off

“Frank, funny, probing… truly energising!” – June 2019 Winners’ blog posts

After every event we ask the winning scientists to write a short post to be sent to all the students who took part in the zone. It’s the perfect way for the scientists to reflect on all the engagement of the previous weeks, thank all the students for voting for them, and talk about how they plan to use their £500 prize money.

If you’re a scientist, whether in the public, private or academic sector, and you’re keen to experience the ‘best crash course in scicomm’, apply now for the next event, 11th–22nd November 2019, at imascientist.org.uk/scientists Continue reading →

Posted on July 3, 2019 by modemily in News. Comments Off

Improving communication skills and finding phrases that work

“Now I feel I’ve got the confidence and the phrases to deliver my ten-second elevator pitch.” — Aileen Baird, PhD student at Centre for Doctoral Training

Aileen remembers taking part in I’m a Scientist when at school. Now a PhD student in Data, Risk and Environmental Analytical Methods, Aileen participated as a scientist in the Climate Zone.

Aileen had had experience communicating her work to visitors at her research institute and at one off events like Big Bang Fair. However, she believes taking part helped her develop short ‘quick-fire’ explanations of her research. Continue reading →

Posted on June 25, 2019 by modemily in News, Scientists. Tagged Case Study. Comments Off

Working with the Kent and Medway Collaborative Outreach Programme

I’m a Scientist works with several National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) partnerships to offer STEM engagement opportunities to students from their target areas.

In 2019, one partnership, the Kent and Medway Collaborative Outreach Programme (KaMCOP), funded places for 42 classes to take part in the I’m a Scientist and I’m an Engineer activities, offering these to their target schools.

Over the following months eight schools have given their students the opportunity to chat online with scientists, engineers and psychologists. I’m a Scientist offered KaMCOP schools a flexible programme of activity, where teachers chose when to participate depending on their schedules and to maximise benefits to their students. Continue reading →

Posted on June 18, 2019 by modemily in News. Tagged Case Study. Comments Off

Long lasting benefits for employees and employers

“Emma’s employer supported her participation in I’m an Engineer. She returned the favour by using her £500 prize money to develop an ongoing outreach event for the company.” — Emma Ryan, Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin, EngD student at the Centre for Doctoral Training in NanoMaterials and Technologies

Before taking part in I’m an Engineer, Emma Ryan felt the engagement events she was involved in weren’t reaching those who would benefit most. “Talking to girls about engineering is a big push for what I do,” she says, “but we were going to speak to women at university who know they’re doing engineering… I think it’s more important to go back to primary school.”

In I’m an Engineer, Emma was able to directly reach this audience. Winning the zone then gave her £500 towards her own engagement activities, which she used to leverage support from her employer. Continue reading →

Posted on June 17, 2019 by modemily in News, Scientists. Tagged Case Study. Comments Off

Two-way engagement: immediate feedback on communication

“You get direct responses as to whether or not the students like, and understand, your answers to their questions.” — Max Jamily, PhD student at SynBioCDT

Before taking part in I’m a Scientist, Max Jamily’s previous outreach experience was mainly blog posts and summer camps. “That definitely sets I’m a Scientist aside, where the main focus was me and my work,” he says. Continue reading →

Posted on June 6, 2019 by modemily in News, Scientists. Tagged Case Study. Comments Off

Improving communication skills through text-only conversations

“I’m a Scientist was a good training lesson in spotting the jargon and technical language in your communication, and recalibrating yourself to remember that type of language isn’t useful.” — Euan Allen, PhD student at The University of Bristol

Euan took part in I’m a Scientist during the second year of his PhD at the Quantum Engineering Centre for Doctoral Training. Answering questions through the text-based format allowed him to ‘recalibrate’ his language to suit his audience.

Euan had done some in-person engagement previously but does not think of it as the best way to develop communication skills. Continue reading →

Posted on June 4, 2019 by modemily in News, Scientists. Tagged Case Study. Comments Off

Moderator Vacancy: June 2019

We’re looking for a moderator to work with us on our June 2019 events.

I’m a Scientist and I’m an Engineer will run from the 10th to the 21st June 2019.

First rule of moderator club… This is a paid, 10 day job.
If you aren’t free from 8:30—4:30pm on all 10 days, please don’t apply. Continue reading →

Posted on May 13, 2019 by modemily in Event News, News, Science Engagement. Comments Off

Which browsers and devices are schools using?

Every so often (see here and here) we look at all our data to see how schools use the site.

Taking into consideration how visitors access the site, what they use to access it, and then see how much has changed over the past couple of years.

Our sites have to be mobile-device friendly, ready for tablets, which show a high usage – as you’d imagine. We’ve tried to make them more accessible for screen readers and phones. We pre-register all teachers and students, unless there are specific events which require teachers to register their students. Continue reading →

Posted on September 11, 2018 by modemily in News, Project News. Comments Off

“I’m a Scientist is great, but wouldn’t it be better if students could see and hear the scientists too?”

This is a question we get asked from time to time. Here we explain why we’re confident that text interaction remains the best format for effective, inclusive, online engagement because it makes students and scientists more comfortable, levels the playing field between adults and children, makes the events accessible to a wider audience. Students are more familiar with text-based chats. There is growing evidence¹ that young people communicate most via text and less and less through phone or video and we’re hearing that anecdotally too. Feedback from teachers has pointed out that students are not only more familiar with a text format but also more comfortable with it. All parties feel more confident about not being visible. As an ex-teacher myself, the thought of making a class visible online to an unknown person via a webcam makes me uncomfortable. I’d also be concerned about scientists inadvertently displaying confidential or inappropriate material … Continue reading →

Posted on August 4, 2017 by modemily in Evaluation, IAS Event, News, Science Engagement. Comments Off

Our new theme!

In the last year I’m a Scientist has developed more than at any other time since we launched in 2010. We’ve hired new people, moved offices, moved servers, launched and relaunched multiple international projects (Vietnam, Spain, and Kenya), started projects like I’m a Medic and I’m a Researcher, developed a new Live Chat system (see Tim Peake using it for the I’m an Astronaut event), we even celebrated our company 15th anniversary… And to meet the needs of all these developments we’ve created a sleek new theme for the site.

The ‘theme’ is like the skin of the website. It doesn’t really change the functionality, just the style and way it looks. This new theme is a huge improvement over the previous one:

Continue reading →

Posted on June 13, 2017 by modemily in News, Project News. Comments Off

Moderator Vacancies: March 2016

Hi again! It’s us again! It’s that time again! We’re looking for a couple of moderators for our March 2016 events! I’m a Scientist and I’m an Engineer are award-winning online events allowing students (from 9 – 18) to interact with real live scientists and engineers. We’re looking for 2 moderators to work on the next event which will run from the 7th to the 18th March 2016. We will also be running I’m an Engineer Ireland and I’m an Astronaut (which is very cool). First rule of moderator club.. This is a paid, 10 day job, if you can’t do the 10 days, please don’t apply. Your key responsibilities will be: checking and approving questions adding appropriate keywords and tags logging and keeping track of questions, comments and dialogue checking the site for errors and inappropriate content and usernames moderating live chats helping to run the site It’s actually a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted on February 2, 2016 by modemily in Event News, News, Science Engagement. Comments Off

Which browsers and devices are schools using?

Every so often we take all our data, and look at how schools use the site; looking at how visitors access the site and how much that has changed in the past couple of years. This post is for data up to 2015. See also data for 2014, 2018 and 2019. We’ve made a lot of changes in recent events, especially when it comes to registering accounts and using the site on mobile devices. We now pre-register all teachers and students, giving them usernames and passwords, so they can start asking questions immediately. We can assume that the student visitors give a fair reflection of the general school IT facilities and system capabilities. The graphs show the student data represented by dashed lines. We saw last year, that visits from mobile and tablet devices were increasing. and no surprise they continue to grow, while desktop usage drops slightly. For student tablet users … Continue reading →

Posted on October 30, 2015 by modemily in Evaluation, School. Comments Off

Moderator Vacancies: November 2015

Hello! It’s us! We’re looking for moderators for our November 2015 events! I’m a Scientist and I’m an Engineer are award-winning online events allowing students (from 9 – 18) to interact with real live scientists and engineers. We’re looking for 2 moderators to work on the next event which will run from the 9th to the 20th November 2015. We will also be running I’m a Scientist and I’m an Engineer in Ireland. Your key responsibilities will be: checking and approving questions adding appropriate keywords and tags logging and keeping track of questions, comments and dialogue checking the site for errors and inappropriate content and usernames moderating live chats helping to run the site It’s actually a lot of fun as the students (and scientists) are quick and funny and full of energy. And hey, promoting science engagement is a good thing, am I right?! What we’d like from you.. You should be … Continue reading →

Posted on October 7, 2015 by modemily in Event News, News, Science Engagement. Comments Off

March 2014 Moderator Job Vacancies

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here is an award-winning online event allowing students (from 9 – 18) to interact with real live scientists. We’re looking for 3 moderators to work on the next event which will run from the 10th March to the 21st March 2014. We will also be running a zone in I’m an Engineer at the same time, which will also need moderating. Your key responsibilities will be: checking and approving questions adding appropriate keywords and tags logging and keeping track of questions, comments and dialogue checking the site for errors and inappropriate content and usernames moderating live chats helping to run the site It’s actually a lot of fun as the students (and scientists) are quick and funny and full of energy. And hey, promoting science engagement is a good thing, am I right?! What we’d like from you.. You should be bright, thoughtful, … Continue reading →

Posted on February 6, 2014 by modemily in Event News, IAS Event, Science Engagement. Comments Off

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.