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“The Gold Standard”; “Diamond Option”; “Go Platinum!” There is a continual pressure to strive for the biggest, best, most committed options in life. Sometimes, however, we should recognise that our organisations and partners might not want, or be ready for, the “Ultimate Mega-Package.” In the Public Engagement sector there is a consensus that the best engagement is: two-way upstream involving researchers and interested public in-depth considered includes knowledge transfer novel and innovative* NCCPE “Perspectives on Partnership” Tool It was a real pleasure at last week’s NCCPE organised SUPI review seminar to witness Sophie Duncan and Paul Manners reveal their Perspectives on Partnership (POP) Tool to help universities and schools assess what type of partnership they have and desire. The tool recognises four types of partnership: Spontaneous Inspired Thoughtful Strategic The participants are then asked to consider a partnership from each of four participants perspectives: Researchers Teachers Students Partnership brokers I … Continue reading →

I had the chance to ask real scientist about questions I was interested in and I got really interesting answers. I had the chance to learn something from the experience of these scientists instead of learning from books. Student, March 2017

This March’s Enquiry Zone is something new for I’m a Scientist. This time, it’s all about you helping school students design and carry out their own research. By talking with students in live chats and answering their questions in ASK, together you’ll come up with a potential citizen science project related to your research that can be done in a school environment. After two weeks of online discussion, the students will vote for one project to receive £500 in funding. You will then help the schools carry out the research in June 2017, recording and sharing your results using the nQuire-it online platform developed by the Open University (www.nquire-it.org). You don’t need to have a research question decided now: Your aim during the course of the zone is to help the students come up with and refine a research question and the appropriate methods. This process is called ‘co-creation’ and it is a … Continue reading →

Applying for I’m a Scientist and I’m an Engineer involves a particular challenge: Describe your work in one sentence, in a way that appeals to the average 13 year old. Simple on the surface, yet potentially problematic. Over the years we’ve seen equal measures of elegant one liners and paragraphs of technical nonsense; and there’s no magic formula for getting it spot on. And it matters. We ask school students who have taken part to help rate the one-sentence summaries, and we use these rating to help guide who gets places in the event. But worry not. Our own advice can be found here. (TL;DR: Use precise, interesting language — but NOT jargon — that demonstrates the wider relevance of your work to society.) And who better to provide more help than those whose sentences won them a place in the event? Here’s what scientist and engineer alumni had to say when we asked: … Continue reading →