News

I’m a NeuroScientist LIVE – And the winner was…

Last night saw the final of I’m a NeuroScientist live at the Barbican Centre, with over 200 audience members asking questions and voting as the five neuroscientists battled it out to win £200 for charity and the much-coveted I’m a NeuroScientist winner’s trophy. Both scientists and science-lovers came to see neuron network modeller Sarah Jarvis, March I’m a Scientist Brain Zone winner Jen Todd Jones, depression researcher Mark Horowitz, brain collector Pascal Durrenberger and music-lover Lauren Stewart. At £5 a ticket, audience members – 35% scientists themselves and the rest members of the public with an interest in science – were keen to have their brain questions answered by the experts. Questions included I’m a girl, I can read maps but I can’t multitask – am I broken? and can stress ever be good? At the end of the evening Mark Horowitz walked away with the trophy after some great answers on how stress … Continue reading

Posted on April 10, 2013 by in I'm a Scientist - Live, News | Comments Off on I’m a NeuroScientist LIVE – And the winner was…

Running I’m a Scientist with BTEC students – a teacher’s view

Teacher Emma Wagg, from Trentham High School (@ejw232 on twitter) has taken part in I’m a Scientist since 2011. I asked her if it feels different each time she takes part, and if some groups of students take to it more than others. Here’s what she said about taking part with her BTEC class.. Last year I did it with triple science students but this year with students completing the BTEC Principles of Science course. Their questions were amazing. Their interest was fab. They were genuinely interested in the answers. And were really impressed that the scientists gave up their time for them. It was the first time I’ve really felt like they truly appreciated that. They also recognised that the scientists could discover/create something truly amazing. The look on their faces when this dawned on them was something special. At the end of the live chat, Jack said ‘Miss, that was awesome’. It … Continue reading

Posted on April 8, 2013 by in IAS Event, News, School, Science Education | Comments Off on Running I’m a Scientist with BTEC students – a teacher’s view

I’m a NeuroScientist – Live: Last call for nominations for final

So here’s the plan. Heat winners Sarah Jarvis & Mark Horowitz are confirmed. Sarah models networks of neurons, to identify certain principles and test out scenarios, to establish why the neurons in our brains are connected to each other the way they are. Mark studies the molecular causes of depression using a human hippocampal stem cell model to understand what effect stress hormones, inflammation and antidepressants have on the brain. They will be joined by one of these five who are currently battling it out online for supremacy of the Brain Zone. That leaves two spaces in the I’m a NeuroScientist Live final. We’ve had a few nominations in, but we’re giving one more chance for final suggestions. Please email iaslive@gallomanor.com with your nominations by Friday 15th March 2013. Talking of spaces. There aren’t many left for the audience. Book online now. £5 plus a booking fee.

Posted on March 12, 2013 by in I'm a Scientist - Live, News | Comments Off on I’m a NeuroScientist – Live: Last call for nominations for final

I’m a NeuroScientist – heat winners

“Do we need a brain?” “Can you ever stop thinking?” “Why does depression come on so quickly?” One sign of success with a public Q&A session is that the public mob the panel afterwards with the questions they couldn’t ask during the main event. Thank you to all the scientists who hung around for ages after the events last weekend. Congratulations to Sarah Jarvis and Mark Horowitz our I’m a NeuroScientist – Live Weekender Heat winners. The events at the Barbican last weekend were a real blast. The place was packed. People queueed to take part in science activities about the brain. It was a great feeling on both days to come out of the green room to find a large audience of about 150 people already sat down waiting for our show to start. Saturday had a distinctly youthful feel to it. they were excitable, noisy and ready to … Continue reading

Posted on March 8, 2013 by ModShane in I'm a Scientist - Live, News | Comments Off on I’m a NeuroScientist – heat winners

Valeria shares her I’m a Scientist experience

Last Summer Valeria Senigaglia, a researcher working with dolphins in the Philippines, took part in I’m a Scientist’s Animal Behaviour Zone. Valeria enjoyed the experience so much that she dedicated a blog post to it. I didn’t win but I had so much fun! It was challenging to explain complicated theory in few simple words and some of questions were so advanced I had to look it up myself. However it does remind you why you enjoy this work so much, by putting the research in perspective. […] It was the perfect chance to exchange ideas and information with some peers. Especially since scientists are usually secluded in small windowless rabbit holes, also called offices, and have few chances to share experiences and opinions, even less in an informal setting as it was this event. […] I highly recommend my colleagues to participate as well. Especially because you have fun in doing … Continue reading

Posted on March 6, 2013 by in Project News, Science Engagement, Scientists | Comments Off on Valeria shares her I’m a Scientist experience

I’m a NeuroScientist – LIVE this weekend

Join us at the Barbican in London this weekend for two free live I’m a Scientist events giving you the chance to quiz real neuroscientists on the brain. Neuroscientists will be on stage taking audience questions at 3:45pm on Saturday and again at 3:15pm on Sunday as part of the Barbican Weekender. Each day, five scientists will compete for the votes of the audience to win a place in the final which takes place on the evening of Tuesday 9th April in Cinema One at the Barbican. Meet the NeuroScientists Saturday: Thomas Butts – Kings College London We study the evolution of the brain and its associated nerves – how does the developing embryo make neurons that allow it to sense the world around it? and how did it evolve new neurons, and in really large numbers? Martin Coath (@mcoath) – University of Plymouth I write computer programs and help to design … Continue reading

Posted on February 28, 2013 by in I'm a Scientist - Live, News | Comments Off on I’m a NeuroScientist – LIVE this weekend

Postcards, Postcards, get your I’m a Scientist Postcards

Postcards are great. They’re just the right size to hand out to people, leave in staffrooms, or take to conferences and meetings. They also look pretty, and get across the ‘feel’ of what I’m a Scientist is about. We’ve printed sets of brand spanking new postcards for teachers and scientists. There are 4 designs each for teachers and scientists, with 4 of our favourite questions students have asked over the years. And we need your help to distribute them all over the UK. Please email rosie@gallomanor.com or leave a comment on this post, if you’d like a bunch to hand out. Let us know: whether you’d like postcards for scientists or teachers (or both!) the address we should send them to We’ll post 100 unless you’d like more.

Posted on February 20, 2013 by in News | Comments Off on Postcards, Postcards, get your I’m a Scientist Postcards

March 2013 Moderator Job Vacancies

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here is an award-winning online event allowing teenagers to interact with real live scientists. We’re looking for 4 moderators to work on the next event which will run from the 11th to the 22nd of March 2013. 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 will be: hosting/moderating live chats approving questions checking the site for errors and inappropriate content 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. What we’d like from you.. You should be bright, pick stuff up easily, ideally with an interest in science engagement. You’ll have great attention to detail and will enjoy being online, perhaps have … Continue reading

Posted on February 11, 2013 by in Event News, IAS Event, Science Engagement | Comments Off on March 2013 Moderator Job Vacancies

IAS Outreach by STEMNet Area

We’ve selected the scientists and schools (all will be revealed next week) and we’ve looked at where they are across the country. We want to work closely with STEMNet contract holders to promote our events to teachers, scientists and engineers, so we’ve calculated how many schools, classes and scientists are in each STEMNet contract area. From that we’ve calculated the estimated number of interactions (or Live Chats as we call them) we expect per area. On average each class has one live chat and each scientist attends seven. The best news was that there are only 3 areas where there is no activity. We are doing science engagement and enrichment across the country. But where do we have most activity? Most classes signed up: Bristol, Bath and Somerset – 25 Lancashire – 19 Surrey, Central and East Berkshire & West Yorkshire – 18 Special Kudos to Liz Lister in Bristol, … Continue reading

Posted on February 7, 2013 by in Evaluation, Event News | Comments Off on IAS Outreach by STEMNet Area

International schools still wanted

Over the years we’ve had great support from schools across the world taking part in I’m a Scientist. There is one teacher who has been involved from almost the beginning, taking classes from 3 different school across different time zones, onto the site. I can imagine the event helps english-speaking students at schools across the world keep in touch with the UK through science. Having science questions from students in Budapest or Singapore makes our events more engaging too. Some of the keenest students have been based abroad. But Our funding from the Wellcome Trust is for only 50% of our costs and is only for schools in the UK. That means we need to give priority to UK schools and this March we are full. There is a way for overseas schools to take part. If we charge to cover some of the cost for you to take part … Continue reading

Posted on February 1, 2013 by ModShane in Project News | Comments Off on International schools still wanted

Guten Tag, Bonjour, Hola Europe

I’m a Scientist is too good to keep to ourselves. We want to run it across Europe. We can’t do that on our own so we’re looking for others who want to join us in making it happen. Saskia Heijltjes is working with us to explore options, but we’d really like to help from any organisations across Europe who’d like to make the event happen in their country. There is more information about how we run IAS overseas here.

Posted on January 28, 2013 by in International, Project News | Comments Off on Guten Tag, Bonjour, Hola Europe

We’re oversubscribed with teachers wanting to take part in March

We run I’m a Scientist 3 times each year – March, June & November. The March events are always busy and popular with teachers. It coincides with National Science & Engineering Week and the timing fits in well with schemes of work. Thanks to more funding we’ve added 2 more themed zones – a Digital Zone and a Food Science Zone (more on these later this week in another post). Despite these zones creating 50 extra class places we weren’t prepared for just how oversubscribed we would be this time round. 11 zones with 25 classes in each zone gives 275 class spaces up for grabs. 142 teachers asked for 374 classes between them. Making the event oversubscribed by 36%. So, how have we allocated classes? Give as many teachers as possible places, ie give fewer classes to more teachers Cap the number of classes per teacher at 5 Try … Continue reading

Posted on January 23, 2013 by in Event News, IAS Event, News, Science Engagement | Comments Off on We’re oversubscribed with teachers wanting to take part in March

I’m a NeuroScientist, Get me out of here – LIVE

Are male and female brains different? Is the brain more like a sponge or a computer? Do we really only use 10% of our brain? We’re taking I’m a Scientist on the road again. In March and April as part of Wonder: Art and Science on the Brain, a partnership between the Barbican and Wellcome Trust supported BNA2013: Festival of Neuroscience we are running 3 live I’m a Scientist live events. Instead of answering questions from the safety of your lab we’re asking Neuroscientists to get on stage to take questions directly from an audience. On Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd March, comedian and geek songstress, Helen Arney will be compering the events as part of the Barbican Weekender.  Five scientists will compete for the votes of the audience to win a place in the final which takes place on the evening of Tuesday 9th April in Cinema One at … Continue reading

Posted on January 9, 2013 by admin in I'm a Scientist - Live, IAS Event, News, Project News, Scientists | Comments Off on I’m a NeuroScientist, Get me out of here – LIVE

Space Zone winner Paul Higgins on Science Calling!

Paul Higgins from Trinity College Dublin, won the Space Zone in I’m a Scientist, Ireland this November. He was interviewed by Maria Delaney for sciencecalling.com, scroll down to have a listen.. We put this up, not just because it’s awesome, but because Paul explains perfectly the purpose and point of I’m a Scientist; the importance of outreach, that it’s not just beneficial for students, but for scientists too.. And obviously, how much fun it all is. Congratulations Paul! “I’ve always has this fear of having to talk to primary school students as I think they’re going to tear me apart or ask hard questions I don’t know and they won’t like my answers or something, so I think this is a really good way to get scientists to realise that it’s actually not that scary and they actually are interested in science. If you’re excited they’ll be excited. So it’s … Continue reading

Posted on December 13, 2012 by in International, Project News, Science Engagement | Comments Off on Space Zone winner Paul Higgins on Science Calling!

What themed zones do teachers want?

For I’m a Scientist to work we need to run zones that teachers and students want. So when we’re deciding on zones to run in the next event we ask teachers to tell us what they want. Teachers voted on a longlist of zones we drew up – they could select as many as they’d be interested in taking part in. We also asked them for suggestions for other zones. Over 100 teachers told us what zones they’d like to see. The results are below.

Posted on December 12, 2012 by in Evaluation, IAS Event, News, Science Education | Comments Off on What themed zones do teachers want?

Using I’m a Scientist to enrich our curriculum – A teacher’s view

After taking part in I’m a Scientist in June 2012, Ellie Russell, a science teacher from Trinity CE High School in Hulme, told us about other ways she uses I’m a Scientist resources. Here’s what she said… I can’t remember who first told me about I’m a Scientist last year, but straight away I knew it was a concept that would appeal to our students. Since then we have signed up for several zones with different classes and the students have truly enjoyed engaging with real scientists and finding out a bit more about what they do. To be honest, even though I’ve been really keen, it’s taken me a few more months to realise just how useful some of the other resources are for us too. We teachers are never very keen to read through all that useful support information! The Debate Kits for Drugs in Sport and IVF … Continue reading

Posted on November 28, 2012 by in IAS Event, News, School, Science Education | Comments Off on Using I’m a Scientist to enrich our curriculum – A teacher’s view

GM Food Debate – Vacuums Get Filled

I was reading a thread on GM technology on the Debate Zone in SagaZone and saw these three comments: That’s because I’m not a scientist. I’ve asked in this thread for articles that don’t support my opinion but as yet no one has furnished them. I’m guessing it’s harder to find them than the ones that support me. My guess is that we are not sufficiently interest to bother That’s fine, I’m not asking anyone to contribute to the thread. Although there are those sufficiently interested to join in I see It was apparent during our GM Food Zone event and the evaluation afterwards that that people who opposed GM technology were far more likely to comment than those who were in favour of it. The comments above however demonstrate the danger of that. A vacuum will be filled. If people who support research into controversial technologies do not speak … Continue reading

Posted on October 1, 2012 by ModShane in News | Comments Off on GM Food Debate – Vacuums Get Filled

Thanks for Applying

We now have our new mods for this year’s first I’m a Scientist event, and the first ever I’m an Engineer! While we welcome our six new team members, here is some short feedback for those who applied but didn’t get to interview. There were loads of excellent applicants this year and we were especially impressed by all the amazing science communication work you had all been doing. From writing to volunteering at festivals, it’s great to see people who are passionate about communicating science, especially to young people. In this job, being able to handle groups of excited teens is definitely a plus. We interviewed people who stood out because of their proven passion for the subject, but also based on their cover letters. This is the best way to try and get to a feel for what a candidate is like. So we like letters that get your … Continue reading

Posted on March 8, 2012 by in IAS Event, News | Comments Off on Thanks for Applying

Job Vacancies

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here is an award-winning online event allowing teenagers to interact with real live scientists. We’re looking for 5 moderators to work on the next event which will run from the 12th to the 23rd of March. I’m an Engineer is launched at the same time and also needs moderating! Your job would be hosting/moderating live chats, approving questions, checking the site for errors and inappropriate content and helping to run the site. It’s actually a lot of fun as the young people are sparky and funny and full of energy. And hey, promoting science engagement is a good thing. You should be bright, pick stuff up easily, ideally with an interest in science engagement. You’ll have great attention to detail and will enjoy being online. The site is all built on WordPress, so if you’ve used that the techy stuff will be pretty … Continue reading

Posted on February 27, 2012 by in IAS Event, News, Science Engagement | Comments Off on Job Vacancies

We've cut our teacher survey from 41 to 18 questions

This morning I cut down the survey we ask teachers to fill out after taking part in I’m a Scientist. The old survey was a hefty 41 questions long, and the new one has just 18 questions. By looking at teachers’ previous responses to the 41 questions we were able to identify the questions which worked, and the questions which didn’t. Using this information we’ve made the survey simpler. It’s also more quantitative. Funding from the Wellcome Trust for the next 3 years allows us to improve the way we evaluate I’m a Scientist, and move to evaluating outcomes through more quantitative measurements. My next task is to do the same for the scientist and student surveys, and cut them down from 28 and 25 questions.

Posted on November 23, 2011 by in Evaluation, IAS Event, News | Comments Off on We've cut our teacher survey from 41 to 18 questions