Winner Reports

Sean won the Gallium Zone in March 2012. Where has he been spending his £500? We have been making some progress with our plans to create an interactive iBook to educate school children about regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. With the emerging importance of the field we believe that an early introduction to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine will stimulate the interest of school children and motivate them to pursue a career in science and technology. With this goal in mind we are preparing an interactive iBook, providing an introduction to the field and providing an overview of the different approaches and technological advances being made in the field. With a target audience of mid to upper high school children we are aiming to create an interactive online book that can be downloaded for free, which will contain high resolution images, movies and interactive models that will stimulate the interest … Continue reading →

Suze won the Energy Zone in June 2011, here’s what she did with her money: With my winnings, I funded myself to go to the BIG Event in 2012. It was in York, and I met lots of like minded people, from professional science communicators to science educators. I had decided by this time to do the INSPIRE course at Imperial which is a science communication heavy PGCE for post-docs, so my trip to BIG combined with lots of encouraging words from some of the teacher-trained people at Life in Newcastle at the British Science Festival 2012 encouraged me to accept the place I was very luckily offered. Since going to BIG, I have continued to collaborate with many of the people I met there and have gone from strength to strength in terms of sharing my science! I remember a couple of days before the reception at Wellcome in … Continue reading →

Hywel won the Boron Zone in June 2010, here’s how he spent his winnings: Taking part in I’m a Scientist was a massive learning curve for me, and made me really appreciate not just the value of communication, but also just how cool some of the work other scientists out there are doing is. It made me take another look at what I was doing, and pushed me to go and get involved in more education projects, which the fund helped me develop. One of these projects is called the Formula 1 in Schools challenge. This is where schools get to enter teams of students who design and build racers that are fired down a track at quite scary speeds! All of this is done with strict guidelines on the shape and materials of the vehicles, and all has to be accompanied with presentations, strict analysis, branding and a whole … Continue reading →

Paul won the Space Zone in November 2012, find out how he spent his winnings: I participated in the Space Zone of the 2012 Irish I’m A Scientist contest while finishing off my PhD. I was both surprised and elated to win it! (proof: sciencecalling.com/2012/11/23/primary-school-students-pick-top-scientists) I then defended my thesis, got married, and moved to California…whew. Finally, this summer I was granted a bit of free time to kick off my ‘dream’ project: SolarSurfer.org. My proposal is to build an interactive, story-driven, educational website to help bring astronomy and space concepts into the Irish class room. I managed to put together a consortium of solar scientists, teacher and outreach consultants, and web/game/graphic design developers. Using the Irish school curriculum, with the help of Irish school teachers, we are designing lessons that can be used in the class room to teach concepts such as magnetism, gravity, and the planets. The lessons … Continue reading →

Pete won I’m a Scientist In the Zone in 2012, he tells us how he spent his £500: When I won I’m a Scientist: In the Zone last year, I had grandiose designs on using my winnings to set up a new website to host lots of new psychology-based videos. Unfortunately, real life got in the way – I moved house, moved job, and got married all in a very short space of time! But I do have some good news though: along with three other fantastic psychologists, I’ve set up a new Psychology-themed blog at the Guardian called Head Quarters. As part of this blog, I am going to be using my I’m a Scientist winnings to start up a new podcast there which takes a look at interesting stories about psychology that hit the news, and explain the science behind the headlines. So far I’ve bought some professional … Continue reading →

Callum won the Cells Zone in November 2012, here’s where his £500 went: Having finished my research and moved onto new challenges in engaging partners in Scotland’s National Health Information Service I was unable to use my I’m a Scientist prize money myself and so I decided to donate it to Edinburgh Neuroscience. Edinburgh Neuroscience are a collective group of researchers involved in all aspects of neuroscience from the city’s 4 universities. They have a vibrant programme of public engagement activities and I was involved in several of these during my undergraduate and PhD studies. The Brain Awareness workshop we run called “How we see the brain and what the brain sees” introduces children to the basic structure of the brain and ways of imaging the brain in the clinic and in basic research. We then explore how the brain can sometimes be fooled by the visual illusions. The workshop is … Continue reading →

Jo won the Genes Zone in November 2012, here she tells us how she spent her winnings: Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to spend the £500 prize money! I spent £200 printing silk posters of the hi-lights from the “I’m a scientist” round in November, and I posted them out to all of the schools that took part in the Genes zone. I thought the posters would serve as a reminder of how much fun the competition was to the participants and would remind them to take part next year! I then donated the remaining £300 to Jeans for Genes, specifically for the use in Genes are us. This charity develops educational resources for schools to help educate students about genes and genetic disorders. It’s a fantastic charity, and since winning I have been in touch with Lizzy Bishop, the marketing manager of Jeans for Genes, and … Continue reading →

Chandrika won the Vanadium Zone in June 2011, here’s how she spent her winnings: Since competing in I’m a Scientist, I’ve been inspired to continue involving myself in outreach activities. I used some of the prize to fund travel expenses to science festivals, fairs and events, where I volunteered at outreach stands and engaged with audiences of all ages: £50 – Transport to Big Bang Science and Engineering Fair 2012 at the NEC Birmingham. I volunteered for one day at a microbiology interactive outreach stand of the Society for General Microbiology, primarily interacting with school children and families. £10- Transport to Big Bang Science and Engineering Fair 2013 at the London ExCeL exhibition centre. I volunteered two days at a microbiology interactive outreach stand of the Society for General Microbiology, primarily interacting with families. £5 – Transport to Science Uncovered 2012, a Europe wide science outreach event including a night … Continue reading →

Lizzie won the Materials Zone in June 2012, here’s how she spent her money: In the year since I won the Materials Zone of I’m A Scientist, things have been really busy for me and it’s often been tough for me to find time to think about science communication! However, I have managed to do a few things with my prize money: University of Manchester, Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WiSET) The promotion of science and engineering to girls is something I’m pretty passionate about, and having been involved with WiSET during my time at Manchester Uni I thought it was only fitting for them to receive some of my winnings. I donated £100 to them, in order for the society to be able to afford a coach to take a group of 50 female students from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences to tour a local industrial … Continue reading →

Vicky won the Selenium Zone in March 2012, here’s how she made use of the £500: Taking part in I’m a Scientist was amazing fun, I had such a great time and I would like to thank everyone who voted for me. I used the money to help fund one of my science communication activities; the Egg and Sperm Race, which I launched in 2011. The Egg and Sperm Race is an activity that demonstrates how difficult it is for a sperm to reach an egg and how infections such as Chlamydia can impair your fertility. We do this by racing sperm through a giant 2-meter female reproduction tract, which has lots of obstacles along the way. The winner is the first sperm to reach the egg. We take this activity to music festivals around the UK and in 2012 we took it to Green Man Music Festival in Wales. … Continue reading →

Katherine won the Germanium Zone in March 2012, here’s how she spent the £500: When I won I’m a Scientist in March 2012, my goal was to create a set of chemistry experiments that were portable so that I could escape my office once in a while and do chemistry with enthusiastic students. I’ve used the £500 from I’m a Scientist to set up three different experiments. The first looks at superabsorbent polymers, and compares three different types to work out which makes the best fake snow. These polymers are also used in nappies and to help plant pots retain water during dry spells. This is a good activity for wintertime and was take out to a Chemistry at Work day at the Potteries Museum, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent in December 2012. Superabsorbent polymers are good fun, but not really very summery – who wants to talk about snow in the middle of June? The second activity is making slime by cross-linking … Continue reading →

Paige won the Health Zone in I’m an Engineer in March 2012, she tells us how she spent her winnings: Following my I’m an Engineer win in the Health Zone, I started a science photography initiative. I spent $800 dollars on a used Canon T3i SLR camera, and started a website for my science photography at paigesphotos.photoshelter.com. Since my original camera purchase, I used my I’m an Engineer winnings as well as personal funds to buy extra camera lenses, including a Canon 100mm Macro lens that can magnify objects up to two times their actual size. My goal was to provide inspiring and thought-provoking photography of the world at the small scale that we don’t always see up close, the scale of plants and insects. This is also known as macro photography. By using a special macro lens and other specialized equipment, I can magnify the size of tiny insects … Continue reading →

Samantha won the Pathology Zone in June 2012, here’s how she spent her £500: I’ve spent the money buying science books, equipment and dressing up outfits for my children’s nursery. I got each ‘room’ a butterfly garden so they could watch and learn about caterpillars turning into butterflies – they used this in conjunction with the book ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’. They now have dressing up and role play equipment to be doctors, nurses and vets and I helped them set up their role-play corner in the pre-school room to become a vet and doctor’s surgery. The rest of the money was spent buying science books – mostly from Usborne books – so they now have a science library – some of the books were ‘Things to make and do’ types which are used as ideas for group work activities – such as making elastic band powered vehicles and crystal gardens. … Continue reading →

Sarah won the Strontium Zone in June 2012, she tells us how she spent her winnings: I co-organised the residential, 1-week Astrobiology Summer Academy 2013, which brought together 10 students (15-18 years old) from schools in Shetland, 4 from Edinburgh, 1 from Leicester and two PhD students from NASA (USA) to experience university research in biology, astronomy and geology. I was responsible for the biology activity day. It kicked off with an introduction round where students picked objects from a table and discussed whether they were alive or dead, organic or inorganic (e.g. limestone, toothbrush, a flower, a lemon, ball of yarn etc), which was actually quite difficult! We then had a lecture by Lynn Rothshild, head of Synthetic Biology at NASA, before hitting the lab and the biology assault course that I devise to simulate interdisciplinary research. In 5 expert teams, the students analysed 12 mystery samples from Planet Earth and … Continue reading →

David won the Potassium Zone in March 2011, here he tells us how he spent his £500: When I won my zone of I’m A Scientist in March 2011, I had the intention of taking video cameras on volcano fieldwork, and to make either video- or podcasts of my work in the field. In early 2011, one of my field sites (Santorini volcano in Greece) was showing some early signs of unrest, so I invested in a simple video camera and three static ‘timelapse’ cameras. We managed to capture some footage of us putting out volcano monitoring equipment, but in the end the unrest died away in early 2012, without any eruption. I have some great timelapse footage of the passing seasons, but nothing that we have yet turned into a polished video. The other thing that the win did for me was to inspire my efforts in ‘online’  engagement … Continue reading →

Nicola won the Rubidium Zone in June 2012, here’s how she spent her winnings: Following my I’m A Scientist win last year, £250 was donated to Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) projects; more specifically it was spent on the STEMgirls project, a Q&A answer service connecting 11-18yr olds interested in STEM careers with the women working in those jobs. The money went towards providing the funds for an administrator to moderate and promote the site, enabling hundreds of career hunting teens to get the advice they needed about ‘real life’ day-to-day work in science. Getting advice from women working in my chosen scientific discipline was invaluable to me when I was trying to work out what I wanted to do for a career, so this project is quite close to my heart. The other £250 prize money was given to fellow I’m A Scientist participant Tiffany, who had written … Continue reading →