RSCWinner

Steve was voted the winner of the Drug Discovery Zone in November 2016. Here he writes about using his £500 prize money to create a website that helps students understand the links between school subjects and future career opportunities. If you’d like the chance to win funding for your own public engagement work, apply for the next I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here: imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply My plan for the £500 prize money was to develop a careers website for secondary school students, who are making decisions about what subjects to study. This might be KS3 subjects in year 9, GCSE subjects in year 10, A-level subjects in year 12, or undergraduate degree subjects in year 13. The website is based on real people, real careers and real research, and will be organised by school subject. Students will be able to log on and discover a wealth of potential career and … Continue reading →

Jonny was voted the winner of Antibiotics Zone in June 2016. Here he reports back on how he used his £500 prize money to support his outreach activities with fellow winner Laura from Catalysis Zone. If you’d like the chance to win funding to develop your science outreach work, apply for I’m a Scientist at imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply I won my I’m a Scientist zone at the same time as another scientist from my centre (Laura Finney) and we decided to pool our money. After a number of discussions, we decided to stay close to home with our main activity. So, we ran a stall at “Science in the Park 2017” based at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham. This was a free public event that brought together scientists from many different fields so they could engage with the general public and tell them why our research is so fantastic. As our common research topic covers photochemistry … Continue reading →

Megan was voted the winner of the Energy Zone in November 2016. Here she reports back on how she used her £500 prize for her own science outreach project If you’d like the chance to win funding for your own public engagement work, apply for the next I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here: imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply As a final year chemistry PhD student at the University of Edinburgh I have taken full advantage of the opportunities I’ve had to engage school children and the wider public with research taking place at the University, and science in general. Having lead school science workshops, organised science festival drop-ins, hosted student lab visits and volunteered at public open days I was keen to do something a little different with my prize money. My idea came from doing a walking tour of the city, which opened my eyes to the fascinating history of science here … Continue reading →

Chris was voted the winner of the Biochemistry Zone in March 2016.  Here he reports back on using his £500 prize money to fund science activity equipment  for local schools. If you’d like the chance to win funding to develop your science outreach work, apply for I’m a Scientist at imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply I leveraged the prize funds towards a set of 50 ‘chocolate impact testers’. These testers are based on a rig developed at the University of Sheffield to help engage students using chocolate to investigate the physical property toughness. The testers were part of the ‘Wonder Boxes’ put together by our local science museum, the Museum of Science and Industry. The rest of the sponsorship came from the the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers, the University of Manchester’s School of Materials’ OFFA allocation, and Greater Manchester Higher funds. The funds from I’m a Scientist covered about 5 or 6 of the kits. … Continue reading →

Jesus took part in Spectroscopy Zone in November 2015 and was voted the winner. Below he tells us what he’s been doing with his £500 prize money. If you’re a scientist who’d like the funding to develop your own outreach activities apply for I’m a Scientist at imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply One of the toughest questions I was asked when participating in I’m a Scientist (Spectroscopy Zone) back in November 2015 was what would I do with the prize money if resulted winner of the competition. After giving it a bit of thought and motivated by the questions in the live chats I came up with the idea of making a video where students could see how is a day in one of the spectroscopy labs where I work, from making up samples to using different instruments. I thought that, whilst more advanced students would probably find entertaining/interesting a more in-depth explanation of what … Continue reading →

Jo was voted the winner of the Green Chemistry Zone in March 2015.  We asked her to tell us what she’s been up to over the last year with her £500 and here is what she said… Answering questions from the students in I’m a Scientist was not only great fun – but it also got me to think about what I do in a different light. Despite stiff competition from the other scientists, I was delighted to find out I’d survived until the end and now had the opportunity to do something new with the prize money. So here’s what I did… I’m passionate about sharing my enthusiasm for science with others and especially keen to pass this on to the younger generations. I wanted to start something that would reach as many young people as possible and get them to think about science in a new light. With this in mind, … Continue reading →

Jess was voted the winner of Colour Zone in June 2015. Here she tells us how she immediately got to work using the prize money for her own outreach event: a day bringing girls into her department at Imperial College London… Last year, I got involved with Greenlight for girls’ mission to inspire girls of all ages and backgrounds to pursue STEM subjects after helping out with their events in Brussels. We then started dreaming about their first UK adventure, and with help from the I’m a Scientist prize money, pretty quickly that became a reality. On Saturday 26th September, Imperial’s Department of Physics went ‘swipe-free’ 09:00 – 10:00, and welcomed 200 girls into the Blackett Laboratory for the first g4g London. This was an epic organisational triumph: a cross-campus multi-department effort to encourage and inspire 12 – 16 year old girls to study science, technology, engineering and maths. The day itself came after a week … Continue reading →

Anaïs came second in the Molecules Zone of March 2015 and was awarded the £500 after Peter Maskell found alternative funding for his project. Anaïs got straight to work making the most of this opportunity and here she fills us in on what she was able to do with the money…. I really enjoyed I’m a Scientist and, although I came second, I was fortunate to be kindly awarded the prize money by the winner, Peter. I wanted to use the money to set up an outreach activity for to inspire young children to look around them and think about science. Initially I contacted people in charge of outreach activities at Antikor, where I work, but unfortunately they didn’t have an event planned in the near future.  As people couldn’t come to me I decided to look for a place where I could go to them! One day I received an email from Science … Continue reading →