STFCWinner

Russell was voted the winner of the Rutherfordium Zone in March 2019. Here he writes about how he used his £500 prize money to reach further afield and meet new people to talk to about his research.

Having won the I’m A Scientist prize money back in March, my original intention was to visit a number of local schools and give a fun, interactive presentation about my plankton research to different age groups (having done similar talks at Cheltenham Science Festival, it’s actually better than it sounds!).

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Lisa was voted the winner of the Extreme Temperature Zone in November 2014. 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 I used the money to fund a STEM club for the student society in The School of Engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University. We set up an activity called Electricks in association with STEMNet that delivered basic electronics skills to young people in years seven to nine. We also showed school teachers how to develop the activities to take back and integrate into their teaching. The project reached around 120 people. Since this project, I now run Summer Schools in associated with the Engineering Development Trust.

Emma was voted the winner of the Gravity Zone in March 2016. Here she writes about using her £500 prize money to set up a YouTube Channel, ‘The Extraordinary Universe’. If you’d like 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 I used the prize money to buy equipment to set up my YouTube channel, which contains lots of videos about astrophysics and how the extraordinary universe works,  for example ‘What happens if you fall into a black hole? or ‘What is a pulsar?’. Using this channel I have so far been able to reach 80,000 people. I spent £250 on a video camera, £50 on a microphone, £50 on lighting and £150 towards an iPad for editing and animation. I have also been using Instagram to support my YouTube channel, and that has been very popular (over … Continue reading →

Stuart was the winner of the New Materials Zone in 2013 and spent his £500 prize money running workshops for around 50 students at local schools. “I ran a workshop for local schools in Sheffield where the students made “dye-sensitised” solar cells from fruit juice. Blackberries, cherries and raspberries all have a useful dye in them that can be used to make the solar cells, so we compared and contrasted the three in teams. Prizes were available for the best team and best individual solar cell. Approximately £350 of the money went towards equipment and solar cell components. £100 went towards consumables for the workshops and the rest went on travel costs. It all went very well, the students and the teachers were really happy with it and we will likely add it to our annual programme of outreach at Sheffield. We continue to deliver the workshops and have more planned … Continue reading →

Sarah won the Extreme Clean Zone, funded by STFC, in November 2013. Sarah donated her prize money to Build Africa, who used it to support their Water and Food Access project which has ensured a clean and safe water supply for 28 schools across Uganda. In 2013 a borehole was installed at Kimogoro Primary School, and Sarah’s donation went towards teaching a Water Committee how to maintain it. The committee have been supplied with maintenance kits and training, including simple book keeping, sanitation and hygiene, as well as the relevant skills to undertake any necessary repairs in the future. Abdriku, a member of the committee, said ‘The training was very helpful since we developed the rules and regulation on the use of our school borehole. ‘ Read more about the skills training project at the school here. Stephen, one of the students at Kimogoro, spoke about the effect having the borehole … Continue reading →

Clara won the Nuclear Zone in March 2014. Here she tells us how she used £500 prize money on further public engagement with science. If you’d like the chance to win £500 for more science outreach, apply for I’m a Scientist at imascientist.org.uk/scientist-apply After taking part in the I’m a Scientist event, as I wanted to use it to bring particle physics to schools that aren’t currently able to work with scientists from universities. However, the original plan of doing this through particle physics masterclasses wasn’t able to happen and so, after a fortunate discussion with colleagues at CERN, I was able to stick to the original idea, but support a project designing and building cosmic ray detectors that can be built by schools cheaply! The prize money has been put towards the CosmiPi project which aims to build the world’s largest open source cosmic ray detector. The original team for the project met thanks to the first … Continue reading →

Ollie won the Particle Physics Zone in March 2015. Here he fills us in on how he’s been using 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 I was lucky enough to be selected for the I’m A Scientist, Get Me Out of Here Particle Physics zone, and emerge victorious! It was a really great two weeks, and I had a lot of fun engaging with both the students, and my fellow scientists Yelong, Vicky, Michele, and Jackie who provided stiff competition! So what have I been up to since then..? The LEGO Watt Balance I decided to use the prize money to buy the components for a LEGO Watt Balance. It took a little while (mostly because I had to learn how to order stuff to the University) but all the parts are … Continue reading →

Stefan was voted the winner of Big Data Zone in 2014. Here he reports back on how he got on using the £500 prize money… My plan with the money was to build a weather station powered by a small computer called a Raspberry Pi. I was excited to buy the components I needed – an AirPi printed circuit board, sensors, powers supplies, storage, monitor, keyboards… and of course the Pi! It turned out buying the parts was the simplest stage, however, as I was soon faced with the unexpected task of having to solder all the sensors the circuit board. Depressingly, I managed to melt most of the circuit board in what was my first (and last I can assure you) experience with a soldering iron. Panic. I spent hours trying to connect up the device but no, it was gone. Hands on Science 1 Me 0. Slightly deterred … Continue reading →

Nick won the Extreme Size Zone in March 2014. Here he tells us how he put his £500 to use in the name of  engaging school students with astronomy… I wanted to find a way to put the prize money towards a project that provided school children with exposure to real scientific research in a fun and simple way. My original plan was to produce a series of posters that shared cutting-edge scientific ideas in astronomy with school children through simple but attractive imagery. In the end I did spend a portion of the money on this project, but I also wanted to do something more proactive that would have a longer-term impact on school children across the country. The British Science Association runs an excellent scheme called CREST Awards, whereby 11-19 year old school students complete projects that help build their scientific skills. The work for these is typically … Continue reading →

Hugh Harvey of the Institute of Cancer Research won the Light Zone in March 2015. He quickly got to work and here he tells us see how made the best of his £500 prize money… I wanted to put the prize money towards buying a 3D printer for a local school, and setting up a 3D printing club for the children. This is a great opportunity to spread awareness and experience of 3D printing to school children – something which I hope will encourage them to take up science careers. A call went out to all schools who take part in STEMnet projects in Sussex for them to tell me why they deserved the 3D printer. I also got in contact with the super generous team at Ultimaker who loved the idea and offered to help part-fund the project. In fact, they were so keen to help they even offered a free one month loan … Continue reading →

Grant was the winner of the Astronomy Zone in June 2013. We asked him for an update on how he has been using the prize money and here is what he said… My I’m a Scientist memories are of a crazy few weeks where I typed as fast as I could trying to answer myriad questions. I don’t think my keyboarding skills are any better as a result, but it was great to see so much interest in my field! I began with a vague idea of spending my winnings on a camera, and using it to take timelapse videos of the sky and what happens at some of the world’s great observatories, which I visit now and then. At some point I realised that lots of people already do this, (such as Christopher Malin), and they do a way better job than I ever could. I love photography however, … Continue reading →

Ceri won the Quantum Zone way back in June 2011. We caught up with her to see what she has been able to do using the £500 prize money and here is what she said… My idea for the prize money was “Plasmas in your Pocket”– to design and print a set of beautiful, intriguing and educational coasters that can be used in cafes, bars and other recreational areas to introduce the public to laser-plasmas and their applications. To draw a person in the coasters rely only on the stunning snapshots of glowing plasmas that we’ve captured during high power laser experiments at the Central Laser Facility outside Oxford. Once they’ve admired the aesthetic beauty of the image, a second layer of wonder is offered if a person reads and learns what it is that they’re looking at and the societal benefit of the research. To make this happen I partnered with Chris Hatherill, from … Continue reading →

Sam was the runner up in the Astronomy Zone of June 2014. The zone winner, Roberto, decided to support Sam’s project with the £500, as he had secured funding for his own project from the Science and Technology Facilities Council through his STFC Public Engagement Fellowship. We asked Sam to tell us how he had made use of the prize money over the last year, and here is what he said…… I took part in the Astronomy Zone in June 2014 and it was an incredibly busy zone. With 425 students involved who asked over six hundred questions, and almost eight thousand lines of live chat over 18 different chats, we were all kept extremely busy talking about space for the whole fortnight. A huge number of brilliant questions were asked, about whether aliens existed and where they might be, how black holes and worm holes work, what dark matter is, and many other things. We were very lucky … Continue reading →