Category Archives: Zone Reports

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The Mendelevium Zone was a general science zone supported by Wellcome. It was a secondary school zone featuring six scientists:

• Morwenna Bugg reads and summarises scientific research for commissioners to decide how to work out what healthcare services we need
• Jamal Kinsella is a PhD student researching how people think while they are driving cars, so they can be taught to be safer
• Iain Staniland, the winner of this zone, works as an Antarctic wildlife ecologist researching seals, penguins and whales
• Heidi Gardner is a research assistant working out how to improve the way we conduct clinical trials
• Emma McEntee is a biostatistician working in drug development
• Carl Heron is an archaeological scientist and Director of Scientific Research at the British Museum

Over half of all the questions sent to the scientists in ASK were about science topics, with students wanting to know everything about the scientists’ areas of research and more general science questions. One student stood out by researching Carl’s journal articles and sending a 4-part question to him, including a comment on their favourite article, ‘Organic Mass Spectrometry in Art and Archaeology’.

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The Fermium Zone was a general science zone for primary schools, supported by Wellcome. It featured six scientists:

• Sophie Morse is a PhD student researching how to deliver medicine to the brain using microbubbles
• Simon Cork studies how our brains cause us to feel hungry or full
• Obi Umegbolu is a data analyst skills development coach, helping learners progress in the industry and supporting data analysis projects
• Kelly Rushton, the zone winner, researches mental health and how doctors, nurses and even animals can help patients with mental health issues
• John Midgley works as a technical manager at the British Geological Survey aiming to understand how changing the underground changes the world around us
• Jessica Leung is a quality technician at Kerry Ingredients and tests the flavours that go in our food and drink

This zone had fewer schools than other November zones, but students still engaged well in live chats. The final live chat, open to all schools, was particularly busy, with students telling the scientists they had joined the chat from home to find out who won.

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The Sustainability Zone was a themed zone for primary schools, supported by Wellcome. There were six scientists participating:

• Matt Bower works at the Scottish Government to maintain safe drinking water
• Maia Elliott writes at Global Food Security about how our food system could be made healthier and more sustainable
• Lyndsay Christie is a PhD student researching the diseases that infect fish and how we can control these to improve the health of fish
• Liam Taylor, the zone winner, studies how climate change affects the icy regions of our world
• Dionne Turnbull studies plant diseases and how plants can defend themselves from these infections
• Brendan Marrinan is a geo-environmental consultant where he assesses the contamination of land before someone can start building on it

Students in this zone showed great awareness of the current issues surrounding sustainability and the environment, and there were lots of discussions in ASK and CHAT about climate change, pollution and health. There were also a large number of questions about the scientists’ lives outside of work, their hobbies and families.

Fetlar Primary School on the Shetland Islands took part in this zone with a class of four students, who were all very engaged throughout the activity. Two of these joined both the evening chat and the 3hr open live chat from home.

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The Epidemic Zone was a themed zone supported by Wellcome with six scientists participating:

• Verity Hill is a PhD student, using genetics to better understand the spread and evolution of the Ebola virus
• Trystan Leng uses maths to study the spread of sexually transmitted infections through populations and how to control that spread as part of his PhD research
• Raquel Medialdea Carrera is a field epidemiologist at the European Centre for Disease Control and identifies epidemics and how to control them
• Danny Ward, the winner of this zone, is a PhD student trying to understand how bacteria are able to infect living things and how we can stop them doing so
• Catherine Smith is an infectious disease data scientist working at UCL using coding to assess disease epidemiology
• Andy Guise conducts research and lectures on inequality, health and homelessness at King’s College London

Students were very interested in the zone theme, asking about each of the scientists’ areas of research in addition to general questions about epidemics and diseases. A third of the questions put to the scientists in ASK concerned careers and education, but students were also interested to know about the scientists’ spare time and hobbies.

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The Food Zone was supported by Wellcome and involved six scientists.

• Stephen models the environmental impact of livestock farming, and looks at the effect of food sharing on the sustainability of food systems in cities
• Simran is a PhD student using design and technology to tackle the problem of food production and consumption in future cities
• Paul is researching how to get the most from permanent grassland, including food production, supporting wildlife and reducing the risk of flooding
• Mark is looking at Salmonella Typhimurium: how it responds to different conditions, its physical characteristics and the genes within the bacteria
• Jenny is looking at the effects different types of fishing can have on the environment, helping make fish products more ‘eco-friendly’
• Ali, the winner of the Food Zone, is a sports nutritionist who works with athletes to find out how foods can make you better at sports

In this zone there were great conversations between students and scientists about all things to do with food. The winner of the zone, Ali, attended nearly every live chat and made up over half of all chat lines from scientists.

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The Heart Zone was a primary school zone supported by Wellcome.

• Samuel, the winner of the zone, works on new technologies for assessing the state of the heart and its arteries
• Pankaj is a doctor and scientist, who also lectures in cardiovascular medicine
• Lucy looks at the heart and blood vessels of unborn babies to see how they are affected by changes in their environment
• Kate is studying for her PhD and is focusing on the shape of the heart in patients with aortic stenosis
• Jordan processes blood samples, separating them into groups and filtering them before they are ready for testing
• Emma programs pacemakers, monitors patients during operations and performs ultrasound scans on the heart in her work at a hospital

Students in this zone were very excited to talk with scientists which came across in the lively and fun chats. Students wanted to know about all things to do with the heart, as well as getting to know the scientists on a personal level.

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The Healthy Cities Zone was supported by Wellcome and encouraged students to think about how we could build healthier places for us to live.

• Urslaan is a data scientist who makes sure databases for roads, railways and other transport are correct
• Nicola is an environmental geologist, looking at maps and ground investigation information to test the soil for chemicals
• Helen specialises in designing infrastructures for cyclists and pedestrians
• Daniel, the winner of the Healthy Cities Zone, is an environmental scientist who measures air pollution within the demolition and construction industries
• Becky teaches courses in ecology and conservation and researches how people’s actions affect wildlife
• Andrew is an environmental scientist looking at how we pollute our environment, the impact of this influence and possible solutions

This was the busiest zone in June’s event, with the highest number of students logging in and questions in Ask. We also ran an evening chat in every zone for students to show their families the zone, and 20 students from the Healthy Cities Zone logged in from home to chat again with the scientists.

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The Berkelium Zone was a general science zone supported by Wellcome.

• Yewande is researching the use of nitric oxide as an anaesthetic and the affect the gas has on brain cells
• Tim is studying earthquakes and how they behave, the dangers they pose and the opportunities they offer
• Melanie is a technician in the Biomedical Science department at the University of Sheffield
• Hayley is a PhD student using mathematics to model WiFi signals
• Carl is a manager at a chemical plant responsible for the quality and productivity the plant delivers
• Alex, the winner in this zone, is studying the impact of non-native plants on small rivers and streams

Students in this zone really engaged with the scientists’ work, as well as generally about areas such as space and animals, with nearly half of all questions asked being about science topics.

We also ran an evening chat in every zone for students to access from home and show their families, increasing parental engagement with the activities students are doing in school. The Berkelium Zone evening chat was the busiest out of all the zones, with 27 students logging in from home to chat again with the scientists.

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The Californium Zone was a general science zone supported by Wellcome, with six scientists from a range of fields.

• Thomas investigates the earth beneath our feet to make sure buildings and tunnels don’t collapse, and homes don’t flood
• Hayley works in cellular pathology, turning biopsies into slides to help diagnose a patient
• Ella, the winner of this zone, is a first-year PhD student researching how neurons talk to each other
• David designs and builds new CT scanners for research in dentistry
• Alison is a PhD student researching how to utilise microalgae for biotechnology applications
• Alex is a neurosurgeon in training, performing brain and spine surgeries

Students engaged well with the scientists’ research, with one of the most popular topics both in Ask and Chat being Ella and Alex’s work with the brain. This zone was the quietest of all June’s zones as two schools with a number of classes unfortunately had to drop out at the start of the event, and we weren’t able to replace them.

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The Climate Zone was supported by Wellcome and specifically for students in Year 6 and Year 7. In this zone, we worked with a PhD researcher who will be analysing the language of the questions asked to find out what students think about the climate. Because of this, we asked teachers not to brief their class on the climate before taking part. We edited the questions on the profiles of the scientists to try and prompt students to think about the climate, and within chats moderators encouraged students to stay on topic.

Six scientists took part in the zone: Stephen is a Climate and Environmental Specialist for the United Nations, Stephanie, the winner of the zone, is looking for ways to improve wind turbines to make renewable energy cheaper and Rehemat is studying 50 million year old plankton fossils to see how they lived through climate change. Christopher writes computer code that generates weather forecasts, Caroline is a social scientist studying the public’s attitudes to climate change and Aileen is a PhD student looking at how fungi react to extra greenhouse gases to predict how forests will grow in the future.

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The Enquiry Zone was supported by Wellcome and was for Year 6 students to work with scientists to develop a citizen science project. The scientists involved each suggested a research idea which they refined with the students in the live chats and ASK section, and students then voted for the project they most wanted to carry out at their school.

Sakshi wanted to work with students to find out how boys and girls are different from each other, Martin’s experiment idea was to measure the breath of students and see if that could tell us how students feel during the day and Luke wanted to find out what students think about regenerative medicine and stem cells. Jennifer, the winner of this zone, proposed a project that would look at how much primary school students knew about their own bodies and Dan wanted to find out whether students were able to pace themselves during physical activity.

This was the second Enquiry Zone we have run, and this time we changed the scientists’ profile questions so they could focus on the aims and method of their experiment ideas. As with the Enquiry Zone we ran last March, the best chats were those where students had been briefed by their teacher beforehand and had had a chance to discuss the scientists’ experiment ideas before meeting them.

As the event went on, all of the scientists improved how they spoke to students within the live chats and learnt to prompt the students with questions about their projects to engage them in conversation.