2014

The Light Zone was funded by the Institute of Physics. The hot topic of conversation in the Light Zone was indeed light. The students wanted to find out more about light in relation to the universe, technology and energy, also asking more fundamental physics questions about light itself. The zone was more balanced towards Live Chat than ASK questions, and the students were engaged and interested in the physicists’ work.   Download the report here.

The Lanthanum Zone had the most live chats of any zone during this I’m a Scientist event. As might have been expected, in the live chats the students were particularly interested in Lewis’s work with chimps and monkeys and Clare’s work on how daily habits can affect sperm function. Students used the ASK section to learn more about all of the scientists’ research areas. The engagement of students with this zone was further reflected in the high number of votes collected. Download the report here.

The ComputationalBio Zone had the second highest number of registered students of all I’m a Scientist zones in March 2014. This led to a very busy zone! The 475 students asked over 1,000 questions between them, had very busy live chats and were very engaged in voting. The students asked more general science questions and questions about the scientists’ particular research, than specific questions about Computational Biology. Anna was especially good at engaging with students during the live chats, and guiding them towards her topic of research. Download the report here.

The Colour Zone was funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry. This zone had a higher % of engaged students than any other zone; 88% of students who registered asked a question, live chatted, voted, or commented. These highly engaged students voted the most of any zone. While the scientist with the most activity is often the zone winner, the quantity of engagement didn’t seem as important in this zone. The students crowned Roy their winner despite Rowena’s sterling live chat and question answering efforts. Download the report here.

Given the general nature of the Cerium Zone, questions were varied, ranging from lifestyle to evolution, space or superbugs. Aled earned his position as Cerium Zone winner after clearly being the most active scientist of the zone, with 43% of the lines of chat and 33% of answers to students’ questions. In fact, his work trying to find out how we can kill bacteria using a special type of honey was popular in both the ASK and CHAT sections.   You can download the report here.

The Cancer Zone was extremely focused on cancer. Students wanted to know how cancer is caused, how it is treated, and if it can be prevented. They also asked more general health, illness and physiology questions, and they were especially interested in Amar’s work developing new drugs to treat cancer. The scientists were great in the live chats and gave some really detailed answers about a potentially sensitive subject. You can download the report here.

The Caesium Zone was one of the first primary-only zones in I’m a Scientist. The primary students were very engaged with the event and asked almost 1,500 questions, a huge number averaging nearly 4 per student. Given the general nature of the zone, students asked about a variety of topics and focused in on the scientists’ research and what it’s like to be a scientist.   Download the report here.