Zone Reports

The Health Zone was a themed zone funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Biochemical Society. The scientists involved were working in a range of different health areas including heart attacks, drug delivery, cancer cells, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and respiratory illnesses. The Zone was very busy in ASK, and well over a 1000 questions were submitted during the event. Students asked questions about a wide range of health topics, human biology, the research of the scientists, and about science as a career. The majority of the scientists engaged well with the Zone and in particular the winner, Andy, attended nearly every live chat, contributing nearly half of the total lines. Download the full report

The Hormones Zone was a themed zone part-funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Society for Endocrinology and four of the participating scientists (Saffron, Partha, Craig and Amy) were members of the Society. The zone was very focused on its theme and there was a relatively high number of answers from the scientists (816), resulting in each question receiving two answers on average. Popular topics in the zone were sperm, muscle and diabetes. It was notable that Laura attended all but one live chat, sometimes as the only scientist present, and she dealt very well with some very busy situations. Download the full report

The Pharmacology Zone was a themed zone part funded by the Wellcome Trust and the British Pharmacological Society, and the five scientists participating were members of the Society. It was a sixth form only zone and had the lowest number of registered students of the June Zones, but the highest number of schools (16). The questions in the Zone were focused around pharmacology, chemistry and careers. The live chats in the Zone were calmer than a typical zone and during these Laura, Richard and Vedia in particular engaged very well with the students. Overall, there was a high level of productive conversation in the Zone on the theme of pharmacology and scientific research in general. Download the full report

The Polymers Zone was a themed zone funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Thomas, Ruhina, Rose and Anne were themselves members of the RSC. It was one of the quieter June zones and questions from students were a mix of those on polymers and broader aspects of chemistry. The scientists were relatively equal in the number of questions they answered in ASK, whilst in the live chats Thomas, the zone winner, was the most active. The live chats varied in their pace and focus on the subject, with some being fast-paced and on-topic, whilst others were calmer or focused more on the students finding out about the personalities of the scientists. Download the full report

The Lutetium Zone was a general science zone comprising of five scientists working in a variety of fields from big data about theatre audiences to hydrogen production, to respiratory disease. This zone was one of the largest in June involving 446 active students who had nearly 500 questions answered on a very diverse range of topics, both related and unrelated to the scientists’ work. The scientists did well to match the enthusiasm of the students with the final two, Jonny and Paul, both answering over 250 questions each. The scientists also did well to connect with individual students in the fast-paced live chats, even when facing a high volume of questions. Download the full report

The Thulium Zone was a general science zone for primary school classes. It featured scientists from a wide range of backgrounds, covering astrophysics, influenza viruses, cleaner energy, neuroscience and genetics. The students asked questions about all these subjects, and more, in what was a consistently busy primary zone with well above average levels of questions (nearly 1000) and energetic live chats. Ryan, who won the zone, missed only one live chat and contributed over half of the total amount of lines written by scientists. The other scientists were also dedicated throughout the event, for example Claire took part in live chats whilst at Glastonbury music festival. Download the full report

The Ytterbium Zone was a general science zone funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry. At least five members of the Royal Society of Chemistry take part in different general science zones throughout the year. In these zones the participating scientists come from a variety of backgrounds. For instance, in the Ytterbium Zone there were scientists spanning linguistics, bacterial proteins, parasitology, supercomputing and radioactive waste disposal. This wide range of subjects gave the students a chance to ask questions across many areas of science. The scientists in this zone were notable for excellent attendance in live chats, with the majority of chats involving 3 or more scientists. Download the full report

The Agriculture Zone winner, Jennifer Stephens, stands out as really engaging with the students. She gave nearly half of the answers in the zone, and two thirds of all the live chat from the scientists. The students were particularly interested in genetically modified organisms (GMO), particularly whether it’s safe to eat genetically modified plants.   Download the complete report here.  

The students in the Animal Behaviour Zone asked a lot of factual questions about animals, and the topic of animal testing was also brought up on several occasions. The scientists in this zone were all very engaged (they shared answering questions nearly evenly between all 5 of them) and were particularly good at answering questions as soon as they were approved. Interestingly, the focus of this zone was more in the CHAT section rather than in ASK, whereas previous Animal Behaviour Zones attracted many more ASK questions from students. Download complete report here.

The Barium Zone was a primary school zone. This zone had few registered students, and lower student activity than average. After visiting certain primary schools during the event, we have seen how the dynamics of the event change slightly from what we have observed in secondary schools. This might partially explain the lower activity registered in some of the primary school zones, as some teachers would register students in groups rather than individually, or run the whole activity with just their teacher account. The Barium Zone winner, Ekbal, stands out as really engaging with the students, contributing over half of all the live chat activity from the scientists Download the complete report here.

The Bioinformatics Zone was lively, with over 800 questions asked and busy live chats, even though only 5 schools registered students in the zone. All the scientists were good at answering ASK questions quickly, and Sergey, Claire, and Ian were particularly good at live chats, covering most of them. The students in this zone seemed to understand the scientists’ research better than in previous Big Data themed zones, and asked each scientist about them: they asked Sergey about programming, Ian about how genes work in the brain and Claire about genetic mutations. Download the complete report here.

The Drug Development Zone had a low number of registered students, given that only 3 schools out of the 8 schools given classes in the zone bought their students online. Nevertheless, the percentage of active students was higher than average – 87% of students asked a question, chatted, commented or voted for their favourite scientist. This kept the zone lively with high quality on-topic questions. Download the complete report here.