The students in the Water Zone were really engaged, with 88% of them participating in a live chat, asking a question, commenting or voting for their favourite scientist. There was a good balance between the conversations in CHAT focused around water and hydrogen fuel cars, and questions in ASK about the scientists’ work and research. Download complete report here.
The Xenon Zone was one of the first primary-only zones in I’m a Scientist. The number of students registered in the zone (471) was much higher than average, but the percentage of students who actively took part by asking a question, live chatting, voting or commenting was lower than average. The CHAT section of the zone was busier than the ASK section. Live chats were often full of positive comments and more factual than conceptual questions, which may be due to it being a primary-only zone. Students asked a range of questions about each scientist’s research topic, although Claire’s work as a vet and Zach’s investigations to kill blood cancer cells attracted the most attention. Download the report here.
Schools given places in the Plants Zone didn’t register a lot of students. However, the students that did register were very good at asking on-topic questions about plants and plant physiology in general. Students asked for advice on how to take care of plants, and they were also interested on their different applications, especially health related ones. Of course, there was also space for some quirky questions, in which students asked about how conditions in other planets might affect plants, or whether we could grow plants in space. Download the report here.
The Organs Zone was the busiest zone of I’m a Scientist March 2014. Over 500 students registered in the zone, asked over 1,500 questions between them, and cast the most votes of any zone during this event. In both ASK and CHAT sections there were lots of questions about different organs and parts of the body (skin, brain, heart, lung, blood…), and health related issues. Students were interested in learning about how our body works. Download the report here.
The Nuclear Zone was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. This zone had a high percentage of active students – 84% of students who registered asked a question, live chatted, voted, or commented. Students asked a lot of questions on the topic. They were very interested in scientists’ daily routines in work places such as CERN, and asked lots of questions about subatomic particles, such as the Higgs Boson. Download the report here.
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 Extreme Size Zone was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. The students in the Extreme Size Zone were very engaged in both the ASK and CHAT sections, despite the zone having fewer registered students than the average zone. 439 questions were approved, and the scientists left over 1,000 answers to these questions, which is almost double the average of 533 answers per zone. You can download the zone 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.
The Ecology zone had one of the highest percentage of active students of I’m a Scientist November 2013. Question intake slowed towards the end of the competition, but chats were always lively and busy. Students were interested in the different areas of ecology, ranging from climate change to marine biology. They were very curious to learn about the particular animals that some of the scientists’ research was devoted to. Download the report here.
The Extreme Clean Zone was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Questions in this zone began slowly, with a lot of questions about the moon and space, given that Nicci’s research is focused on moon dust. There were a higher number of interesting questions during the second week, most of them coming from a particular group of students. Live chats, though there weren’t many, were often busy. Download the report here.
The Genes Zone was one of the most active zones of I’m a Scientist November 2013. Teachers booked a lot of chats that got students highly engage and the ASK section got filled up with a wide range of questions – from very personal to very focused ones asking about genetic diseases, like certain types of cancer- reflecting the variety of students participating in this zone. Download the report here.
The Iodine Zone was busy right from the start of the event, with lots of live chats and questions asked throughout. The students in this zone got really involved in the event and wanted to vote for the favourite scientist, leading to a very high number of visits in the VOTE section of our website. Thanks to the breadth of the research topics covered by each scientist, questions related to very different topics; from health related issues to new technological advances. Download the report here.
The Particle Physics Zone was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. This zone was a little bit less active than the rest of the zones on average, it had more live chats during the first week than during the second one, and there was a wide range of questions asked throughout the event. Students in primary schools were more likely to ask about science facts and aliens. There were students from secondary schools who brought out very interesting issues and even hot debate topics, relating to recent theories in physics. Download the report here
The Stem Cells Zone was one of the zones that registered more visits. Both, the ASK and CHAT sections were populated with extremely focused questions on Stem Cells and their potential applications. Most of the live chats took place during the first week, but there were a lot of on-topic and relevant questions asked throughout. Students in this zone were also active voting for their favourite scientist. Download report here.
The Tellurium zone was one of the least busy of the event with the fewest registered students, the percentage of active students was however the highest. There were a good number of questions asked throughout. Most of the questions and live chats were focused around James’ work on volcanoes. Download the report here.
I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here is an online activity where school students get to meet and interact with scientists.
It’s a competition between scientists, where the students are the judges.
Students challenge the scientists over intense, fast-paced, online live Chats. Then they Ask the scientists all the questions they want to, and Vote for their favourite scientist to win a prize of £500 to communicate their work with the public.