Octavia Brayley is the winner of the Climate Zone, after receiving the most votes from students! She wins £500 to spend on more science engagement activities.

Here’s what she had to say about her victory:

I’m absolutely thrilled to be the winner of the November 2023 Climate Zone! Thank you so much to all the students who voted for me over the past month. I hope you all enjoyed the chats as much as I did!

I was so impressed by your knowledge, interest, and enthusiasm to find out more about STEM. Being a scientist requires curiosity, open-mindedness, and analytical thinking. Through the numerous brilliant chats and questions on the homepage, I could see many of you utilising the skills that are required to be a scientist! I’d encourage you all to continue developing your skills; when you’re in a science class at school carry on asking great questions and only accept theories or hypotheses when there is experimental evidence to back them up. And you can utilise this same method when you’re reading information on the internet!

I hope we all answered your questions to a high level, and I hope that we inspired you to get more involved with STEM. Even if you don’t plan on pursuing a career in science, the health of our planet relies on the cooperation and passion from both scientists and non-scientists. There are many ways to get involved without having to study science- for example, you could join a society, volunteer for an environmental charity, or sign up to a climate newsletter. We need everyone’s help!

I really encourage you all to pursue what you love. Having a career and job where you feel excited and fulfilled is so important for your mental wellbeing. Be ambitious and take all opportunities that are offered to you. You won’t enjoy everything you do as you apply for work experience or voluntary positions, but every opportunity will provide you with important skills and will highlight what you do (and don’t!) enjoy.

Thank you so much to the other scientists in the zone. It has been fascinating chatting with other researchers from many different fields who are all doing their bit to protect the planet. Thank you to the I’m a Scientist moderators who kept that chats flowing and to the Royal Society of Chemistry and STEM Ambassadors for funding this fantastic scheme. I will be spending the prize money to set up a podcast where I will be interviewing polar scientists who work in the Arctic and Antarctic. If you’ve ever wondered how dangerous polar bears really are, how penguins survive in -80ºC conditions, how Greenland sharks can live for 500 years, or how scientists get their food when they’re in Antarctica, this is the podcast for you! I’ll give a heads up to I’m a Scientist when the first episode has been released.

Good luck to all the students I have chatted to over the past month. I hope you all continue to enjoy school and land your dream job in the future. And you never know, maybe one day you can become a climate scientist too!
Thank you all so much,
Octavia Brayley.