IAS Event

New I'm a Scientist event starts next week

Student access codes and teacher lesson packs for this year’s event are in the post. Teachers, watch your mailboxes! We’re running another instalment of “I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here!” to support National Science and Engineering Week. Our event runs 2nd-13th March, and we’re working hard to repeat last year’s success. The IAS event site will be live very soon, and our first eviction will be on 6th March. It looks like we’ll have another great event. I’m particularly excited about our new team of scientists, so look forward to hearing from them right here on the blog. Thanks again, everyone, for your hard work. Hope you enjoy the next event!

Posted on February 19, 2009 by in IAS Event | Comments Off

"I'm a Scientist" wins Sciencewise People's Choice Award

“I’m a Scientist” wins Sciencewise People’s Choice Award, and the new I’m a Scientist event starts next week Continue reading →

Posted on February 19, 2009 by in IAS Event | Tagged award, I'm a Scientist, IAS 2008, IAS 2009, IAS publicity | Comments Off

Please vote for us!

Voting closes TODAY in the ”People’s choice award’ in science engagement’ from People and Participation.net. I’m a Scientist is one of the projects up for the award. Obviously, I don’t want to be guilty of vote-rigging, you can have a look and vote for whichever project you think is best, but please, please, please vote for us:-) We believe that IAS empowers young people and helps to give them the skills and confidence to engage in discussions around science and technology. The other projects up for the award are all specific consultations, which are very worthwhile, but we think that giving young people the skills and, importantly, the confidence, to discuss their views has a much bigger long term effect on public engagement. To expand on that a bit, there’s a lot of talk in youth and public engagement circles about the ‘Ladder of Participation’, this is (very roughly) the … Continue reading →

Posted on February 11, 2009 by in IAS Event, Science Engagement | Tagged award, confidence, debate, discussion, empowerment, Ladder of Participation, People and Participation.net, public engagement, skills, vote for us!, young people | Comments Off

Where we are at

Well, it’s all getting very hectic here and the March event is hurtling towards us. So I thought I’d leave off messing about with sexy scientists and write about proper work today. Here’s a round up of where we are for the March event. Classes 15 schools have so far said they want to take part, meaning about 40 classes. Places are very limited, but if we are lucky with sponsorship there may be space for more classes, so do get in touch if you are a teacher and would like your students to learn loads, develop their higher thinking skills, and look forward to their science lessons. Or it’s not too early to register for the June event. Funding Overall, it’s looking promising finding long term funding, in that everyone who knows their stuff that we talk to, immediately gets the event, gets why it works and why it’s … Continue reading →

Posted on February 6, 2009 by in IAS Event | Tagged Beacons for Public Engagement, DIUS, excited, funding, March, National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, Phil Willis, pots of money, Royal Society, Science Learning Centres, sponsorship, swish toilets | Comments Off

The students decided. And the scientists spent the money.

During I’m a Scientist students voted and decided which scientist they wanted to give £500 to. It’s very powerful that the event gives young people a real say about something: it makes the whole thing much more real and vivid and makes them feel important. As one student said, “[I liked best] how it was totally up to us and not influenced by adults.”

Posted on December 4, 2008 by in IAS Event | Tagged conferences, feedback, prize money, Royal Meteorological Society | Comments Off

Listen to Liv Hibbitt on BBC Radio Oxford

BBC Radio Oxford interviewed Dr. Liv Hibbitt this week. You can listen to the interview, hear all about Liv’s experience of I’m a Scientist, her gene therapy research, who could beat Chuck Norris in a fight, and find out why Marmite is better in New Zealand. Cheers, Liv! If you can’t listen to MP3s on your computer, drop me an email (admin@imascientist.org.uk) and I will send you a written transcript of the interview. Audio courtesy of BBC Oxford 95.2FM. Their website is www.bbc.co.uk/oxford Click here to listen (apologies for last week’s broken link… it works now, honest!)

Posted on July 4, 2008 by in IAS Event | Tagged gene therapy, IAS publicity, Liv Hibbit, marmite, press, Radio Oxford | Comments Off

The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Moderator

Moderating I’m a Scientist was like driving through a terrific summer storm. Now the chatrooms have cleared, and emails have slowed to a patter, it’s time to venture out and take stock. Goodbye, question and answer sessions; hello, feedback forms! My favourite feedback response so far: “The scientists SEEM like normal people but I can’t be quite sure…” – thanks to imwithstupid for that comment.

Posted on July 2, 2008 by in IAS Event, Science Education | Tagged comments, evictions, feedback, I'm a Scientist, marmite, Moderator, prize, prizes | Comments Off

We have our winners!

Well, the event is all over now (bar the evaluation…) and the students have spoken. The winners of the first ever I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! are:- GCSE 1 – Jenny Barnes GCSE 2 – Ian Walker 6th Form – Nick Dickens Thanks so much to everyone for taking part. The votes were all really close, the scientists all did great jobs, and the students and teachers had such enthusiasm and energy. We’re off to the pub now to celebrate. And then I, personally, plan to sleep all weekend! Although I do feel a bit sad it’s over.

Posted on June 27, 2008 by in IAS Event | Tagged end, pub, sleep, winners | Comments Off

The event is half-way through now! (a short report on how it's going so far)

The event has been going great and we’re all having a lot of fun. We’re amazed at how busy it is, and what great questions and answers we are seeing. The students, the teachers and of course, the scientists are all total stars. Some of my favourite questions so far:-

Posted on June 23, 2008 by in IAS Event | Tagged event, General, good questions, stats | Comments Off

The site is now completely live!

The site for the pilot event is www.imascientist.org.uk, please update your bookmarks. https://www.imascientist.org.uk/ will continue to point to this blog. Please go and have a look at the site! If you are not one of the participants you are very welcome to enter the site as a guest, and have a look around. Many of the scientists have got their info up already, and there are also lots of teaching materials, which are free for anyone to use.

Posted on June 4, 2008 by in IAS Event | Comments Off

Site about to go live

Sorry about the delay everyone. The site will be going live in the next hour, but it can take up to 24 hours for the domain change to propagate around the internet. If you can read this then you are not accessing the new site yet. It may be tomorrow before you see the new site at this address. Teachers: In the meantime, you can use the info sheets and the lesson plans (e.g. IVF debate) which do not require the site.

Posted on June 2, 2008 by in IAS Event | Tagged go live, site | Comments Off

We're nearly there!

Well, I don’t know if any of you know much about software development, but it seems to be a deeply frustrating business. Basically, every change suddenly has all sorts of unforeseen effects. Or something goes wrong, all of a sudden, and no-one knows why, and then it turns out it was because there’s a comma in the wrong place. Or missing.

Posted on May 30, 2008 by in IAS Event | Tagged apostrophes, bugs, event launch, Gary Marcus, go live, site, software development | Comments Off

We've chosen the scientists!

This has been even harder than choosing the schools. We ended up cutting out bits of paper with everyone’s details on and moving them all around the desk, making up fantasy groups and trying to see if each group had got everything covered. I really wanted to include almost everyone, but we had to say no to some really great people. However, I think the 15 scientists we’ve picked (five for each group of students) will be fantastic – good communicators, enthusiastic, with interesting work to discuss and raising some thought-provoking issues. I would publish the details on here, but I’ve not had confirmation back from everyone yet. But I can tell you that topics covered range from studying climate change to engineering solutions for rectal incontinence. Which is really quite a range, however you look at it. Teacher packs We’re sending the teacher packs out today to participating teachers. … Continue reading →

Posted on May 23, 2008 by in How Science Works, IAS Event, Science Education | Tagged climate change, How Science Works teaching materials, lesson plans, pilot, rectal incontinence, scientist, teacher packs | Comments Off

Difficult decisions – pilot classes have been picked

Latest news… Pilot classes Scientists Lesson plans latest

Posted on April 11, 2008 by in IAS Event | Tagged classes, lesson plans, pilot event, scientist recruitment, teacher packs | Comments Off

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