Tag Archives: funding

I'm a Scientist gets funding!

Our I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! event has been awarded a grant of £209,000 by the Wellcome Trust, so that we can roll it out nationally over the next two years. Hallelujah! Long bit of waffle about how this came to pass Long time readers will remember that we ran a pilot of the event in June 2008, funded by Wellcome. We then ran a second event in March 2009, funded by us, with assistance from Bristol University. These events went really well. As you can see from the evaluation reports, they got students really engaged with science, changed students views of science and scientists and were memorable and exciting learning opportunities. Since then we have been chasing the funding to roll the event out bigger and better and give the same great learning experience to thousands more students. It’s been a frustrating experience – so many … Continue reading →

Posted on November 18, 2009 by in IAS Event. Tagged award, brilliant, funding, Hurrah, Society Award, Wellcome Trust. Comments Off

Two scientists out, three to go!

We’re almost halfway through! Two scientists – Christine Cooper and Scott Grandison – are already gone, and the others are shaking in their boots. Who will the students evict next?

Posted on March 11, 2009 by in IAS Event. Tagged evictions, funding, IAS 2009, live chats, questions. Comments Off

Thank you National Science Learning Centre!

Sorry, the posts are coming thick and fast at the moment – it’s all go here! (And Bradford on Avon’s been flooded, meaning the sandwich shop is shut, so we are coping without proper sustenance:-)) Anyway, I’m pleased as punch about our latest news, so I’m inflicting it on you, dear readers, my apologies to your inboxes. The National Science Learning Centre (in the form of Miranda Stephenson, who’s been really helpful) has given us their official backing, in the form of a lovely letter praising our project and urging people to support it financially (click here to download and read the letter!). For those of you who don’t know, the NSLC are like the headquarters for science teaching being as good as possible:- “The aim of the national network of Science Learning Centres is to promote excellent science teaching by reconnecting teachers with the frontiers of their subject and the … Continue reading →

Posted on February 11, 2009 by in Science Education. Tagged funding, National Science Learning Centre, support. 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

Me Miss! I know the answer!

We got a great response to our request for suggestions on who to approach for funding – thanks everyone! Suggestions included Learned Societies and Institutes, companies, charities and public bodies like NESTA, SETpoints and the SLC. Some of these people I did contact when we were originally looking for funding for the pilot, but didn’t get very far. Pretty much everyone said they didn’t have any money, but suggested we tried the Wellcome Trust People Awards (who came up trumps). However, now we have a tried and tested event it should be a different proposition. Hopefully. I keep reading about how there’s going to be a skills gap, young people are being turned off science and technology and everyone wants to invest in projects to combat this, and all I can think is, “We can do it! Give us some money!”.

Posted on December 10, 2008 by in How Science Works, Science Education. Tagged 21st Century Science, ASE, Dance Your PhD, debate, discussion, funding, School Science Review, teaching materials. Comments Off

The next phase begins – working towards running the event again, bigger, next year

The event evaluation report is now nearly finished. Sorry for a bit of a hiatus while we were running I’m a Councillor (just because we’ve got our new IAS baby, doesn’t mean we can neglect our first born:-)). We hope to get the evaluation report online some time next week (plus a summary – the whole thing is over 100 pages long. Even I don’t think anyone will want to read all of it, beautifully crafted prose though it is). The extremely short version is that everyone loved it and every single teacher and scientist who responded said they would recommend the event to a colleague. Even the teachers who got it dumped on them at the last minute loved it.

Posted on November 24, 2008 by admin in Event News. Tagged Evaluation, funding, IAS 2009, NSEW, spare any change guv?, value for money. Comments Off

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