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how you react”. Louise said, “The students could be boisterous but this was part of the fun. You need a good sense of humour and the ability to think on your feet. One live chat involved a classroom full of teenage boys all keen to talk about, well, you can imagine! Louise laughs, recalling “I turned it round into a chat about the shapes of different insect willies and sperm wars. The students went home knowing a bit more about evolutionary biology then they did when they arrived that day!” Both researchers agreed that this is one of the event’s benefits – students can absorb scientific information while having a laugh with the scientists. These
added “participating in events like ‘I’m a Scientist….’ is an excellent way to get involved in science communication. Plus it’s fun for us too!” Did either of them win? Alas, no. Louise was narrowly pipped to the post in the final by an engineer from Imperial College. Joining fellow evictee, Pamela, Louise commented, “I am gutted to lose, but Ugandan school children are the real winners” as the winner donated her money to buy much needed equipment for science lessons. And both of them agreed, “We’ll be back!” ll was not lost for Edinburgh researchers the second time around, as Joanna Brooks, a PhD student in Psychology, won the most recent event in the ‘Brain Zone’. The second round took place in June and this time the event was even more popular, with 100 scientists and 5000 students participating. How did she feel about winning? “I was so happy! I had worked really hard to answer all my questions as clearly and as accurately as possible.” She feels what set her apart from the other scientists was a regularly updated profile page: “Every few days I put up a new link to a BBC science quiz and also an interactive 3D brain on the last day. I think this showed the students that I was really making an effort and that I was trying to communicate science in a fun way.” Joanna is already putting her prize money to good use, in setting up ‘brain workshops’ to show students how psychologists explore things like memory, attention, emotion and language. She says, “I’d like to introduce the students to brain scanning techniques and, in particular, discuss the outcome of neurological impairment from things like Alzheimer’s disease or traumatic brain injury. In fact, some of the schools that participated in the event are also taking part in my workshops, which is great because I feel like I already know the students.”
discussions often led to a flurry of questions posted directly after the live chats and related to scientific discussions started during these chats. Louise pointed out that some questions were very thought-provoking and mature: “Some questions attacked the central assumption of my whole PhD. I had to be very careful how I answered. I wouldn’t want these teenagers at my viva!” Pamela was keen to emphasise that justifying the impact of your research on society has never been more important. “The research councils and similar organisations recognise this and there are funds available to enable scientists to undertake public engagement work”. She
Louise Buckley is a PhD student in the Scottish Agricultural College and Pamela Docherty is a PhD student in the School of Mathematics
www.eusci.org | Sep 2010 |
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