News for the ‘General Banter’ Category
The results are in…
…from this months “I’m a Scientist”. Unfortunately due to my lax posting over the past few months it’s not the one that I took part in. This time around it was a much larger affair, with 100 scientists and 5000 students. But what was it like…well, I’m sure it was a little more hectic than last time, but reports from my friend Duncan, who took part, suggest it was just as enjoyable.
During my stint I found myself voted off second, but I still couldn’t keep away from the site. It was a truly hectic but engaging experience. The two weeks involved online MSN style chats and answering lots of posted questions from the students. The chats were very chaotic and lasted around an hour to an hour and half. We were bombarded by a torrent of questions from 20 or more students with usually just 3 scientists to respond. Keeping track was a challenge, but thankfully any questions that were missed usually got posted later and we could get back to the students then. All praise to the moderators in our section, too. They helped us skirt around many firewall issues and managed to pacify the students who’s questions couldn’t be answered. Without them I fear we would have all met our match.
The best things about the experience were how engaged the students were, how profound their questions were (why do we die? Anyone?) and most importantly how much of a difference it made to their understanding of science and scientists. There was one occasion where a group of students stayed 15 minutes after the end of school bell because they were enjoying themselves so much. This made me think that as scientists we don’t do enough to engage school students, or educate them about the reality of science and science related jobs. Why else would they care so much about being able to talk for an hour with us?
The ‘Science Busker’ of our group, Martin, won the competition. It was a well deserved win based purely on how the money will be used. His science busking takes real science to the general public. Not all the fancy explosions, coloured liquids and CO2 gassing out of a conical flask stuff, but real science. You can find more information on what he does here.
So lets raise a glass to Martin, and perhaps it’s worthwhile remembering that popping your head into a school classroom for an hour could really make a difference. Maybe we should do it a little more often.
Edited: June 30th, 2010
I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here!!
I’ve been lucky enough to be chosen as one of the scientists to take part in “I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here”. I’ve been sectioned into the Helium zone along with four other scientific folk. For two weeks we will be pitted against each other in a battle to entertain school kids with science. The ultimate prize is a £500 Wellcome trust gift to use to communicate our work.
Over the past week we have all set up a profile that the kids will get acquainted with before we go live on Monday 15th March (That’s tomorrow – eep). Over the course of the two weeks we will answer lots of questions from the students and also take part in a number of live chats. As the two weeks progress the students get to vote for their favourite scientist – periodically the scientist with the least votes will have to exit the competition until one winner from each zone emerges.
As far as I’m aware it’s only the school kids that get to post questions, however everyone can keep up to date with what’s happening via the site. So get your popcorn ready and settle down for lots of scientific fun. I can’t wait, It’s going to be awesome however long it lasts 
Edited: March 14th, 2010
Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..!
For the past three months some work buddies and I have been taking part in the Aspire Channel Swim. It involves swimming the equivalent distance of the English Channel (22 miles, 1416 25m lengths) in the space of 12 weeks. Thankfully this equates to a challenging, but achievable, 118 lengths per week, which is just under 2 miles. Even more thankfully you can do it in your local pool, which for me is the very beautiful Manchester Aquatic Centre. The challenge is part of Aspire’s ongoing work to help people with spinal chord injuries get the support they deserve and regain their independence.
The money raised is used in the following ways:
* £100 will buy the duvet and pillows for one of our adapted houses
* £350 will buy SmartNav technology for a PC to enable someone with a high level spinal injury to use a computer
* £700 will buy a laptop and an accessible bed table for a child in hospital so they can continue to study and stay connected to friends whilst recovering
* £1,000 will provide a rise and fall hob or sink in one of our adapted houses
* £2,500 will buy a made to measure light weight wheelchair
I finished the challenge ahead of schedule on 2nd December and sent my own donation in. If any of you are interested in supporting Aspire you can donate directly through Just Giving. I recommend taking part in it next year, and if possible getting your work buddies interested. Me and the MCISB had a lot of fun competing. Not all of us made it, but at least we tried
Next stop: The Great Swim!!
References
1. Picture is taken from Finding Nemo (2003)
Edited: December 14th, 2009
Hitting my web 2.0 ‘on switch’!
I recently stumbled across an article in THE reporting on the lack of use of Web 2.0 tools amongst ‘Generation Y’ PhD students . The study, conducted by the British Library, shows that the students considered technological tools valuable to their research, but showed little use of them in reality.
As a mid 80’s spawn I fall around the centre age range of ‘generation Y’. I’ve had access to computers since the age of 3, the internet since 11, a mobile phone since 13 and I made my first website at 16. With this, communication tools such as MSNmessenger, Myspace and facebook have all been heavily used for keeping in touch with friends and colleagues. Had I taken part in the British Library study I too would have rated technological tools of high importance to my work. I would have also considered myself highly technologically fluent. However, when I sat down to think about it I realized that, much like the students in the study, I didn’t use many web 2.0 tools at all.
Up until recently Tweeting, blogging and RSS feeds were all alien to me. I was dragged kicking and screaming to the world of Twitter by my PI, who was and still is a massive fan: I now use it to keep up to date with the latest news in science, and across the world. I’m currently making my first blog after being inspired by my blogging work buddies, Steve, Neil and Duncan: maybe one day I’ll be able to post just as well as them. And RSS feeds: well, I’m trying.
It is interesting to note that all the people that have pulled me into the web 2.0 world would not be considered ‘generation Y’. If I’ve been surrounded by this technology all my life why have I failed to use it as effectively as those who have not? I think the answer is all to do with context. For the majority of my web using life these technologies were used for personal interaction, not work. I’d read blogs, but these were mostly about people’s private lives. I’d seen RSS feeds, but they were for blogs and websites, again, about people’s private lives. I’d seen Twitter, but to be frank was not interested in hearing in 140 characters whether someone was drinking tea or not (see ‘Understanding the value of life streaming – you’re doing it wrong’). These had never been introduced to me in a work context, therefore it had never occurred to me to use them as such.
Now I have been exposed to how useful these technologies are for communicating with other scientists all across the world it is hard not to want to get involved. So here is to web 2.0 and (hopefully) useful life/work/science-streaming for many years to come.
Edited: November 13th, 2009
