Expert Briefing Notes

We’ve prepared these notes to help you find your way through the CHRISTMAS LECTURES Zone on I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here.

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The Event

I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here is a STEM engagement event that takes place online.

What’s involved?

Between 7th January–1st February, you interact online with young people (aged 9–18) through live chats and posted ASK questions, and the public through posted ASK questions. You will answer their questions about science, engineering, research, and just about anything they can relate to this year’s CHRISTMAS LECTURES. You also read people’s opinions on science, research and society and get them thinking about how this affects their daily lives. All you need to take part is a computer with an internet connection.

In addition to your profile there are two sections to the site:

  1. Students and the public ASK you questions which you answer in your own time; the sooner the better.
  2. You CHAT with classes of school students online, answering their questions and hearing their opinions.

How to use the site

Log in

Go to identity.iasuk.ddev.site and enter the username and password that we’ll have emailed to you. Your username will usually be “firstnamelastname” (e.g. joebloggs).’

Note: If you’ve already taken part in I’m a Scientist, your username and password will be the same as before. Use the password reset option if you don’t know it. Email antony@mangorol.la with any issues logging in.

THERE IS NO NEED TO REGISTER – as an expert you have already been pre-registered.

My profile

You have a profile including a photo of you, information about you and your work, and a set of “interview” questions. Your profile enables the students to find out more about you and your research. It’s really helpful if you fill in your profile as soon as possible. When filling out your profile remember to save regularly, click the “Update Profile” button at the bottom after filling in each section.

Log in then click on the “My Profile” tab.

Edit your profile

Click the purple “Edit your profile” button at the top of the page. A series of boxes will appear to be filled in. There are four sections to your profile.

For the first sections you’ll be asked for a one sentence summary, and then a longer version. The short versions are all displayed on one page with a “read more” option underneath. This is because testing showed this makes it much easier for low literacy students, while it’s easy for students who want to read more to access it. Don’t feel you need to write a lot, even for the longer versions; people reading online tend to prefer shorter texts- a short paragraph will be fine to give people ideas of what to ask you.

You can also ignore any boxes marked with: “NOTE: Do not update this if you’re in CHRISTMAS LECTURES Zone- It won’t be visible on your profile)”. These are questions/sections for the competitive school version of the online event.

  • About me – This lets students find out more about you and your interests so they can see you as a real person!
  • My work  Here the public can read about what you do in more detail.
  • My typical day  Writing about your typical day gives students a tangible sense of what your work is like.
  • CV This shows students how you’ve got to where you are now.
  • The interview — These one line questions are here to show your personal side to students, who often feel that people working in STEM are not like real people they can relate to.

Note on social media accounts: Please don’t add details of your social media accounts (twitter handles, instagram etc) to your profile page. This helps to keep the school students’ interactions with you during the event in a moderated space, this website.

Update your profile

When you have finished, click the “Update Profile” button at the bottom. You can come back and edit your profile at any time.

Adding images and other media

You can put photos or other images (for example, graphs or images that illustrate your research) into the long answers  “About me”, “my work”, and “My typical day”, and also into the “Work photos” section.

You can also embed video. However, do be aware that some school systems will block YouTube and many other video sites. This isn’t necessarily a reason not to use video, as it can be very effective, but don’t make understanding your profile dependent on viewing the video as it will leave out some students.

Your main profile picture

Please upload a friendly photo to use as your profile picture at the bottom of the edit my profile page.

ASK and CHAT: Two ways of interacting

1. Answering ASK questions

You will be notified by email of all new questions. You can answer them in your own time, but the sooner the better.

  1. Log in
  2. On your profile page you will see a “My Unanswered Questions” box on the right hand side. Up to 100 recent unanswered questions will appear in this box as clickable links.
  3. To answer a question, click the link and type your answer.

You will also be able to view other experts’ answers to the question. To make it easier to find questions moderators will tag keywords in questions. The keywords are then used to list any similar questions in the “Related Questions” box on the right hand side.

It is up to you what answers to give and how much detail to go into. Don’t be afraid to write a really long answer, but at the same time you don’t need to write long answers.

Our advice is simple; be honest, straightforward and to the point in your answers.

NOTE: Occasionally you might be asked questions related to a student’s personal health or that of a family member, so we have additional advice for answering personal health questions.

2. Attending Live CHATs

Live chats are consistently the most popular part of the event for students, teachers and experts. They take place in our online chatrooms, where students ask you questions and express their opinions on your work over half an hour. Live chats are fun and give immediate contact between experts and students, allowing students to relate to you. Many teachers tell us that the quieter students are more active in live chats than face to face, providing an interesting change to class dynamics.

There are also Evening Chats each Wednesday. These evening chats allow students and their families, as well as members of the public, to talk with you from home.

How to sign up for chats

  1. Once logged in, go to this page: iasuk.ddev.site/live-chat. There’s also link on your profile under Live chat bookings.
  2. For each chat booking you want to do, click the link to leave a comment on its page, saying something like ‘Yes, I’ll be there!’
  3. We recommend making a note of the chat in a digital calendar of your choice and copy the following URL which always takes you to the CHAT page where the action is: identity.iasuk.ddev.site/talk

At the time of the chat:

  • log in and click on the CHAT icon at the top at the time of the chat.
  • about 5 minutes before each booking, the chat box will appear on this page.

Note: You will be notified by email of any new live chats booked by teachers.
Please confirm whether you will take part in the live chat by following the instructions in the email. This is really important for us to know if there are experts taking part in every live chat.

Tips for the chat

  • Chats can be hectic, but also exhilarating. Enjoy the hurly-burly and don’t worry too much about your spelling!

 

  • To help you prioritise questions, the numbers next to each student’s username are how many times an expert has answered them. If you see a ‘0’ there, this student may appreciate your next answer most.

 

  • Remember that anyone with a mortarboard next to their name in a chat is a teacher.

 

  • Click on a student’s message to address your answer to a particular student. Otherwise they may not realise you’ve answered their question, and keep asking it. If you get behind on a chat room, it’s better to skip a few questions and get back to the bottom of the screen, otherwise you keep answering questions after the students have gone! Moderators have had a lot of practice and they can repeat questions that have been missed.

 

  • Use the ‘Show Messages @[your name]’ option at the top right of the chat window to see only the messages directed at you in real-time. This helps to focus on relevant questions during busy chats.

 

  • Be patient. Some young people’s turn of phrase and use of language may be different from academic discourse. It may take you a little while to understand what they are trying to ask. This is especially true when Special Schools are involved.

 

  • Be tolerant. Sometimes young people can be over-exuberant online. Chat with them and they will calm down and engage with you.

 

  • Don’t take offence. Sometimes you will receive questions which seem quite blunt, but usually students don’t mean to be offensive. The benefit of an online event is that they feel empowered to ask.

Moderation of questions: Our policy

All questions in ASK are moderated before they are sent to you. The moderators work very hard to strike a balance between making your lives easier as participants, and giving students and the public the chance to ask real questions. Remember most students are 13 or 14 years old, although there are some Sixth Form classes taking part too. Some classes are from Special Schools or young offender institutions.

Duplicates and questions not relevant to the CHRISTMAS LECTURES

We know you will get sent some very similar questions (believe us, the moderators wade through and weed out a lot more of them!). Moderators will take out duplicate questions, but allow through questions which may be similar, but make additional or slightly different points.

The moderators will also try to weed out questions not particularly relevant to this year’s CHRISTMAS LECTURES theme or your own work.

Offensive questions

Moderators will remove rude or offensive questions (there are generally very few) and anything which breaks the house rules. They will allow challenging questions. They will allow irreverent, but friendly, questions. There will always be a moderator in the chatroom to help things along.

However, they are not miracle-workers, and from time to time there will be the odd chat that we cannot get on track. Bear with us, we’re doing our best!


Four key things you need to know

This may take about 1–2 hours per day that you engage.

During your available weeks in January we would expect this to take around 1-2 hours per day– For example, maybe an hour of ASK questions and one half-hour live chat.

Remember, the ASK questions can be answered whenever you like, so don’t feel the need to completely clear your list every single night/lunch break. We’ve heard they are particularly useful for passing the time on rainy January weekends…

This is not a seminar for the super-smart scientists of the future.

There will be a wide variation in the students taking part. Most will be 13 or 14 years old, but some will be older, up to 18. There will be a big variation in ability. Some will be “gifted and talented” students, some will be lower ability classes, or have special educational needs. The point of the event is to try to engage all students, not just the ones who might go on to study STEM subjects at university.

Most teenagers won’t grow up to be scientists, researchers or engineers, but they will all grow up to be people. As adults they’ll have to make decisions about science and engineering — as voters, as consumers — and we are trying to help them develop the skills and confidence to do that.

For some, “Where do bogies come from?” or, “Do you like your job?” may be the most pressing question they can think of. Part of the point is that this event humanises science for young people; they realise that you are “like normal people” who they can relate to.

Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”.

You will be asked some questions which are not in your area. Answer what you feel you can, but don’t feel you have to Google all evening to answer these questions.

Part of the point of the event is that students get more realistic ideas about scientists and engineers. They can learn that, for example, there’s no reason why a psychologist should know about how much the moon weighs. This makes STEM seem a lot less intimidating. You can be a scientist or engineer without being a genius who knows everything! This can be a liberating realisation for students.

Also, of course, many things in science and engineering aren’t known. Otherwise there’d be nothing for engineers and scientists to do. And even as adults, we can learn new things all the time. This is part of the fun of science! Don’t be afraid to let students in on that secret.

Get your boss onside.

We’d strongly advise you to tell your boss you are taking part in the event, and get their support, if you can. Several participants said that this made a big difference. Questions on the website can be answered during the evening, but live chats have to be during the school day, likely during working hours.

Also, many people found themselves discussing some of the more intriguing questions with colleagues. This can be one of the most stimulating things about the event. Get your workplace involved in the fun! If you need ammunition to persuade your boss of the benefits, we suggest the following points:

  • Taking part in I’m a Scientist develops your communication skills. This is the most mentioned benefit from taking part.
  • It can re-energise you about your own work, and get you thinking differently. Teenagers ask great questions.
  • It can broaden your relationships with other scientists and engineers. It’s easy sometimes to get stuck in your specialism. People in previous events have learnt, or been reminded of many other areas, and even formed collaborations (or friendships) with scientists and engineers in other areas who they “met” during I’m a Scientist.
  • You’re “giving something back” and contributing to science education and the future of science and engineering.

Advice on engagement

Be yourself

Our best advice is to be yourself in your answers. You don’t need to pretend to like Stormzy or Taylor Swift for young people to relate to you, being genuine is what’s important.

Be friendly

When we asked people what they would do differently if they did it again, one answer that summed up many was, “I would be less formal and more personal right from the start”.

De-technify your language

Even if you think you are using simple language, you likely work in an environment where there is a lot of jargon, and technical words are often used when simpler ones are available. It’s easy not to realise when your language may be going over the heads of most 13 year olds.

Don’t “identify”, “find”. Don’t “utilise”, “use”. Don’t “investigate”, “look at”.

Here’s a great video from our partners, Wellcome, which might also help:

Talk to us!

Please communicate with other experts and the moderation team, as well as the students. We’ve occasionally had people finish the event and say in feedback that they were having technical problems, or were worried about particular questions, or similar. We’d much rather hear at the time so we can do something about it. Let us know if you’re having problems using the feedback form on the right hand side of the browser when you’re logged in or email.

We use Twitter as a way to interact with experts taking part in I’m a Scientist, among other things. It’s a great way to communicate how the event’s going, learn more about you, the experts taking part, and ultimately keep in touch with experts after the event. Follow us at @imascientist and keep an eye on tweets marked #xmaslectures.

Contact

If you need any help please email
michaela@mangorol.la or call 01225 326 892.