My teeny tiny scicomm update :)
Unfortunately I haven't been doing too much scicomm related stuff recently due to a high PhD workload, but hopefully I'll be able to get back to blogging and practising my writing.
In March, I found out (slightly last minute) that I had been accepted for 'I'm a Scientist', an online activity where scientists talk to school children and answer their questions. The students can then vote for their favourite scientist to win.
The scientist section is run by the lovely Antony Poveda and you basically get put into different "zones" depending on what your research is on. As my PhD is primarily based on vaccine design I was put in the "Drug Discovery Zone" along with 5 other scientists. We were then able to pick slots where we could log on and talk to classes from particular schools in the "I'm a Scientist" chatroom. They can ask any question, ranging from careers advice to 'What is a typical day' to 'What is the top speed of a cow!' (not even joking).
After each chat session the students can then vote and the scientist with the fewest votes is then knocked out (I'm proud to say I wasn't the first to be knocked out in my zone). The last scientist standing in the zone at the end of the 2 weeks wins £500 to be used in a science communication (SciComm) project of their choice. This could range from designing a science activity to creating a mini conference. My idea was to use the money to buy recording equipment so I could create a science YouTube channel feature updates, careers news and interviews with scientists. I may still be able to do it one day, I can dream.
Overall the activity improved my ability to communicate and explain my research with young people from a variety of backgrounds and got to see how others communicated too. If you need another reason to try it out...you get a snazzy 'I'm a Scientist' mug too.
For more information about the program as a whole visit: https://imascientist.org.uk/