MRC Festival Zone June 2019

The MRC Festival Zone was a four-week-long online event funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) as part of the MRC Festival of Medical Research. 25 MRC researchers and technical staff put up profiles on the website, and 24 of these engaged with students throughout the month in live CHATs and the ASK section. 1,204 students from 33 schools all over the UK logged in to the zone over the four weeks. 79% of the schools were widening participation and/or underserved, an increase from 59% in 2018’s event. In the ASK section, 342 questions were approved and sent to the researchers and technical staff, who between them wrote 2,072 answers. 63 online live CHATs took place during the event, including four evening CHATs where students could join in from home with their family. An average of six researchers came to each session, giving students a wide variety of roles and people to find out about.

Participating researchers and technical staff

The 25 MRC researchers and technical staff were either funded by the MRC, or working within an MRC establishment. On the website, each participant filled in a profile page to share information about themselves, their jobs and their career paths for students to read and start thinking about what to ask them. The profiles also included details about any other MRC Festival activities they were part of. Participants were at various stages of their careers and different roles, including five technical staff – for example, Rachel Hardy is a PhD student at the MRC Toxicology Unit investigating how medicines can be made safer in the future; Matt Bareford is a senior technician in biomaterials at Cardiff University; David Wilson is a Senior Research Assistant at the MRC Human Genetics Unit and Thiloka Ratnaike is training as a paediatrician doing a research placement at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge. Left: Map of locations with researchers taking part

01225 326892 | [email protected] Participating schools

In total, 33 schools took part in live CHATs in the MRC Festival Zone. 26 of those schools (79%) were widening participation (WP) and/or under-served (U), the criteria for which is defined on our website, here: about.imascientist.org.uk/under-served-and-wp/

All Saints Catholic High School, Knowsley (WP) Brampton Manor Academy, London (WP) Brayton Academy, Selby (U) Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School, Brentwood (U) Chatham Grammar School for Girls, Chatham (U) Colchester County High School for Girls, Colchester Colton Hills Community School, Wolverhampton (WP/U) Furness College, Barrow-in-Furness (U) Garforth Academy, Leeds Harwich and Dovercourt High School, Harwich (U) Hayesfield Girls School, Bath Kingsmead Academy, Taunton (U) Leeds City Academy, Leeds (WP) Ormiston Park Academy, Aveley (WP/U) Reading Girls’ School, Reading (WP) Reepham High School, Norwich (U)

Sale High School, Sale (WP) Above: Map of participating schools Sheringham High School, Sheringham (U) The de Ferrers Academy, Burton-on-Trent (U) Smith’s Wood Academy, Birmingham (WP) The Deanery CE High School, Wigan Smithdon High School, Hunstanton (U) The Ecclesbourne School, Belper (U) St Dominic’s High School, Belfast (WP) The John Henry Newman Catholic School, Stevenage (U) St John Wall Catholic School, Birmingham (WP) The Wellington Academy, Ludgershall (U) St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Morecambe (WP) Turnbull High School, East Dunbartonshire Stranraer Academy, Dumfries & Galloway (U) Wigan and Leigh College, Wigan The Arnewood School Academy, New Milton (U) Wymondham High Academy, Wymondham

01225 326892 | [email protected] Researcher and technical staff activity

Each live CHAT lasts for 30 minutes and involves researchers and technical staff connecting with a class to answer their questions in real-time. Ask questions are sent to the researchers and technical staff outside of the CHATs and can be answered at any time.

Across the four-week event there were 63 live CHATs, equalling 29,683 lines of conversation between students and the MRC researchers and technical staff. Students sent 342 approved questions through ASK during the MRC Festival Zone and received 2,027 answers.

Lines of chat Thiloka Ratnaike Answers

Shonna Johnston

Shobhana Nagraj

Ryan Beveridge

Ross Hill

Rebecca Moon

Rachel Hardy

Nina Rzechorzek

Matthew Burgess

Matthew Bareford

Marianne King

Lorena Boquete Vilarino

Kate Timms

Kaitlin Wade

James Streetley

Ettie Unwin

Emmanuelle Vire

Deepak Chandrasekharan

David Wilson

Anabel Martinez Lyons

Ambre Chapuis

Alex Blenkinsop

Alex Agrotis

Aina Roca Barcelo

4000 3000 2000 1000 0 0 100 200 300

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Key figures from the MRC Festival Zone

Compared with a typical two-week I’m a Scientist Zone from June this year, the 4-week MRC Festival Zone reached three times as many schools, offering more students the chance to connect with researchers and technical staff.

PAGE 2019 ZONE 2018 ZONE 2019 ZONE 2018 ZONE IASUK VIEWS June 2019 average Total zone Schools 33 32 10 50,246 53,945

ASK page Students logged in 1,204 1,404 380 2,844 3,277

CHAT page % of students active 90% 95% 89% 5,883 5,485 in ASK, CHAT or VOTE VOTE page Questions submitted 770 1,125 319 3,992 1,842 in ASK Questions approved 342 740 173 in ASK POSITION RESEARCHER Answers given in ASK 2,072 1,758 414

Week 1 winner/ Deepak Comments on ASK 156 170 46 Overall Winner Chandrasek- questions haran Week 2 winner David Wilson Votes 924 751 303

Week 3 winner Nina Live CHATs 63 76 20 Rzechorzek Week 4 winner Ross Hill Lines of live CHAT 29,683 26,661 6,730

01225 326892 | [email protected] Top keywords used in live CHATs

The illustration below depicts popular keywords used by both students and researchers during CHATs. The size of the word represents its frequency.

Question themes and example questions in the Zone’s ASK section

Find out about how we’ve coded the questions at about.imascientist.org.uk/what-do-students-ask-about/

How can knowing the mutations that cause a Would you rather time patient's cancer shape treatment? travel to the past or 2% future and why? If cells multiply/

copy each other then how are 14% scars formed? What 17% common ideas and Will it be fears about Medical research topics possible to universities Science topics 16% replace should we Working scientifically teachers not believe? Careers and Education with AI? Personal Event/other

Is there 29% anything you What would it be like in a black hole could you hate about 22% science or your go to another universe? profession?

Do all scientists theorise or How accurate is your data? is it just the smart ones?

01225 326892 | [email protected] Examples of good engagement

The researchers and technical staff took time to listen to students' ideas about science, showing they valued the students' questions and giving detailed answers in response. This experience supports the students’ science capital: '@Ambre do you experiment on animals?' – Student 'Yes I do I try to found a technique to reduce the number of animal use though' – Ambre '@Ambre what techniques? what animals? are there lots of fatalities?' – Student ' Good question thank you , I am making glowing fungi in order to reduce the number of mice use in experiment to test new drugs. With a glowing fungi we can follow the fungi inside the mice by taking picture of the mice at different times, it make quite pretty pictures.' – Ambre '@Ambre how will the glowing fungi reduce the number of mice when you follow the fungi inside the mice?' – Student 'so basically because you can take pictures of the same mice overtime, while other technique kills mice and take organs to see wheer the fungi went' – Ambre '@Ambre that makes sense, less animals being used is better if none used isnt available' – Student 'agree but we dont have the technology yet to replace animal work unfortunately' – Ambre 'I do too, the UK has some of the strictest laws in the world governing the use of animals in science' – David '@David strict as in animal tests are well regulated or required to a certain degree?' – Student 'very well regulated, we try to use animals only when we have to and to use the minimum number so we dont waste them, The animals wellbeing while we use them is the most important thing' – David '@David thats nice to hear' – Student

They also discussed careers and education, with students asking for advice and recommendations on which courses they should take, work experience and choosing universities: 'Which University is the best? Did anyone go to a Russel Group University?' – Student 'That depends on what you want to do. You can check the times university rankings for the subject you want to study. I went to the University of Manchester which is in the Russel group.' – Kate 'I went to Sheffield which is in the Russell group :) (The University of Sheffield is the best uni ever - but I'm very biased!)' – Marianne 'I think it really depends what you are interested in. I went to Southampton and Cambridge - loved them both but they were so different. Some are better for sports some better for drama and each subject ranking varies. I'd recommend visiting too.' – Ettie 'Every University has its strengths and weaknesses, strongly recommend going to visit and talk to the students who are there!' – Nina 'all unis are different and its as much about how much the course and location suits you. visit some open days and chat to current students and teaching staff to find out about the course' – Deepak

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Weekly Winners:

Students were able to vote each week for their favourite to take home the prize money. At the end of the week, the votes were counted and a Weekly Winner was announced. This change from last year gave participants some measure of how they were doing during the event, and encouraged students to return to the site and keep voting for their favourites each week. The average number of votes per student increased from 0.53 to 0.76 The four Weekly Winners were Deepak, David, Nina and Ross. At the end of the activity, the person with the most votes across the four weeks was announced as the Overall Winner of the MRC Festival Zone.

Overall Winner: Deepak Chandrasekharan

Deepak’s plans for the prize money: “I will work with the teachers and students of local schools in North West London where I live to help them design and perform a small experiment and show how scientific research is relevant to everyday life. The amount of data now coming from research is vast but we have a real shortage of people who can work with this – called data scientists. So the aim is to give students experience of research, data science and coding using freely available data – called open data.” Read Deepak’s thank you message.

Student Winners: Amy, laurenfysh, Mia and iqera

For great engagement during the event, one student was chosen by the researchers and technical staff each week to receive a gift voucher and a certificate.

Feedback “This has been surprisingly Here are a few of the comments made during and after the event… insightful- made me think about the reasons behind choosing the career I have now, “I have to say an absolutely huge thank you for an awesome and how I can contribute back few weeks of science engagement and discussion. I had Year 8 to society with all that I have

and Year 7 classes involved in live chats and the science buzz learnt so far. It has been during each one of these events was electric! The scientists incredibly humbling when some were so generous with their time and their considered school children have said that responses to the students' questions generated squeals of they are inspired by some of delight engaging students of all abilities!” – Teacher our answers, to look further into a career in science. Makes me want to do more in the time I have!” – Thiloka, Researcher “Thank you all for the help and answering my questions! I really enjoyed it!” – Student

01225 326892 | [email protected] “An unanticipated benefit from doing this was the chance for me to learn about all the wonderful work MRC “You guys are so units across the country are doing... “The students nice...Thank you so The chance to come up for some air absolutely loved the much. I think i just got and find out about you, your work live chat, they were inspired.” – Student and interests was such a nice absolutely buzzing experience.” – Deepak, Researcher afterwards! This is a fantastic opportunity

for them, thank you so much” – Teacher

“It’s helped me to step back and look at the bigger picture of what I do, and how I can justify why it’s important to young people, and (hopefully) to inspire the next generation of statisticians” – Alexandra, Researcher Learning and improvement

Types of schools and number of students Overall the number of students and CHATs in the MRC Festival Zone is three times that of a standard zone and involved four times the number of researchers. However, less students took part this year compared to 2018. In the drive to reach more widening participation and/or underserved (WP/U) schools this June, we gave more places to new teachers, positively increasing the geographical reach of the event from last year. Some of these teachers did not book chats for all the classes they were allocated, resulting in this lower number of students. 20 non-WP/U schools who applied to take part were not given places this June. To increase the number of students next time, we will over fill the zone and not turn as many schools away. We also know from experience that when teachers take part again in our activities they are more confident and comfortable participating with more classes. We hope the new WP/U schools who were involved this June will return next year and include more students. We also gave places to eight Scottish schools, although only two booked CHATs despite offers of support from the IAS team. We had feedback from a couple of teachers who were unable to participate that many schools in Scotland start a new timetable for the new year in June, and despite best intentions did not have space in their schedules to run the activity with the new timetable. Number of ASK questions This June, there was a lower number of ASK questions than 2018 (340/742). We are improving student profiles to signpost clearly where to go to ASK, as well as changing the ASK button styling to help discoverability. There was also a great turn out of researchers in live CHATs – the average was six per CHAT compared to four in 2018. Students may be having more questions answered in the sessions, so not wanting to head to ASK afterwards as we sometimes see when they have questions that researchers couldn’t get to in the chat.

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