News

Thank you for joining us for I’m a Scientist, Get Me out of Here! for August/September 2013. It was a truly amazing effort. The final stats are as follows and includes a new I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! record for the number of questions asked in a single zone – 428 questions posted in the Nitrogen Zone, smashing the previous record of 399 held by the Disease Zone of our March event: Zone Students Questions Comments Live Chats Brain 232 395 206 22 Micro Life 214 157 114 21 Nitrogen 245 428 258 17 Total 691 976 578 60 The big news are the Student Zone Winners. In each zone we award a $50 iTunes voucher and certificate to a student based on the recommendations of our scientists, recognising a quality question, contributing to a interesting discussion or degree of engagement with the Q&A and Live Chat. … Continue reading →

The nail-bitingly close last round was a perfect reflection of the incredibly tight competition throughout the August/September I’m a Scientist event. Congratulations to our winners: Peter Enticott from Monash University in the Brain Zone, Mia Zeric from University of Sydney in the MicroLife Zone and Mia Cobb from Monash University in the general Nitrogen Zone. We’ve had a dramatic double eviction, a whopping 60 live chats and 976 questions ASK’ed across our three zones – Brain, Micro Life, and Nitrogen. Amongst these stats, the general science Nitrogen Zone smashed the Australian record for the number of questions answered with 424 in the Ask section! The Nitrogen Zone breaks the previous record of 399 questions held by the Disease Zone of our March 2013 event. It just keeps on getting better! The scientists have been faced with so many fantastic questions, from why they have chosen a science career, to how … Continue reading →

The final evictions are drawing closer, the winning scientists will be announced tomorrow! The competition has never been tighter, with only 5 votes separating the top two in each zone at this very moment. Today we had to say goodbye to Kristyn Bates from the Brain Zone, Eleanor Campbell from the Micro Life Zone and David Jeffery in the Nitrogen Zone. The voting is now open once again for students to cast their final vote to decide who wins the $1,000 prize money! So VOTE NOW! Our eviction poster is a perfect tool to track the evictions that have taken place so far, and see which two scientists in your zone are still in the running. The FINAL EVICTION is tomorrow at 3pm (AEST)! What are you waiting for?! VOTE NOW!  

Having reached the halfway point of this two-week I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! in Australia event we are gearing up for week two, aka EVICTION WEEK! Students have already asked scientists 500 questions, and that’s just in our ASK forum. Free flowing dialogue in 26 live chats, students have really kept scientists on their toes. With three zones of very different scientific focus we have seen questions about the Brain, Micro Life, and general science (our Nitrogen zone): Student (@chris): “Do you think gene manipulation engineering is ethical i.e. for sports, food, animals?” (Micro Life) Scientist (@Melanie): “… flip the question around and ask ‘Is it ethical to have the ability to use genetic manipulation to solve problems and NOT use the technology?’… Student (@amberfaith): “… I can be really happy one second and then I’m annoyed and angry the next … for no reason I’ll just … Continue reading →

The countdown is on! It’s less than two weeks before I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here! in Australia starts again in August. So it’s time to announce the scientists and schools taking part. The event will be running from 26th August – 6th September. It features two themed zones – Brain and Micro Life – and a general Nitrogen Zone. We have scientists from across the country in disciplines including health, medical research, computer science, nanotechnology, astronomy and animal welfare. Our Nitrogen Zone is supported by the Department for Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy (DMITRE) (SA). The participation of wine chemist David Jeffery in the Nitrogen Zone is supported by the Waite Research Institute. Schools We have 31 regional and metropolitan schools taking part, from states and territories across Australia. We know energy levels will be high and classes at these schools will have a great experience. Fourteen of these schools are participating … Continue reading →

Dustin Welbourne was our Helium Zone winner in May 2012. A biogeographer, owner of the Canberra Reptile Sanctuary, and science communicator, Dustin planned to spend his $1,000 prize money on making a series of science-themed online videos. Dustin: I am very interested in the use of video as a way to talk about science. So, when I began my time on I’m a Scientist I had a couple of ideas for what I would do with the money if I won, one of them being to make a series of short science videos. After the competition, I started to write scripts and stories. As I have made a number of short videos in the past, one of them published by the Huffington Post (an American newspaper), I understood what I was getting myself in for. Then I had the opportunity to make a longer video. By teaming up with a couple … Continue reading →

Dominique Cotterill was our Agriculture zone winner in March 2013. An undergraduate student at the University of Tasmania, Dominique wanted to spend her $1,000 prize money on something that would help teach school students about growing food and about plants. Here she tells us a bit more about how she spent her money: Dominique: I have donated the $1,000 prize money to Australian Science Innovations. They are an organisation that aims to encourage students to study science by running national science competitions and overseas science camps for year 7 to 12 students. Their mission is “to inspire, challenge and raise the aspirations of students in science…”. Australian Science Innovations runs the Big Science Competition for Australian schools, the Australian Science Olympiads, the training and selection process for the International Science Olympiad – the Olympic Games for science students, and the Asian Science Camp being held in Tsukuba, Japan in August this year. … Continue reading →

Jennifer Shaw was our Wet & Wild zone winner in March 2013. A PhD student at the University of Adelaide, Jenny was certain that she wanted to donate all of her $1,000 prize money to charity. Here she tells us why donating her prize was so important to her and how she decided on which charity to support: Jenny: I decided to donate my prize money to ‘Room to Read’ because I felt that $1,000 has the potential to drastically change many children’s lives in poorer nations. I once lived in Africa for a couple of months and was shocked by the level of poverty that I saw. Some children in developing countries don’t have access to basic education. There may not be a school in their village at all. Even if there is a school, they may not be able to afford materials such as books, or have any literate adults in … Continue reading →

Thank you for joining us for I’m a Scientist, Get Me out of Here! in March. It was an amazing effort, the final stats are as follows and includes a new I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here! record for the number of questions asked in a single zone – 399 questions posted in the Disease Zone: Zone Students Questions Comments Live Chats Agriculture 224 167 28 13 Disease 288 399 157 21 Wet & Wild 239 234 259 15 Total 751 793 444 49 The big news are the Student Zone Winners. In each zone we award a $50 iTunes voucher and certificate to a student based on the recommendations of our scientists, recognising a quality question, contributing to a interesting discussion or degree of engagement with the Q&A and Live Chat. We’ve also made some special commendations and those students will receive certificates. Certificates and vouchers are … Continue reading →

Hannah Brown was our winner in the Organs Zone from the August-September 2012 event. Here’s how Hannah spent her $1000: Hannah: It was an honour to be the winner of I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out Of Here! in 2012.  Working in reproductive biology, I thought it provided the perfect opportunity to share my knowledge of how our technology was helping to preserve species at the Adelaide Zoo with students from Challa Gardens Primary School. I ran two, 90 minute, in-school, sessions focussed on “What a Scientist looks like” and “Endangered Species Preservation”.  During these sessions we talked about the types of jobs scientists can have and what the options are for career paths in science, and a second session focussing of the types of technology helping to preserve endangered species, including the Panda Breeding Program at the Adelaide Zoo. Following these two session, I took an excursion of 60 Year … Continue reading →