What are your plans for science week?

Jane Kennedy answered on 11 Mar 2020:

I was looking forward to going to Big Bang Fair tomorrow, but sadly that’s not happening anymore.

Instead I will be meeting with my students about their degree projects, and preparing for a mini-project in a couple of weeks making a dashboard for a machine learning model. This is something new for me, I’m still learning new things all the time!

Christopher Erickson answered on 11 Mar 2020:

The same as every week, wake up and SCIENCE! Mostly reading papers and broadening my knowledge base right now because our model is problematic at the moment.

Samantha Moody answered on 11 Mar 2020:

I created a free teacher guide, released for Science Week, to help teachers run workshops that help children learn the way technology companies develop new products and ideas. It’s called Jungle Scrum:Agile Skills for Young Innovators.

Rachel Marshall answered on 11 Mar 2020:

I was meant to be at the Big Bang Fair like Jane…and lots of us here. We had created a Minecraft world for people to use to explore issues around how we use phosphorus (an essential nutrient for food production) and how we can reduce the negative impact it has on the environment.
Now I am sat at home developing some resources for working with farmers around some of these issues

Oliver Gordon answered on 11 Mar 2020:

On Saturday we were doing loads of hands-on experiments with the general public at Woolaton Park in Nottingham (it’s where they film Wayne Manor!). We were there with potatoes, balloons, microsocopes and more fun stuff. Absolutely awesome day 🙂

I still have research to do though – at the moment we are trying to use AIs to find data on our hard drives – we have taken so many over the years that there’s too many to search by ourselves – it would take literally months. I’m also working on building AIs to run our scanners automatically, using the same techniques used to automatically play video games.

Jorien van den Bor answered on 11 Mar 2020:

This science week I finish with a dance performance, so rehearsing for that! At work this week I am doing what I’ve been doing for a little while… working out all the ways that our company has an impact on the world around us. We’re making a very long list and then look at how good/bad every item on the list is. Then we decide which points we need to work on first, then what we want to work on next and which bits we want to leave for a while. Plus I’ll be chatting with you guys tomorrow afternoon and Friday morning (which I’m really looking forward to!).

Mark Ashby answered on 11 Mar 2020:

Like many others, I was meant to be at the Big Bang Fair this week presenting a Minecraft world for kids to explore. This world helps the player to understand the importance of phosphorus to us (by fertilising food and nourishing our body) and the surrounding environment (too much phosphorus within rivers, streams and lakes can damage these ecosystems).

To make up for the cancellation of Big Bang, I am taking part in online chats with students about Science Hunters and the Minecraft phosphorus world.

Sarah Bearchell answered on 11 Mar 2020: last edited 12 Mar 2020 9:14 am

For the last few years, I have been doing the Big Bang Fair at the NEC. I take my mini-show “The Cloud Factory” and enlist the help of another science presenter, Jon Wood, and students from the University of Birmingham. The students learn how to run and present a science show.

I describe the show in my profile, you can pop over to look at some videos. I’m happy to answer questions about it.

Since the Big Bang Fair was cancelled this year, I have a rather strange Science Week. Firstly, I couldn’t miss out on speaking to students, so I signed up to do this. Secondly, I am writing some articles for a children’s magazine called Aquila. Thirdly, I’ll be putting together some new experiments for a school visit later this month. So far their assembly will contain reactions which change colour, firey wonder and a puzzling disappearance!

UPDATE: I’m also now going to run a Take it Apart Club with our local Explorer Scouts. They’ll be taking apart old electrical equipment to look at the components inside and discover how it worked. We will not be putting it back together again for obvious safety reasons!

Martin Ward answered on 11 Mar 2020:

My plans for science week, as with many others, have all been changed with the recent goings on everywhere.

Instead, I am getting some more experiments finished up in the lab to collect all of the data I need to write up the work for publication (we share our data and results with everyone and this is how we do it with other scientsts in our area).

I also have some experiments at the end of the week that I need to prepare samples for – I need to grow nice crystals and load them in our high pressure cells to see what hapens to the crystals at VERY high pressures 🙂

Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 11 Mar 2020:

Normally for science week I go to the Big Bang fair and run some workshops, including making medicines and making chocolate, with a bit of history, a bit of creativity and a bit of science – and lots of fun. This year, however, I’m at home because I’ve just had a baby girl, and I am looking after my newborn! Next year, though, I’ll be back…!

Simon Waldman answered on 11 Mar 2020:

I’m working from home this week, because I had a fever on Monday. It’s probably not the new virus, but better not to risk spreading it to my students and colleagues.

I’ll mostly be marking assignments and preparing next week’s essay. If I’m very lucky I might get to do some work setting up the software I need for my next bit of research!

Fiona Scott answered on 11 Mar 2020:

I’m in the middle of writing up my PhD thesis (a biiiiiig report summarising three years of lab work). This means this week I’m mostly sitting in front of a laptop trying to finish off my last results chapter. I have some chemistry/biology tutoring pupils who come by the house now and again so I’m not going for too long without speaking to other humans. This last minute involvement in IAS chats has been a nice thing to check in with between writing tasks.

Laura Evans answered on 11 Mar 2020:

I wasn’t going to the Big Bang Fair this week anyway, but I’ll be spending this week working in the lab and meeting with lots of people to discuss some fun science ideas! At the moment I’m looking at some samples of flies from many regions in Africa and testing them to see if they are carrying parasites that they could spread to other animals.

Jarvist Moore Frost answered on 11 Mar 2020:

It’s our final week of term at Imperial Physics department, so I’m having my last supervision meetings with my undergraduate project students, and arranging for them to give a research talk to some of the other professors.
Other than this – I’m doing lots of science! Most of my work is pen + paper, or on a computer, so this means lots of reading and writing, drawing stuff on my whiteboard, rubbing it out, trying something out on the computer & etc.

Alice Coburn answered on 12 Mar 2020:

I was planning to attend the Big Bang Fiar today as a Judge for the schools competition. I am now hoping I can look at some of the entries online so that students still have the opportunity to gain feedback on their projects and how they worked together!

Other than that, I am running around trying to reorganise another large event for later in the year (and my own vacation which has also had to be put off).

As a former virus researcher, I am taking the opportunity while people are interested in viruses to do a bit of low-key science communication in talking to friends, family members and anyone who will listen about viruses, epidemiology, and transmission routes. People are suddenly interested!

Kate Dobson answered on 12 Mar 2020:

Answer as many of your questions as I can, and finish setting up my new Image Analysis laboratory so more people can come and work with me to look at their samples in 3D

Shane Rothwell answered on 12 Mar 2020: last edited 12 Mar 2020 11:28 am

I was hoping to at the Big Bang science fair this week, instead I’ll be working on an experiment I have in the greenhouse and chatting on Science Week this Thursday afternoon !

Muhammed Rassul answered on 12 Mar 2020:

My plans is to get in the local public spaces, such as parks, ect and show off some easy fun science experiments. Science can be really entertaining and that will be the idea. I am not fussed if people learn from the sessions as long as they enjoyed the show.

Hayley Pincott answered on 12 Mar 2020:

I did Cardiff Science festival, STEM on Stage and also a cancer event at Techniquest over the last few weeks so I’m just sticking to these chats. I loved taking part so am more than happy to continue to do these chats.

Well done to the team for organising these

Chella Quint answered on 12 Mar 2020:

This week I have been writing a draft of a book about periods for kids, and then planning an art and activism workshop for some university students. I’m just choosing the art supplies they should use, and I’m a big fan of fun and cute stationery so this is a very enjoyable task!

Rochelle Velho answered on 13 Mar 2020:

I was really looking forward to sharing my stories about space and medicine @ Big Bang this week! I am sure lots of people are sad that its not happening anymore.

So this week I have been hospital simulating how to prepare for this new bug everyone is talking about (sarscov2 virus that causes the covid19 disease). We have been practicing how to protect ourselves as doctors and nurses and hospital staff that may come into contact with patients with this new virus subtype.

It has been really good to work with a team to practice how to look after these patients in hospital. A lot of what I do with space suits and simulating mars has helped me get an insight into how to prepare for what is ahead.

Question: What are your plans for science week?

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