Jump to…
- Look out for your login details
- Giving your students access
- What equipment do I need?
- Live Chats
- Ask questions
- Voting
- Lesson plans
- Extra opportunities to connect with the scientists
- Safeguarding and privacy
- Benefits for students
- Contact us
I’m a Scientist connects students with STEM professionals online
In the activity, students can:
- Read profiles of scientists in different careers
- Ask them questions
- Chat with them in live Chats
- Vote for their favourite to win!
Look out for your login details
If you register your details, we’ll let you know when the activity is running.
We’ll send you login details for I’m a Scientist, I’m an Engineer, and any other projects when they run.
Giving your students access
Once you have your login details for an activity, you can give your students access from your account dashboard.
You can do this by giving them a unique registration link, or by printing out automatically generated usernames and passwords.
What equipment do I need?
I’m a Scientist runs on a web browser. Students just need a device with internet access.
Or, you can run the activity from the front for the whole class. Read more ❯
Live Chats
You can book a live Chat for each of your classes. These are an opportunity for students to engage in real-time with some of the scientists taking part in your activity.
Live Chats last 40 minutes. They are text-only (no audio or video).
On average, 5 scientists attend each live Chat. You and your students can see which scientists have signed up to your Chat in advance.
We highly recommend booking 1 Chat per class. If there are more than 35 students in a live Chat, the scientists might struggle to keep up with the volume of questions!
Chats must be booked in advance, with at least 24 hours notice. You can book them from your dashboard once you’ve logged in (or ask us to book them for you, if you prefer).
Ask questions
Students can also submit questions to the scientists at any time once they have access. The scientists respond in their own time.
Students can see on their dashboard when their questions have been answered.
Voting
Students get to Vote for their favourite scientist taking part. They get a new Vote each week.
Every Friday, a winning scientist is announced. At the end of the activity, the scientist with the most votes wins €500 to deliver more science engagement activities!
Not all activities involve voting. Please check your activity to see if it does.
Lesson Plans
We’ve prepared 3 lesson plans which are designed to increase your students’ engagement with the activity. They involve 2 preparatory lessons, followed by your live Chat.
The lesson plans have been developed in consultation with teachers and have been extensively tested. Most teachers find them extremely helpful.
Extra opportunities to connect with the scientists
Most activities feature extra live Chats on a Thursday evening, from 7pm to 8pm. Please check your activity to see if these are taking place.
These are an extra opportunity for students to chat again with the scientists.
Students just need to log in and turn up – no need to book!
Safeguarding and privacy
All interactions between students and scientists are checked and moderated by our DBS-checked team.
In live Chats teachers can monitor what’s said, and you have the ability to delete messages. Afterwards, you’ll get a transcript of your Chat emailed to you. You can also see which students have logged in, and what they’ve asked on your dashboard.
Student details are private on the site – scientists only see a ‘display name’.
More about student safeguarding and privacy ❯
Benefits for students
Taking part supports the science capital teaching approach, helping students see STEM as ‘for them’.
Research has found that I’m a Scientist supports four of the science capital dimensions. Read the report ❯
I’m a Scientist also supports careers development, as measured by the Gatsby Good Careers Guidance Benchmarks. Read more ❯
Contact us
We’re here to help. If you should have any questions, or need a hand with anything, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at support@imascientist.ie or by calling (+44) 01225 667922.
When the activity is running you can also chat with us in the Staffroom Chat ❯
(you’ll need to be logged in)