• Question: Why do you feel you deserve the prize money for winning this competition?

    Asked by jay1298 to David, James, Mike, Suze, Will on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by hannahlouise1706, rachel4, taku11.
    • Photo: Mike Dodd

      Mike Dodd answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      That’s a great question Jay1298. Last year I took part in a Wow How science festival in Oxford. This was aimed at 8 year olds, to encourage them to take an interest in science. I felt that it missed an opportunity to talk to young people that might be thinking about GCSEs, a-levels or university. I want to showcase how amazing the human body is. For example everyday your heart beats 100,000 times. This is amazing and understanding how it gets the energy to do this will be shown in lots of hands on experiments, such as imaging the heart of an exercising athlete (helpfully played by Pete, the commonwealth athlete that works in our lab 😉 ). I have the support of other groups in my building, to showcase the whole body. I want to let young people get to grips with the body and why studying the biological sciences is so rewarding.

    • Photo: Suze Kundu

      Suze Kundu answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I have a true passion for science, and chemistry in particular, but unfortunately due to the fear of it being difficult and boring, people don’t know what kind of world of fun the are missing out on. I’m desperate to make people realise that chemistry isn’t scary. Chemistry is life! Chemistry is making a cup of tea in the morning – or, infusing the essence of tea leaves, which flow out into a vessel of water heated to just below 100 degrees Celcius.

      Chemistry rocks! No, wait, geology rocks… Chemistry is RADICAL! *sigh* – I think that’s worse than my electron joke!

    • Photo: James Marrow

      James Marrow answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think my idea of using the money to help a teacher take part in a really big experiment is a good one! Teachers influence a whole generation of young people, so if I can help a teacher it’ll have a big impact. I want to give them an experience of the real world of a scientist, so they can pass that on. I hope this will encourage more young people to do science.

    • Photo: William Eborall

      William Eborall answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi jay1298. I’d like to win the money to help my department visit more schools in our area and to have more equipment to take to those schools to show students how biology affects our everyday lives. Hopefully this would convince more students that science is interesting and worthwhile to all of us 🙂

      But even if I don’t win, I’m just happy to have the chance to talk to all of you about science and hopefully convince you that science isn’t just boring stuff in books.

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