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The Event

I’m a Researcher, Get me out of here is a research engagement event that takes place online.

What’s involved?

You interact online with young people (aged 11–16) through live chats and posted ASK questions. You will answer their questions about what it’s like to be a researcher and topics related to your research. You also read young people’s opinions on research and get them thinking about how this affects their daily lives. All you need to take part is a computer with an internet connection.

In addition to your profile there are three sections to the site:

1. ASK, where students send you questions which you answer in your own time; the sooner the better.
2. CHAT, a live chatroom where you talk with school students online, answering their questions and hearing their opinions.
3. VOTE, for students to choose which of you they want to win the £500 prize fund. If there are evictions in your zone, these will take place in the second week of the event. The person with the most votes at 3pm on the final Friday wins!

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How to use the site

Log in

Go to iar.ddev.site and enter the username and password that we’ll have emailed to you. Your username will usually be “firstnamelastname” (e.g. joebloggs).’

THERE IS NO NEED TO REGISTER – as a researcher you have already been pre-registered.

My profile

You have a profile including a photo of you, information about you and your work, and a set of “interview” questions. Your profile enables the students to find out more about you and your research. It’s really helpful if you fill in your profile a as soon as possible. When filling out your profile remember to save regularly, after filling in each section.

Log in then click on the “My Profile” tab.

Edit your profile

Click the “Edit your profile” button at the top of the page. A series of boxes will appear you need to fill them in. There are four sections to your profile.

For the first sections you’ll be asked for a one sentence summary, and then a longer version. The short versions are all displayed on one page with a “read more” option underneath. This is because testing showed this makes it much easier for low literacy students, while it’s easy for students who want to read more to access it.

Don’t feel you need to write loads for the longer versions; people reading online tend to prefer shorter texts.

• About me – This lets students find out more about you and your interests so they can see you as a real person!
• My work – Here the students can read about what you do in more detail.
• My typical day – Writing about your typical day gives students a tangible sense of what your work is like.
• CV – This shows students how you’ve got to where you are now.
• The interview – These questions are here to show your personal side to students, who often feel that academic researcher are not like real people they can relate to.

Update your profile

When you have finished, click the “Update Profile” button at the bottom. You can come back and edit your profile at any time.

Adding images and other media

You can put photos or other images (for example, graphs or images that illustrate your research) into the long answers only of sections A-C; ‘About me and my work’, ‘My typical day’ ‘What I’d do with the money’, and also into the ‘Work photos’ section.

To do this, upload as many images as you wish by clicking the ‘ADD MEDIA’ button and insert them where you want them to appear. Adding them all to a gallery lets people see a bigger version of the image when they click on it.

Add a profile photo

Please upload a full colour photo of your friendly face to the ‘Profile Image’ section. A big part of the event is for students to be able to identify with and relate to engineers as normal people, and having a photo of yourself really helps with this. Your profile image will always be circular on the site.

Answering ASK questions

You will be notified by email of all new questions. You can answer them in your own time, but the sooner the better.

1. Log in
2. On your profile page you will see a “My Unanswered Questions” box on the right hand side. Up to 100 recent unanswered questions will appear in this box as clickable links.
3. To answer a question, click the link and type your answer.

You will also be able to view other researchers’ answers to the question. To make it easier to find questions moderators will tag keywords in questions. The keywords are then used to list any similar questions in the “Related Questions” box on the right hand side.

It is up to you what questions to answer and how much detail to go into. Don’t be afraid to write a really long answer, but at the same time you don’t need to write long answers.

Our advice is simple; be honest, straightforward and to the point in your answers.

Live chats

Live chats are consistently the most popular part of the event for students, teachers and experts. They are all text-based (so don’t worry about looking your best for video), and take place in our online chatrooms, where students ask you questions and express their opinions on your work. Live chats are fun and give immediate contact between researchers and students, allowing students to relate to you. Many teachers tell us that the quieter students are more active in live chats than face to face, providing an interesting change to class dynamics.

There are also Family Chats on every Thursday of the event. These evening chats allow students and their families to talk with you from home.

• Find the up to date list of booked live chats at iar.ddev.site/live-chat
  Leave a comment on each chat to let us and the teacher know whether or not you will be there. This is really important, so we know there are enough engineers available for each chat. You will also be emailed about new bookings.
• To access a live chat session on the day of the chat, log in to the Zone and click the Chat icon at the top of the page
• We’ll open the chat on this page about five minutes before the start of the session
  This gives you time to say hello to the moderator and the students as they arrive. Simply type into the entry box beneath the chat box, and press return. There is no character limit, but the box will turn red if you write a lot. It’s a good idea to keep things short if you can, as the chat moves quickly!

Tips for the chat

• To see the live chats booked, go to iar.ddev.site/live-chat. You can filter all the booked chats by date, and comment any time to say you’ll be there.
• Chats can be very hectic, but also exhilarating. Enjoy the hurly-burly and don’t worry too much about your spelling!
• Remember that anyone with a mortarboard next to their name in a chat is a teacher.
• Click on a student’s message to address your answer to a particular student. Otherwise they may not realise you’ve answered their question, and keep asking it. If you get behind on a chat room, it’s better to skip a few questions and get back to the bottom of the screen, otherwise you keep answering questions after the students have gone! Moderators have had a lot of practice and they can repeat questions that have been missed.
• Use the ‘Message@your name’ option at the top right of the chat window to see only the messages directed at you in real-time. This helps to focus on relevant questions during busy chats.
• You can copy an answer if you get a repeated question (maybe two students have asked the same thing). Find the first question on the ‘Messages @’ tab, and click the speech bubble next to the text. This displays your previous answer so you can copy it.
• To help you prioritise questions, the numbers next to each student’s username are how many times a researcher has answered them. If you see a zero there, this student may appreciate your next answer most.
• Be patient. Some young people’s turn of phrase and use of language may be different from academic discourse. It may take you a little while to understand what they are trying to ask. This is especially true when Special Schools are involved.
• Be tolerant. Sometimes young people can be over-exuberant online. Chat with them and they will calm down and engage with you.
• Don’t take offence. Sometimes you will receive questions which seem quite blunt, but usually students don’t mean to be offensive. The benefit of an online event is that they feel empowered to ask.

Want to see what a chat is like in action? Watch a couple we recorded in the sister I’m a Scientist event.

Answering questions

You will be notified by email of all new questions. You can answer them in your own time, but the sooner the better.

1. Log in
2. On your profile page you will see a “My Unanswered Questions” box on the right hand side. Up to 100 recent unanswered questions will appear in this box as links.
3. To answer a question, click the link and type your answer.

You will also be able to view other researcher’s answers to the question. To make it easier to find questions moderators will tag keywords in questions. The keywords are then used to list any similar questions in the “Related Questions” box on the right hand side.

It is up to you what answers to give and how much detail to go into. Don’t be afraid to write a really long answer, but at the same time you don’t always need to write long answers.

Our advice is simple; be honest, straightforward and to the point in your answers.

Moderation of questions: Our policy

All questions are moderated before they are sent to you. The moderators work very hard to strike a balance between making your lives easier as participants, and giving students the chance to ask real questions. Remember most students are 13 or 14 years old, and some classes may be from Special Schools or young offender institutions.

Duplicates and questions not relevant to the Zone

We know you will get sent some very similar questions (believe us, the moderators wade through and weed out a lot more of them!). Moderators will take out duplicate questions, but allow through questions which may be similar, but make additional or slightly different points.

Offensive questions

Moderators will remove rude or offensive questions (there are generally very few) and anything which breaks the house rules. They will allow challenging questions. They will allow irreverent, but friendly, questions. There will always be a moderator in the chatroom to help things along.

However, they are not miracle-workers, and from time to time there will be the odd chat that we cannot get on track. Bear with us, we’re doing our best!

Voting

Students VOTE for the researcher they think should win a prize of £500 to spend on a project that engages the public with their research. Evictions take place in the second week of the event until the winner is announced on the final Friday.

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Four key things you need to know

This may take about 1–2 hours per day. Some days will be busier than others.

Only the live chats are at specific times. Many people wait until after work to answer ASK questions.

This is not a seminar for the super-smart experts of the future.

There will be a wide variation in the students taking part. Most will be 13 or 14 years old, but some will be older, up to 18. There will be a big variation in ability. Some will be “gifted and talented” students, some will be lower ability classes, or have special educational needs. The point of the event is to try to engage all students, not just the ones who might go on to study at university.

Most teenagers won’t grow up to be academic researchers, but they will all grow up to be people. As adults they’ll have to make decisions and be critical— as voters, as consumers — and we are trying to help them develop the skills and confidence to do that. For some, “Where do bogies come from?” or, “Do you like your job?” may be the most pressing question they can think of. Part of the point is that this event humanises researchers for young people; they realise that you are “like normal people” who they can relate to.

Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”.

You will be asked many questions which are not in your area. Answer what you feel you can, but don’t feel you have to Google all evening to answer these questions.

Part of the point of the event is that students get a more realistic idea of researchers. They can learn that, for example, there’s no reason why a psychologist should know about how much the moon weighs. This makes researchers seem a lot less intimidating. You can be an academic without being a genius who knows everything! That can be a liberating realisation for students.

Also, of course, many things in your field are unknown, that’s what researchers are for. And even as adults, we can learn new things all the time. This is part of the fun of research! Don’t be afraid to let students in on that secret.

Get your boss onside.

We’d strongly advise you to tell your boss you are taking part in the event, and get their support, if you can. Several participants said that this made a big difference. Questions on the website can be answered during the evening, but live chats have to be during the school day so during working hours.

Also, many people found themselves discussing some of the more intriguing questions with colleagues. This can be one of the most stimulating things about the event. Get your office involved in the fun! If you need ammunition to persuade your boss of the benefits, we suggest the following points:

• Taking part in I’m a Researcher develops your communication skills. This is the most mentioned benefit from taking part.
• It can re-energise you about your own work, and get you thinking differently. Teenagers can ask great questions.
• It can broaden your relationships with other researchers across disciplines. It’s easy sometimes to get stuck in your specialism. People in similar events have learnt, or been reminded of many other areas, and even formed collaborations (or friendships) with researchers in other areas they “met”.
• You’re “giving something back” and contributing to education and the future of your field.

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Advice on engagement

Be yourself

Our best advice is to be yourself in your answers. You don’t need to pretend to like Justin Bieber for young people to relate to you, being genuine is what’s important.

Be friendly

When we asked people what they would do differently if they did it again, one answer that summed up many was, “I would be less formal and more personal from the start”.

Simplify your language

Even if you think you are using simple language, you likely work in an environment where there is a lot of jargon, and technical words are often used when simpler ones are available. It’s easy not to realise when your language may be going over the heads of most 13 year olds.

Don’t “identify”, “find”. Don’t “utilise”, “use”. Don’t “investigate”, “look at”.

Talk to us!

Please communicate with other researchers and the moderation team, as well as the students. We’ve occasionally had people finish the event and say in feedback that they were having technical problems, or were worried about particular questions, or similar. We’d much rather hear at the time so we can do something about it. Let us know if you’re having problems using the feedback form on the right hand side of the browser when you’re logged in.

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