Teacher FAQs

If you’re already taking part, use the Teacher Notes for preparation information and suggested lesson plans.

How do I log in?

First apply to take part. We only send log in details to teachers who are allocated classes in the event. You will be emailed your username and password. Click “Log In” at the top right of this page, and enter your log in details.

How do students log in?

Once you have your log in, go to your profile (you can find a link to it in the top right corner) and click the “Generate Student Registration Link” button to create a link you will need to send your students to set up their accounts. Once they have their set up their accounts, students can access the site any time.

I’ve forgotten my password, what do I do?

Don’t worry, there’s various things to try:

  1. We emailed a copy of your username and temporary password when we allocated you a place in the event. If you can, go back and check that email.
  2. If you can’t find that email or you’ve changed your password, click on the forgotten password link and we’ll email you instructions to re-set your password.
  3. If that doesn’t work then you can email us at admin@imascientist.uk telling us your name and username.

What is this site about?

This March, the Medical Research Council and I’m a Scientist team bring you the online Medical Research Zone.

This interactive STEM activity is happening over four weeks (2nd-27th March 2020), connecting secondary school students with 28 medical researchers and support staff.

This online activity is based on the award-winning I’m a Scientist project where students challenge the scientists over fast-paced online text-based live CHATs. They ASK the scientists anything they want, and VOTE for their favourite scientist to win.

 

You can only talk on the site if you are one of the students, teachers or scientists who are taking part. The I’m a Scientist Medical Research Zone is produced by Mangorolla CIC and Gallomanor, specialists in helping organisations engage their communities.

What can I do on the site?

Students can:

  • ‘Meet’ the medical researchers & read their profiles
  • ASK them questions
  • Let scientists know their opinions
  • CHAT live with medical researchers and ask them questions
  • VOTE for their favourite researcher to win the event
  • Enter a student contest to win a £20 gift voucher (for best engagement in the activity)

Teachers can:

  • Generate student registration links
  • Download and use lesson plans and resources
  • Develop students’ oracy, SMSC and Working Scientifically skills
  • Make lessons fun!

We hope everyone will find the Medical Research Zone useful, engaging, and enjoyable. Explore the site, check out the scientists’ profiles, the live chats and all the questions that have been asked before, and… have fun!

How can I book a live chat?

Once logged in go to the live chat booking page where you should see the booking form – Follow the instructions to book.

  • If you need to cancel a chat, email us as soon as possible at admin@imascientist.uk.
  • You need to be logged in to book your chat
  • Chats are 30 minutes long
  • You can make one booking per allocated class
  • We’ll confirm your chat booking with an email
  • Please request your live chats before the event starts so we can do our best to fit them in
  • If you request live chats once the event has started we will try to fit them in, but cannot promise anything

What sort of questions should students be asking?

We aren’t prescriptive. It’s good that students feel emboldened to ask the questions they really want to! We’ll take out gratuitously rude ones…

It might be helpful to mind-map some questions as a group or ask students to write 5 questions down ahead of the live chat. They should find inspiration on researchers’ profiles and in the suggested preparation lessons.

Are there any IT checks we should do before the event?

The chat system uses Javascript. You need to have Javascript enabled and this is normal.

We have had reports from a couple of schools having difficulty accessing the live chats on the sites. In these cases, it is likely that the school network is blocking the site.

To minimise the chance of having IT problems, ask your IT technician to whitelist these URLs before your live chat:

MATOMO_URLiasuk.ddev.site
MATOMO_URLimascientist.ie
MATOMO_URLimanengineer.org.uk
MATOMO_URLimamedic.uk
MATOMO_URLgoogleapis.com
MATOMO_URLgserviceaccount.com
gstatic.com
firebaseapp.com
firebaseio.com
MATOMO_URLfirebaseio.com

If you are still having issues or need to get in touch urgently, please call us on 01225 326892.

I’m having problems with the website. What should I do?

Lots of problems can be caused by cookies not working on your machine. Make sure cookies are turned on.

You may occasionally not be able to see the latest pages or answers. Usually clicking refresh will sort it out. If not, try clearing the cache (Tools>options>clear cache or clear/delete private data, in most browsers).

If you’re still having problems please email admin@iasuk.ddev.site or visit the staffroom between 9-5 during the event. You can also call 01225 326892.

Why are the experts in the Gallery in that order?

The participants appear in the Gallery in reverse alphabetical order (we mean, people called Z first and people called A last). This is because research has shown that people whose names begin with letters near the start of the alphabet tend to be more successful in life (http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/new/USA/Experiment_surname.shtml). Maybe because they are always first in lists!

Here at I’m a Scientist we think life should be more fair, and we try to do our bit to make it fairer. So we are putting the people from the end of the alphabet first for once.

How do I give feedback?

All feedback is greatly appreciated. We take everything you tell us on board and this helps us to make the event even better each time. Positive comments are also very welcome and make us feel good about all the work that goes in. We’ll send teachers a feedback survey after the event – please spare 2 minutes to share your thoughts in this survey.

If you have any comments in the meantime, please email us at admin@iasuk.ddev.site. We look forward to hearing from you!