• Question: if you won this competition what would you do with the prize money

    Asked by Calvin Dunne to Gavin, Karen, Mark, Michel, Roisin on 8 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by 247xygg46.
    • Photo: Michel Destrade

      Michel Destrade answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      I would donate it to the Maths Enrichment Programme, a fantastic way to reach out to maths-oriented pupils from the West of Ireland.

      Every year the School of Maths at NUI Galway runs a “Maths Enrichment Programme”. TY and LC students come from all over the West of Ireland to explore their interest in maths and challenge themselves with problem-solving quizzes and lessons. They come on Saturdays, sometimes taking a bus by themselves from far away!

      But the programme is run on the goodwill of a few colleagues who are getting tired and need some fresh blood. So I would donate the €500 to bring in university students and help them. Maybe the students will go on to type their lessons and quizzes or buy some equipment to make the lessons more fun. The idea is to make the programme more sustainable.

    • Photo: Karen

      Karen answered on 8 Nov 2016:

      If I won I will donate the money to my daughters school for the promotion of science. It is a primary school but i feel very strongly that chikdren shoukd be encouraged to enjoy science at a young age so they cam chose their secondary school subjects wisely. I would hope that through my contacts in various medical supply companies I could use the money to get suitable science books and equipment at a good price thus making the most of the prize money!

    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      I’m involved with a podcast run here in UCC. The podcast is based around talking about science in a fun and easy to understand way. We have 2 episodes recorded and ready to go (and are planning at least another 2 before Christmas).

      I’d use the money to help secure a domain name for our podcast, host the website (so that you can all listen to it for free) and upgrade our recording equipment (we’re using very cheap microphones at the moment, which makes recording a very difficult process as we have to run everything through a single laptop and then remix a single track later on. It’s a real pain!).

    • Photo: Roisin Jones

      Roisin Jones answered on 13 Nov 2016:

      I would use the money for UCC Chemistry Department’s ‘Spectroscopy in a Suitcase’ scheme to fund continuing chemistry outreach to secondary schools in Ireland.

      ‘Spectroscopy in a Suitcase’ (SIAS) is a scheme which aims to give school students the chance to engage with science and learn about spectroscopy through hands-on experience provided by the SIAS team, who travel with the equipment to schools throughout the country. SIAS tries to focus on real-life applications of science, and encourages students to think about studying chemistry and generally to engage with science more on a day-to-day basis.

      SIAS is free to schools that want to participate: this means that money is always necessary to keep the scheme up and running, and, if I won the prize money from ‘I’m a Scientist’, it would go towards maintaining/buying equipment to help make sure that students can continue to have great experiences with science!

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