Meet the Scientist – bringing together young people and researchers

Our Meet the Scientist sessions are a popular part of school visits to LifeLab.

They are short, 15 minute informal sessions, where small groups of school students meet professionals who use science and/or research in their work lives.

Here, we share some tips for scientists or researchers interested in running a session.

A great experience

Meet the Scientist is highly valued by the professionals, students and teachers who take part.

It always highly rated on our evaluation forms, with lots of positive comments from teachers and students who’ve attended the sessions.

Seeing real scientists and researchers can change young people’s perceptions of them, and help challenge misconceptions. Young people realise they are ‘normal’ people, just like them. This encourages them to consider these jobs as something they could do.

We see this in their feedback. For example, Zainab said, “I didn’t know that all scientists didn’t work in a lab, and there were a variety of scientists roles”, while Eve said, “I thought they were all old and boring, but they are not.”

We therefore try to make sure two out of three scientists and researchers are female, inspiring girls to consider jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

For some students, the experience changes their career aspirations. For example, Gia said in her feedback, “I now want to be a research scientist.”

However, it’s not just about opening their eyes to possible careers. Students are fascinated by the research happening in the university and hospital in their city, and find it really interesting.

Stephanie said she learnt “about the pollution and what is going outside in the air we breathe”, while Nadeem said he “liked learning about the bone marrow and seeing a hip bone.”

Teachers also really value the Meet the Scientist sessions, with many saying it is a key benefit of their visit to LifeLab. One teacher said they liked the way that their students could “meet scientists and see how different pathways can lead to careers in STEM.”

Another said it was great to “see information the students had learned in class over the past few months being further reinforced by professionals, showing them that information taught at school is relevant to the world around them.”

Not only for scientists

A common misconception is that this session is only for ‘traditional’ scientists, but this is a unique opportunity to give young people an insight into the diverse jobs and careers available to them through research and STEM-related disciplines.  

Your insights and experiences have the potential to make lasting impressions and inspire students. You can be a lab manager, technician, PhD student, researcher, statistician, communications officer, project manager, administrator, or any other role. The diversity of expertise you bring makes this session especially impactful. Your contribution will be incredibly valuable to the students.

James Thompson, a Specialist Electron Microscopist, said: “Being part of LifeLab and Meet the Scientist is so rewarding and important to me.

“I love getting to see the flash of inspiration in the students’ faces, when you share a fact that blows their mind, and the stream of questions that follows. Science is a wonderful topic, and I hope sessions like these will encourage students to follow that career.”

What would I need to do? 

The purpose of Meet the Scientist sessions is to open up the world of science and research to young people, demonstrate the breadth of opportunity, and to challenge their misconceptions and their perceptions of what ‘real scientists’ are.

You will give a short introduction about yourself and the role you do. This is an opportunity to share something about your current job and career path that is of interest to you. You may wish to use a prop, have some short interactive activity, even a dramatic image – something to encourage discussion and questions.

Then open the floor for questions. The students will have been primed to think of questions, but young people can be shy about speaking up, so having some open questions to encourage discussion is always a useful tactic.

Attending a training session

What if you’ve never done anything like this before, or you’re unsure what you need to do?

You can come along to our Meet the Scientist training day. We’ll give you an insight into what it’s like to run a session, an idea of what we’re looking for, and tips on how you can prepare your session. It’s also possible to shadow another session, so you can see for yourself what it’s like.

Over 500 people have now taken part in this training day. Together, their sessions have meant over 17,000 young people have now heard about science and research happening at the university and hospital.

While not a requirement for doing a Meet the Scientist session, our training day attendees have said they have found it extremely helpful. It gives you tips on how to pitch your research to young people, opportunities to practice that training, and feedback on how to improve.   

Previous attendees have said they particularly liked the ‘elevator pitch’ sessions, where they explained their research clearly and concisely, with feedback on how to improve. They also valued opportunities to meet a teacher, and scientists experienced at running sessions.

Arabella Hornung, from the Faculty of Medicine, said: “I love how dynamic and interactive this event is. It helps people to become more engaged and interested in the different topics. I also love how interdisciplinary it is, and how it brings individuals from all different sectors, with work or research in topics you wouldn’t even have imagined existed. Everything was explained clearly and logically. Staff were really helpful and supportive.”

Researchers tell us Meet the Scientist changes the way they think about their own research. It’s also a great way to ensure your research is having an impact, as it takes it outside the ‘bubble’ of scientists and researchers in your field, and means people in the real world hear about it.

“Phrasing your research to a teenager made you really think about what you were doing,” said Michail Rontionov, from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

Meet the Scientist can be really helpful for demonstrating your commitment to public engagement and science communication. The training day feeds into the STEM Ambassadors scheme, and we can get you set up with DBS checks. We also put together profiles of scientists and researchers on lifelabonline.org for schools and colleges to see.

How do I get involved?

Come and share your passion for what you do, make sure your research has a real impact, and inspire the next generation to follow in your footsteps.

Please email us at lifelab@soton.ac.uk. We’ll let you know when our next training session is, and the dates we have available for you to come and run your session.

There is no expectation that you will be able to run a session on one of these dates. We appreciate you giving up your time when you can, and value any sessions you can offer.