• Question: Is your research reliant on the £500 you can win in the competition of i'm a scientist get me out of here???? Thankyou!!!! :)

    Asked by ducksareawesome to Ivan, Jessica, Nicola, Sarah on 21 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by bethen, macncheese.
    • Photo: Sarah Tesh

      Sarah Tesh answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      Nope. The money from I’m a Scientist is supposed to go to promoting science in schools.

      So my plan (IF I won) is to donate the money to a school in Uganda, Africa. The money would help them fund a borehole (which is a pipe that goes deep underground and pumps the clean water to the surface). At the moment the children have to walk very far to get water and this water is not safe to drink. They are constantly at risk of catching diseases that can kill them and are often ill, forcing them to miss school. Combine this with the time taken out of the school day because of getting the water, the children then struggle to catch up and have to drop out of school. This clean water from the borehole will help them, and their community, be healthy and allow them to go to school every day, gaining the very important education we take for granted. It opens up a future for them and a chance to not only learn to read and write but also to learn about science and the world around them.

      I chose this as my where my money would go because, although my material will hopefully help clean many people’s water, it still needs to go through years of development and testing to fit the legal and health requirements. This money would be my way of helping a community right now and for generations to come.

    • Photo: Jessica Liley

      Jessica Liley answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      No, because as Sarah says- the money will go straight towards the promotion of science to the public.

      If I won the money I would love to spend it on some new exciting science equipment for an inner city primary school, which does not have good science facilities. My love for science started at a really early age, because of great primary school teachers and exciting experiments which got the whole classroom involved!

      So I want to buy some new equipment for a school which may not have these advantages. Then, I would visit the school to give them a demonstration with the equipment, do some experiments with them, and have lots of fun with science 🙂 hopefully this will help inspire the students to one day become the next great scientists!

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