So You Want To Be A Scientist?

Material World , Radio 4’s weekly science show, is running a competition for anyone who has a scientific idea they want to investigate. A level students are eligible to enter, and if you are chosen you will be given help to develop your idea with assistance from top scientific researchers. Everyone has a scientific question they want to investigate! Why not enter this competition and develop yours?

The Prince Philip Award and Marsh Prize 2009

I’ve been looking out for this for a while. The Prince Philip Award and Marsh Prize is an annual competition for students aged 19 years or younger. To quote the organisers, ‘The entry should be a written account of original practical work involving some aspect of animal biology, e.g. behaviour, physiology or ecology.’

The purpose is to encourage students to get on with investigating biology rather than just learning it from books, or lab practicals.

Rules and guidlines are here. Come and speak to a member of the biology staff if you would like to enter the competition for guidance on project ideas. It would be a great way to extend your biology learning experience, and should be interesting and fun to do also.

The Prince Philip Award and Marsh Prize 2008

The Prince Philip Award and Marsh Prize 2008 is an annual prize organised by The Zoological Society of London. It aims to encourage students to see biology as a relevant and exciting field of study and to make the step from learning to investigation.

It is aimed at A-level students who are undertaking project work, so it fits in perfectly with your A2 coursework. If you are investigating any aspect of animal biology for your coursework then you should seriously consider entering the competition. It will help you focus your work towards producing a high quality piece of investigative research which will also benefit your final course marks.

If your are interested then look at The Zoological Society of London website which also has a full set of entry guidelines. You can also ask any member of Biology staff for more information.

Wellcome Image Awards 2008

The Wellcome Trust are running a competition for secondary school students to showcase images from the Wellcome Image Awards 2008. All you have to do is look through all of the images and decide which one is your favourite. You then fill in a form explaining why you think that one is the best (less than 100 words). Simple. There are prizes too!

Whilst you are looking at the images you can read information about the scientist who made the image and hear a short interview with them also.