Alexei Poliakov
Alexei Poliakov, an Investigator Scientist, was involved in an industry day at a school giving advice to students on future careers.
Why did you decide to become an Ambassador?
1.To improve my confidence, communication and presentation skills.
2.To inspire scientists to break their intellectual barriers and become open to the public
3.To give children the first-hand opinion about pros and cons of a career in science
4.To improve children’s chances of success in choosing the right career path and creating challenging goals.
On average, how much time do you commit to STEM Ambassador activities?
I usually commit 5-10 hours a month. My schedule is much busier during summer time due to the constant supervision of secondary school student projects.
Describe the latest activity you were involved in.
The last activity was an industry day at St. Augustine secondary school, Kilburn on 14th January 2009
What was your role in this activity? What were you responsible for?
I organised a careers workshop about roles in science for 5 groups (20-25 people) of Year 9-10 pupils.
I was responsible for making a presentation, organising the teamwork and conducting problem solving activities.
What do you feel were the positive outcomes for the pupils and teaching staff?
The children and teachers received concise and structured information about the typical career paths in science. They obtained knowledge about alternative pathways that scientists could pursue outside academic research. During problem solving sessions, the children familiarised themselves with the real scientific problems we are currently trying to resolve in the laboratories. They successfully performed a brainstorming activity and working in groups helped them to understand the importance of teamwork in completing efficient scientific research and analysis.
What do you feel were the positive outcomes for yourself?
I became more confident in communicating in front of a mixed and unprepared audience. My previous experiences from other Ambassador activities helped me to engage with the children quickly and effectively control timing and behaviour. Also, and very surprisingly, I found out that children were very good in finding easy and unconventional solutions for the problems scientists have been struggling to solve for many years. Overall, I felt that I had done the right thing in sharing my knowledge and views with children and teaching stuff and hopefully made positive changes for their future career endeavours.
Do you have any tips for future STEM Ambassadors?
I would like to advise future Ambassadors to spend more time on homework and try to get rid of all unnecessary details and professional jargon before presenting to children. They are really interested in key facts and timing issues to build their own picture about professions. Also, more teamwork and brainstorming sessions would be appreciated by children compared to dry presentations. And give them the real problem from your work to solve, you would probably be surprised like me!
