So What? How STEM Makes a Difference Blog

All STEM fields help to make the world a better place, that’s why we want to celebrate the science your hosts are performing. For this competition, you need to write a short blog describing why you feel your chosen STEM field is important, and how it could make a difference to society. 

You should include:

• a description of your host’s work, 
• an explanation of why this work is important 
• how it may help people in ways they hadn’t realised.

This is an opportunity to communicate STEM research to a public audience, so try your best to be engaging and convincing! 

This competition is kindly being judged by TBC The winner will receive a £100 Amazon voucher, first runner up will receive a £50 Amazon voucher and the second runner up will receive a £40 Amazon voucher! The winners will also have their blog post exclusively published on the In2scienceUK website. 

Below, we’ve listed some tips to put into practice to support you with your creative writing skills.

Please submit your blog post containing between 400-500 words in total here using our Google Form: 

Before submitting, please read the full Terms and Conditions here: 2023 Blog Competition T&Cs

We will accept submissions from Monday 24 July @ 09:00 until Friday 1 September @ 17:00.

Prizes

1st Place – £100 Amazon voucher
1st Runner-Up – £50 Amazon voucher
2nd Runner-Up – £40 Amazon voucher

Key Dates

Submissions Open: Monday 24 July @ 9:00
Deadline for Submissions: Friday 1 September @ 17:00
Winners Announced: by Monday 2 October 2023

How to Write a Blog

Blogs are a great way of recording your personal journey online, and sharing your views on a subject that you are interested in can help to spread awareness.  

You will need to use a word processor to write your blog. We recommend using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. 

Below are a few of In2ScienceUK’s top tips for your blog: 

• Create a good structure for your writing so your article is clear and concise (it might help to use subheadings) 
• Use clear, simple language and short sentences.
• Avoid too many technical terms. You want everyone to understand your blog post (even if they know nothing about the topic!) 
• Try to be fun and entertaining, you want to convince your readers of how this research will help the world… that means you have to make sure they’re interested (maybe try using rhetorical questions, catchy titles etc.) 
• Make sure to stay on topic. It may be helpful to briefly plan your article before completing your first draft, and make sure you’re not including too many different topics
• Check your spelling, grammar and punctuation

Remember that you can ask your hosts for help, and some may have useful experience in writing blogs themselves.

2022 Winners

Take a look at our 2022 winners blog posts featured on our news page:

Uptake Strategies

This competition is kindly judged by our supporters the Uptake Strategies.

Uptake Strategies is a valued and independent healthcare consultancy made up of creative problem solvers, and industry experts. They build plans and strategies together with healthcare businesses to drive brand performance and improve patient outcomes.

Inspire positive change Poster

For this competition, we want you to create a poster which communicates a global challenge we are facing and potential solutions to help address it! You can select from one of the three global challenges below, aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals:

1. Climate action
2. Good Health and Wellbeing
3. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Your poster should be eye-catching and will be displayed in a place your audience will see it. This could be your local shops, school(s) or youth centre. Inspire others in your community to take action!

The winner will receive a £100 Amazon voucher, first runner up will receive a £50 Amazon voucher and the second runner up will receive a £40 Amazon voucher! The winners will also have their photo/illustration posted on our In2scienceUK social media. Please submit here using our Google Form: 

Before submitting, please read the full Terms and Conditions here: 2023 Poster Competition T&Cs

We will accept submissions from Monday 24 July @ 09:00 until Friday 1 September @ 17:00.

Prizes

1st Place – £100 Amazon voucher
1st Runner-Up – £50 Amazon voucher
2nd Runner-Up – £40 Amazon voucher  

Key Dates

Submissions Open: Monday 24 July @ 09:00
Deadline for Submissions: Friday 1 September @ 17:00
Winners Announced: by Monday 2 October

How to Produce design your Poster

Choose one of the global challenges that aligns with your STEM interest, each category is broad and has the possibility to be interpreted through a variety of STEM disciplines. Your aim is to stay true to the facts whilst inspiring action/change.

There are a few different platforms you can use to create your poster, Microsoft Powerpoint, Canva or Google Docs/Slides.

Here are a few of In2ScienceUK’s top tips for making your poster: 

• Focus on the key points! You don’t have a lot of space and many people don’t stop to read a long poster. Focus on one aspect that people in your audience could address or work towards changing.
• Make sure you use images, short text and an interesting title. You want your poster to be eye-catching. 
• Get creative and focus on your audience! What would inspire you and your audience to make a positive change in their lives? This can be from having reusable bottles to using technology to manage electricity and gas usage.

Remember that you can ask your hosts for help in deciding which challenge to cover and what change to focus on.

Abcam

This competition is kindly judged by our supporters at Abcam.

Abcam, the leading supplier of protein research tools to life scientists. They are on a mission to help accelerate the next breakthrough in drug discovery, diagnostics and basic research.