I’m a Scientist, Decipher My Data (DMD) provides an online way to make data real for secondary school science students. It allows them to become real scientists working alongside leading academics on a real experiment. They’ll report their findings, peer review other schools and publish their work on the DMD site for review by the…

Each lesson is designed to take approximately 50-60 minutes. Most schools will allocate roughly 3 lessons plus some time for homework. You are free to use as much or as little class time for Decipher My Data: Flu!

That’s OK! The absolute bare minimum commitment is to supply school absence data until the end of Term 4 and to complete the School Profile. This is a questionnaire about your school which will be completed during the project. It contains information about the number of pupils at your school, the geographic area, the percentage…

Dr Rob Aldridge is motivated by the lack of published studies in this area and can see that by working with students a project that would otherwise require a large budget can be done cost-effectively.  Children have the highest rates of flu and although it’s a minor illness for most, the infection can cause hospitalisation…

Rather than learning about “How Science Works”, your students can actually be part of science. The work that your students do as part of this project will be of real benefit to researchers looking to reduce the impact that flu has on our communities. At the end of the project, the work your students have…

Key Concepts: 1.1 Scientific thinking a. using scientific ideas and models to explain phenomena and developing them creatively to generate and test theories. b. critically analysing and evaluating evidence from observations and experiments. 1.4 Collaboration  a. sharing developments and common understanding across disciplines and boundaries. Key Processes: 2.1 Practical and enquiry skills Pupils should be…

Anyone from a secondary school in England and Wales can take part in the Flu project. Decipher My Data is suitable for students in KS3 and KS4 – particularly when studying topics to do with disease transmission. Decipher My Data would also make an ideal activity for a science or STEM club to participate in.

If you have participated in I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here! you will have experience a number of scientists working with a small group of schools over a short, intense time period. Decipher My Data will be running over a longer time with 100+ schools for our small team of scientists to communicate…

Dr Rob Aldridge (that’s him on the right) is a specialty registrar in Public Health and an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at University College London’s Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology. Rob’s research interests are focused on respiratory infections such as influenza and tuberculosis. Rob has published research on a wide range of infectious disease and public…

Your students will be contributing work towards a real scientific experiment. Nobody knows what the outcome will be or even if the experiment will work. No longer will your students have to learn separately about “How Science Works” (or often how it doesn’t!) when other people do it who they often perceive to be “cleverer”…