The 7th of June 2024 was the culmination of my Famelab journey. I gave a speech on my research on working class girls in education at the Cheltenham Science Festival as part of their Famelab Competition. FameLab UK back with a bang at Cheltenham Science Festival 2024 | Cheltenham Festivals
Back in October 2023 never having heard of The Cheltenham Science Festival (shameful I know!), I saw an advert from the Doctoral School about this thing called Famelab. After briefly reading the blurb, I decided to send an application to the Doctoral School. I still had no idea what Famelab was really about, only that it was to help improve your communication skills and improve your confidence when presenting your academic research. All things I was looking to do. And this year for the first time the competition was open to social scientists!
I didn’t hear anything so thought I had been unsuccessful. In December I attended the Doctoral School Christmas party and one of the lovely Doctoral School team said to me, we have got your application for Famelab and I think you might be accepted! I was still very non-committal and said OK and promptly forgot all about it. Time passed until one day in February I received an email saying that my application had been successful and I was invited to attend a Famelab regional hub training session. This training session talked about how to write and deliver a three-minute speech and showed us tips and ideas for improving confidence when public speaking. At the end of the session, we were then asked to record a three-minute video of our speech and send it to them to be judged.
At this point in the process, I was still very non-committal. Do I really want to record myself; do I want others to see me talking about my research. The week before the video deadline I had an internal argument with myself about moving out of my comfort zone. I was comfortable presenting my research when I had a power point presentation or notes in front of me, but this was three minutes without any prompts at all. This was different! I was at the point of not going ahead when I received an email from Lauren Blackwell who is the Research Excellence and Assessment manager at Lincoln, asking me whether I was going to submit a video. That email made me change my mind. I decided I had nothing to lose. So, I asked a fellow PhD student Holly to record my video for me and I am not ashamed to say tried to cheat! I asked her to hold up my notes whilst she was recording me. Needless to say, this attempt was dry and boring, and I kept stumbling over the words. Holly just said to me, Nicki you know what you are talking about, you don’t need notes just say what’s in your head. That was the best advice. I just put my notes away and spoke naturally and without any back up. Holly’s response, you smashed that! This was the encouragement I needed, and I sent off the video.
Once again, I did not think I would get through to the regional finals as there were many more people who were better at public speaking than me from the University of Lincoln. Also, as a social scientist, I thought no one from a science background would be interested in what I have to say about working class girls and education. I was of course wrong! I made it through to the regional finals.
At the regional finals I was in awe of the other competitors, they were talking about climate change, cures for cancer and dinosaurs! They had props and were word perfect! I was in total shock when they announced my name as the winner. I was the first social scientist to make it through to the UK final!
From that point a real adventure began. As part of the prize for winning the regional finals the Cheltenham Science Festival pay for an all-expenses paid Masterclass weekend in Cheltenham. Throughout the weekend we received training and support from former Famelab winners, other science communicators and media training. All this proved invaluable when writing and presenting my final speech at the Science Festival. There was also the added bonus of meeting the other finalists, learning together and then going to the Jazz Festival as part of the weekend.
The week of the Science Festival we were given an access all areas pass to the event. We were able to relax in the Green Room with some very famous scientists and to attend sessions and activities in around the festival site.
Then on Friday 7th June I gave my speech. As a result of all the training and support that I had been given and being treated like an absolute superstar by the Famelab team, meant that my confidence was high. I really enjoyed speaking on stage with my Britney mic and being asked questions from the illustrious panel of judges. Although I didn’t win the competition, the whole experience has been amazing, it will stay with me for the rest of my life. I have met some inspirational people not only my fellow contestants but the Science Festival team, who are passionate about supporting people to communicate properly researched science to the world.
The training and support you receive as a Famelab finalist is world class and the whole experience will inform how I present and teach my research in the future. So why don’t you enter this thing called Famelab and reap the benefits for yourself.
Nicki Pierce is a scholarship PhD Student on the UKRI funded Following Young Fathers Further Project. Researching gender and education, class, disadvantage, young fatherhood and the notion of gender performativity and Associate Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology