Nooshin Ghavami

PhD student Nooshin Ghavami went to Carlton Primary School in Tufnell Park, North London, to introduce a class of five and six year olds to engineering. And learned as much as, if not more than they did in the process!

Working with year 1 pupils through the Inspire programme was a new and refreshing experience for me. 

I spent an afternoon explaining my research to a class of Year 1s (aged five and six), beginning by briefly describing what I do as a Medical Imaging PhD student and then talking them through how an MRI works, and how MR images are obtained, using basic images and diagrams. 

To demonstrate the concept of ‘image registration’ I had prepared some play-dough in the shape of the prostate on an ultrasound image. I gave them a minute to mould the play-dough into what a prostate would look like on an MRI, demonstrating very simply the manner in which the image deforms from one modality to another. 

The children were excited by the play-dough of course, but even simple images and diagrams got them inspired. The most challenging aspect was probably the age of the children, since they are so young it was hard to actually get them to focus and listen completely … until they were given the play-dough! 

The key take home for me from the afternoon's fun and games was just how important it is to consider the age of the children when preparing an activity or demo. I had previously been involved in public engagement activities and talks in schools but always with older children - and I hadn't fully prepared for just how different it would be working with a much younger cohort. 

I had a great experience though and would definitely recommend getting involved with Inspire. The only advice I would give is to make sure that the preparations are done exactly according to the children’s age to make sure both the children - and you - get the most out of the activity!'