Now that all Covid restrictions have been lifted at Imperial College London, the SCAMP research team took the opportunity to offer a full week’s work experience programme for year 12s attending a SCAMP school. The Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones (SCAMP) is the largest study in the world looking specifically at the impact of mobile phones and social media on young people’s physical and mental health, and brain function. The SCAMP study started in 2014 with 7,000 young people from 39 schools across greater London taking part. The work experience programme was offered to schools as a thank you for the schools participation in the study, and as an incentive to continue working with the SCAMP team as we continue with another round of data collection with a new cohort.
Nine young people from four different schools in and around the London area were invited to campus for a taster of how the SCAMP team conducts its research. Students participated in performing literature searches, conducting journal reviews and had a taster of programming for research. Unlike other work experience opportunities where the information flows one way the SCAMP work experience programme was designed to be different. The programme enabled students to directly contribute to the SCAMP research project, giving students the opportunity to say they helped to shape an active research project at Imperial College London on their UCAS applications. Through the comms and engagement activities work experience students helped to shape future communication to their peers about the SCAMP study. The sessions on project management allowed students to identify risks associated with recruitment to the study and put forward their views and ideas on how the SCAMP team could better reach out to young people to encourage participation in the study and adhere to its principles.
Following the success of the work experience programme the SCAMP team is creating further opportunities for school children to work with the SCAMP team but this time enabling them to directly plan and run a SCAMP data collection session at their school with responsibility for encouraging participation from their peers.
Read below to find out what the students had to say about the work experience programme:
What did you enjoy about the programme?
Being directly involved in the SCAMP research study and putting my own ideas forward.
OA, SA, Hammersmith Academy
Meeting people and working together.
EC, Berkhamsted.
What is one skill you learned from SCAMP that you will use in your life going forward?
Understanding different research methods and their pros/cons. I want to go into academia, so I feel like I have a head start.
FL, Berkhamsted.
What activity did you gain the most from?
Coding in statistics. Coding can be a life skill and is used everywhere.
AT, Morpeth Sixth Form
Qualitative analysis really got me thinking outside the box.
FL, Berkhamsted.
Project Management gave me insight into a job I was already interested in.
SA, Hammersmith Academy
How will you use the lessons from this week in your studies going forward?
Using the research techniques in the future, and using traits of a good project manager to lead activities in the future.
MA, Morpeth
What did you enjoy about the programme?
There was a taster of many different things that would be skills needed/beneficial for the future.
KJG, Hammersmith Academy