Face-to-face outreach activities with scientific researchers provide schools with tangible role models, real world context for the curriculum, and a unique shared experience for groups of students. Moving from face-to-face to online engagement at short notice represents a unique challenge for the continuation of many outreach activities. The development, logistics, and feedback for a new series of live virtual sessions between university-based researchers and secondary schools are described here. Stories from the Lab was developed and run with science teachers during the initial phase of the COVID-19 lockdown in Ireland. In addition to the benefits afforded to teachers and students, it also provided the researchers with suitable work experience and peer-learning as part of their structured Ph.D. program.