Academic Experience

Human evolution: exploring our origins

Explore fossil discoveries of a variety of hominin species including Australopithecus (Lucy), early Homo species in Africa, and the Neanderthals of Eurasia, before discussing their place in the human family tree. This will include a handling session with casts of fossil skulls.

Type of Activity: Talk and practical session
Relevant Subjects: Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5

Human bioarchaeology: interpreting evidence from skeletal remains

The study of human remains can tell us a lot about an individual and aid in our understanding of the lives of people in the past. Using archaeological skeletal remains in our university laboratory we will demonstrate how to determine age-at-death, sex, and stature as well as discussing human variation and evidence for disease and trauma that can be seen on the skeleton.

Type of Activity: Practical session on-campus in the science lab
Relevant Subjects: Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff

Material Worlds

We are surrounded by material objects in our everyday lives. From our everyday clothing choices to our most valued personal possessions, objects of material culture are an important window into our lives and how we understand the world around us. In this talk we will look at how anthropologists have used examples from around the world, and from closer to home, to gain insights into how material objects shape our relationships with other people and how they inform and express our identities.

Type of Activity: Classroom based talk
Relevant Subjects: Sociology, History, Philosophy
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

The Origins of Conflict and Warfare

There are many models about why conflict exists between individuals and particularly between groups, which we often call warfare. These come from history, anthropology/sociology and psychology, and often argue for universals of human behaviour or base themselves in modern-day ethnographic or primate observations. Surprisingly, there is a significant body of evidence from prehistoric archaeology, going back many thousands of years, which is often side-lined, yet is highly relevant to this fundamental question.

Type of Activity: Classroom based talk
Relevant Subjects: Sociology, History, Psychology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

See the BA (Hons) Anthropology and Archaeology course page for more information

Who was Homer?

Homer is one of the most famous poets from ancient Greece and his Iliad and Odyssey still inspire art, films and novels today. But who was Homer? Did he ever even exist? Was he the poor, blind, and wandering poet described in the ancient sources? In this session, we will consider texts and images about his life from the ancient to the modern age, and explore how and why the divine bard Homer influences our contemporary culture.

Type of Activity: Classroom based talk
Relevant Subjects: Classical Civilisation, History, Greek, Latin, Ancient History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

Did Nero really fiddle whilst Rome burned? Reading Historical Sources Critically

Everyone knows three things about Nero - that he didn't get along with his mother, tortured Christians in the Colisseum, and fiddled whilst Rome burned down around him. But, did he really do all these bad things? And if he didn't where did these stories come from? Why are people so ready to believe such stories? And if he were so bad, how come he was greatly admired by the lower classes in Rome and the Greeks of his time, and by the princes of the later Renaissance? In this session, we'll talk about the reign of the emperor Nero -- especially in terms of the sources of the time that recount his reign and that shape our current perception of Nero. While the Hollywood version of Nero is always entertaining, our job as historians is to examine the original sources carefully. How can we put together both written sources and material sources material remains (statues, coins, &c) to re-evaluate objectively Nero's reign?

Type of Activity: Classroom based talk and activity
Relevant Subjects: Classical Civilisation, Classics, Ancient History, General European History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

See the BA (Hons) Ancient Classical and Medieval Studies course page for more information

What is inclusive education?

What does it mean to be included in education? Is our education inclusive just because we are treated equally or that we can all access the same classroom? Or do we need to be treated as distinct individuals in order to be genuinely included? This talk explores a range of theories and philosophies that help to extend our understanding of inclusion in education.

Type of Activity: Classroom based talk
Relevant Subjects: Philosophy, Sociology, Religion and Ethics, Health and Social Care, Child Development
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff

Values and Rights on the Internet

In everyday life, we have basic human rights and values that organise society. We also have rights and values that steer our lives in the online world. But are children or adults even aware of their rights? How can education respond to the challenges of the digital world to make sure we have a safe, inclusive society? For example, how can we protect our right to the truth in an era of fake news and deep fakes?

Type of Activity: Classroom based game and discussion
Relevant Subjects: Philosophy, Religion and Ethics, Sociology, Childhood Development, Computing, ICT
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5

See the BA (Hons) Education Studies course page for more information

Text message authorship in forensic investigations

How distinctive can a text message be? This workshop explores linguistic diversity in computer-mediated conversations. It compares the multiple ways in which real people expressed the same brief message, using exactly the same words. It demonstrates the complexity of spellings and punctuation that allow us to identify a very specific messaging style for each person. This kind of analysis is used in missing persons or murder investigations, for example, or any case where the somebody might have impersonated another via their phone.

Type of Activity: Classroom based talk (virtual or in-person)
Relevant Subjects: English Language, English Language and Literature, English Literature, Criminology, Sociology, Law
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Learning to write, and learning to write again: A study of errors

Errors can teach us much about language production. When a child uses unconventional spelling, that spelling reflects the choices that they made. Psycholinguists use errors to understand the way we all make choices when we produce language. Speech and Language specialists use the errors their clients make to understand which part(s) of the speech and language process is not working as expected.

This workshop compares a writing sample from a person who is re-learning to write after losing that ability to a writing sample from a person who is learning to write for the first time. It will consider phonetic errors, spelling, and letter formation. An exploration of 'what' kind of errors are made and 'why' gives us insight into 'how' children and adults manage an incomplete language ability."

Type of Activity: Interactive talk (virtual or in-person) and text analysis activity.
Relevant Subjects: English Language, English Language and Literature, Psychology.
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Deixis in recipes: Time travel through textual analysis

Recipes are a meeting point, a learning experience across the barrier of time. Two parties need to work together in common understanding in order to produce the final result. This understanding is built through shared cultural references, anticipated knowledge or experience in the techniques of production (utensils, ingredients, preparation methods, measurements). A textual analysis of the deictic markers, the signals that anchor our speakers in a time, place, relationship to each other, will allow us readers to become time travellers. The more distance in time or culture there is between instructor and student, the more important become the clarity and independence of the instructions.

This workshop will use the principles of deixis, transactional and interactional language for a guided analysis into the contexts of the recipes. The recipes used and can be from any historical period, going back as far as Old English, or modern examples.

Type of Activity: Interactive talk (virtual or in-person) and text analysis activity.
Relevant Subjects: English Language, English Language and Literature, History.
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

To my Valentine - Paston Letter

The session will look at the earliest surviving valentine's letter, and can focus on language development or the development of the genre through comparison and contrast. Letters by women in the 15th century were often dictated to a scribe and therefore mix spoken and written features, something that the students will, of course, also encounter in many modern forms of text.

The text is also in the middle of the Great Vowel Shift and the progression towards a more standardized English. The uncanny familiarity of some sounds and language sections in line with the weirdness of a historical language otherwise offers a good springboard to discuss the modern drive towards diversification of linguistic varieties in published arenas today.

Type of Activity: Interactive talk (virtual or in-person) and guided translation analysis activity.
Relevant Subjects: English Language, English Language and Literature, History.
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Forensic Entomology

Students will collect blow fly larvae (maggots) from an outdoor "crime scene", then review the larvae in the laboratory, before identifying them to species. Students will then estimate a minimum time since death based on species and temperature data.

Type of Activity: Practical session involving outdoor work and lab work requiring stereo microscopes (we can accommodate 30 students in the university laboratory)
Relevant Subjects: Biology / Forensic Science
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5

Forensic Hair Comparison

We will provide a library of animal and human hair samples to view under the microscope and a 'crime sample' and the students need to work out who the offender is. The session can discuss features of human and animal hairs and the comparative features used in forensic analysis.

Type of Activity: Lab based session with slide microscopes
Relevant Subjects: Biology / Forensic Science / Other Science
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5

See the BSc (Hons) Forensic Investigation course page for more information

The geopolitics of Africa’s engagements with China

The African continent is usually depicted as largely peripheral to the main forces of change in global politics. In this talk, we will explore the impact of on-going dramatic geopolitical shifts in global governance that are leading to the emergence of a “multi-polar” world and, specifically, the rise of China. Has this led to the opening of spaces for manoeuvre for a variety of geopolitical agents in Africa? Or, does this constitute a new 'scramble' for African resources?

Type of Activity: Classroom based
Relevant Subjects: Geography, Politics, Sociology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5 (All Level 3 students)

Managing the water cycle in a changing climate

This session will include a short presentation on the interrelatedness of the water cycle, carbon cycle and biodiversity based on our academic research on hydrology and 'natural flood management'. This will include considering climate change, flood risk, functional ecosystem restoration and catchment management. This will also consider the interface between human and physical actions that affect this management.

Type of Activity: Classroom based
Relevant Subjects: Geography, Applied Science
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5 (All Level 3 students)

See the BSc (Hons) Geography course page for more information

Understanding the importance of diversity through your own cultural assumptions

This taster session will provide students with an insight into contemporary culture and the communities in which we live. During the session we will examine related rituals of one cultural group in order to question our own cultural awareness, assumptions, and worldview. The main objective is to understand how our own “cultural worldview” informs different cultural perceptions and understandings of each other. Knowing how we see and act in the world is vital when working in people facing professions.

Type of Activity: Classroom based
Relevant Subjects: Health and Social Care, Psychology, Sociology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5 (All Level 3 students)

Health and Social Care through the window young people and inequality

This session will provide a short overview of our Health and Social care degree. We'll then use the case studies of young people to introduce participants to some of the key elements of the study of health and social care. First, we'll consider the role of evidence in health inequality in our 'be the difference’ focus. Second, we'll begin to explore inequalities in health in the UK and in relation to young people in particular. There will be opportunities to interact throughout and we'll finish with a further opportunity for discussion and questions. By the end of the session, participants will:

1. Known the key elements of the Health and Social Care degree,
2. Appreciate of the role of evidence in health,
3. Understand what is meant by health inequality.

Type of Activity: Classroom based
Relevant Subjects: Health and Social Care, Psychology, Sociology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5 (All Level 3 students)

See the BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care course page for more information

Richard III and the Princes in the Tower

Richard III is one of history's great villains. Though king for only two year, his reign began under a cloud of suspicion regarding the fate of his nephews and ended with him becoming the last English king to die on the battlefield. This talk will consider the importance of Richard III in English history, whether his reign was truly the end of the Middle Ages and how myths surrounding his reign have developed.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

Was Henry VII a successful king?

Popular perceptions of Henry see him as a skilful diplomat and as restoring strong royal government. This talk will challenge such assumptions and suggest a different interpretation of Henry, as a king who struggled in his foreign policy and whose domestic policies were unpopular and problematic.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

The Personal is Political: Second Wave Feminism and Women’s Lives

Popular perceptions of the history of feminism often privilege the Suffragettes, as the most influential feminist movement of the twentieth century in Britain. Yet, arguably, the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970s can be understood as creating a more significant shift in women’s position in society. This session will explore the aims, tactics and legacy of Second Wave Feminism and consider the significance of the movement for British women in the second half of the twentieth century.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

History for our Times; Historians, Climate Change and the Current Environmental Crisis

How are historians contributing to contemporary debates about climate change and environmental crisis? How are these changing the way we think about the past, reassessing the impact of industrialisation, empire and how we live our lives? This session will consider the value of history, as a subject and a way of thinking about the relationship between the past, present, and future, to some of the most urgent issues we face today.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

What is genocide?

Genocide has affected humanity throughout its existence, many factors, including the upheavals caused by climate change and the rise of authoritarian governments around the world, legitimise concerns that genocides might occur in this century, too. This session will discuss a range of 19th and 20th century examples to explore what constitutes genocide, how past genocides happened, who perpetrated them, and their impact on victim communities. In thus doing, the session introduces fundamental current questions of genocide prevention and, when prevention fails, restorative justice.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

Life in a ‘Gilded Cage’ at the Renaissance Court

What was it like to be a courtier at the Renaissance court, mixing with and serving royalty? This session will examine the weighty expectations placed on courtiers in terms of how they should act and behave in an environment where reputation was everything. It will also reveal the challenge of navigating the court, a place riven with factions, high politics, gossip and rumour—getting it wrong could see you expelled from court or worse, if you fell foul of the monarch, ending up in prison or on the block.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

Image is Everything: Crafting the image of the ‘perfect’ queen

As the first woman in the realm, queens were expected to be ‘practically perfect in every way’ and live up the high expectations of their behaviour, serving as models of ideal womanhood to their subjects. This session will discuss the ideals and expectations of premodern queens—looking at examples of royal women across the globe from the medieval and early modern periods. We will then look at how queens created an image which met these lofty ideals, focusing particularly on display and visual depictions including their dress, jewels and portraits. We’ll also think about queens who were successful at creating a positive legacy and those who went wrong and ended up with a ‘black legend’.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

The East Anglian Witch Hunt, 1645-47

In the midst of the English Civil Wars, Matthew Hopkins (a.k.a the Witchfinder General) and his assistant John Stearne, embarked on a witch-hunt that toured throughout East Anglia and far exceeded any other grouping of witch trials in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in both its ferocity and scale. Instead, the East Anglian trials bore far more resemblance to the more extensive and violent hunts witnessed in mainland Europe. This talk explores the reasons and motivations behind these trials and what they can tell us about popular perceptions of the civil wars.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

The Cult of the Dead in the Later Medieval England

The late medieval period is often described as the 'Cult of the Dead' where the relationship between the living and dead was close. This has many physical expressions and can also be seen in documentary sources. This session will consider how the medieval dead can be viewed today and the underlying belief structures. The lecture will outline these beliefs, look at physical evidence, such as churches and tombs, while also considering documents such as contemporary wills.

Type of Activity: Classroom session
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

Battle of Hastings 1066

Can your class beat the Saxons at Hastings? This session uses a computer battle simulation to give students an opportunity to command parts of the Norman army at the Battle of Hastings, learning about the options and decisions that would have faced the historical participants on the field in eleventh-century England. Duration: approx. 1 hour.

Professor Ryan Lavelle has written extensively about war and peace in the early Middle Ages, and he has an interest in the links between gaming and history. See how the Hastings scenario has been used for historical discussion.

Type of Activity: Classroom session, this session should ideally come after some prior learning of the Norman Conquest as part of the history curriculum. This can be run in-person or virtually.
Relevant Subjects: History
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

See the BA (Hons) History course page for more information

Intricate Nature of Buying Behaviour

As consumers we are constantly making purchases that fulfil our needs, one of the driving forces behind this is marketing. We will explore this by filling out a consumption log template based on previous purchases and discuss how the purchase was made. Students can choose something expensive/important such as a smartphone, trainers, etc. or anything cheap/not important such as coffee, chocolate, etc. Students will compare and contrast their consumption experiences with peers.

Type of Activity: Classroom based Consumer Behaviour Seminar
Relevant Subjects: Marketing, Business
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

See the BA (Hons) Marketing course page for more information

Who are the psychopaths amongst us?

What is psychopathy and who can we classify as ‘psychopathic’? What is the more modern approach to psychopathic personality science and how does this help us treat antisocial personality disorders? This interactive talk will run through themes of personality, neurology and social behaviour in the context of criminal and antisocial behaviour.

Type of Activity: Classroom Session
Relevant Subjects: Psychology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5, School/College Staff, Parents

Adolescents' emotional competence and how it affects learning

This would be a talk involving some applied exercises examining adolescents’ emotional competence and considering the role of emotional competence in learning.

Type of Activity: Classroom Session
Relevant Subjects: Psychology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Access to justice for child witnesses with and without autism

This talk will consider the nature of Autism and how child witnesses with and without autism can be supported to give their best evidence during a police interview and identification lineup in order to ensure that they achieve access to justice

Type of Activity: Classroom Session
Relevant Subjects: Psychology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Ethics in Research

Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures and shape many debates in society. This session will provide an introduction to considering morals and ethics, with an examination of ethics within psychological research. Suitable for students from Y10 upwards, this class-based activity lasts for about 30 min.

Type of Activity: Virtual, classroom based (students in own learning environment)
Relevant Subjects: RE, Philosophy, Psychology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5

How does music make us feel?

Music plays an important role in the lives of people all over the world, and people listen to music as a way to set the mood, to motivate a workout, or even to gain inspiration. This introductory session focuses on what is music? Why do we like it? Why is pop music so popular? This is suitable for all music fans but particularly for Key Stage 5 students, the session would require 45 – 60 min.

Type of Activity: Virtual, classroom based (students in own learning environment)
Relevant Subjects: Psychology, Music
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5

Creative Psychology

Does every human being have creative potential? This experience will look at what is creative psychology and learners will take part in tasks to encourage them to think more creatively. This is ideally offered as a classroom-based activity for an average class group.         

Type of Activity: Classroom based (students in own learning environment)
Relevant Subjects: Psychology, Creative subjects
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Health Psychology

Health psychologists use their knowledge of psychology and health to promote well-being and understand physical illness. This class-based activity for up to approx. 30 pupils is designed for those who are studying Psychology as part of their Level 3 or Access course study. It will consider what is health psychology? How can we help others to make healthier choices?         

Type of Activity: Classroom based (students in own learning environment)
Relevant Subjects: Psychology, Health & Social Care
Suitable Audience:  Key Stage 5

How is our personality formed?

Psychologists studying personality have had no shortage of theories about how it develops and how it affects an individual. Our personality is what makes us unique individuals. Within this experience there will be a consideration of what is personality? What makes us unique or similar to others? Who are we really? What is the dark triad of personality?         

Type of Activity: Classroom based
Relevant Subjects: Psychology, or as an enrichment session for a broad mix of learners
Suitable Audience:  Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5

See the BSc (Hons) Psychology course page for more information

Biomechanics and Bionic Legs: The Future of Rehabilitation

This session will start with a brief overview of what biomechanics is. The main section of this session will then concentrate on how we can use biomechanics in a clinical setting to enhance rehabilitation techniques in special populations, with a focus on those who are recovering from strokes.

Type of Activity: Classroom session, virtual, (on or off campus)
Relevant Subjects: BTEC Sport, PE, Physics
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Physical Activity Psychology: Motivating People to Move

This session will examine the difference between physical activity and exercise, as well as consider how active we should be. During the session we will also examine problems associated with inactivity, alongside the benefits of being physically active. There will then be a discussion about interventions to get people active.

Type of Activity: Classroom session, virtual, (on or off campus)
Relevant Subjects: BTEC Sport, PE, Psychology, Sociology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Power and Velocity: Implications for Training

Within this session students will examine the effect of additional load to power output. Specifically, students will perform a jump with varying loads, with the velocity and power of the jumps measured. We will then discuss the effect load has on power output and use this to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of athletes, as well as training for power.

Type of Activity:  Practical (on campus or potentially in your own gym)
Relevant Subjects: BTEC Sport, PE, Biology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Psychology of Sports Teams: Exploring Conflict

Ever been in a team with tension? Differences of opinion? This session will consider the causes and outcomes of conflict in teams, as well as discuss examples of conflict in elite sport. It will also involve exploring applied strategies that might help people to manage conflict. In addition, this session will consider qualitative methods that have been used in research we have undertaken to examine team conflict.

Type of Activity:  Classroom session, virtual, (on or off campus)
Relevant Subjects: BTEC Sport, PE, Psychology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Assessing the Stretch Shortening Cycle: Implications for Training

Most powerful activities involve a countermovement during which the muscles involved are first stretched and then shortened to accelerate the body or limb. This session will examine the stretch shortening cycle and how well students use it while jumping. Here, students will perform two types of jump, before examining differences in the stretch shortening cycle and concentric strength. We will then discuss implications this has for training athletes.

Type of Activity: Practical (on or off campus)
Relevant Subjects: BTEC Sport, PE, Biology
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

Virtual Tour of the Biomechanics Laboratory

We are excellently equipped for Biomechanics, with a great range of specialist apparatus. Before the tour begins there will be a brief overview of what biomechanics is and why we are so interested in its study. The main section of this session will then comprise of a virtual tour of our biomechanics laboratory. Considering the types of equipment we use and how we apply them in a sport and exercise setting.

Type of Activity: Virtual (students in own learning environment)
Relevant Subjects: BTEC Sport, PE, Physics
Suitable Audience: Key Stage 5

See the BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science course page for more information