School visits, research projects, and tours: the Northamptonshire project

Over the past few weeks, one hundred and twenty students in Year 10 (14-15 years) have visited Pembroke College as part of a project that we have been running with schools in Northamptonshire.

Northamptonshire is one of the areas that Pembroke works with as part of the Cambridge Area Links Scheme and students from thirteen schools have successfully completed a three part project that ended with a recent visit to Pembroke College.

Part One:

Pembroke went on the road and ran three launch events in Northamptonshire about University-style learning and included taster lectures from some of our Fellows where they learnt about topics ranging from levitation using magnets to the Victorians at the British Constitution. Huge thanks go to Dr Mark Wormald, Dr John Durrell, Dr Emily Jones, Dr Paul Warde and Dr Renaud Gagne for joining us for this!

Part Two:

Participants were asked to complete an independent research project about a topic that was interesting to them. These were absolutely fantastic and students wrote about a real range of different topics. These were all read by Emma, our Schools Liaison Officer who in the past few weeks has learnt about a variety of topics including:

• how planes fly
• that horses can be classed as cold, warm and hot-blooded
• the way that we make memories
• the history of both North and South Korea
• that video-gaming can improve concentration
• that the golden ratio can be found in all sorts of things (and what it is!)
• about the history of dance, women in sport and famous people from Kettering

Part Three:

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To complete their involvement in the project, participants have visited Pembroke on one of five day-visits in the past few weeks. On these visits, participants have spent time learning about the role of the Colleges and student life. They have spent time with some of our wonderful student volunteers who have been brilliant at answering questions and chatting to participants over lunch and whilst on tours of the College. Whilst in Cambridge, participants have also visited one of our Teaching Collections and have either been to the Fitzwilliam Museum, The Scott Polar Research Institute or the Sedgwick Museum to explore a different, more hands-on style of University learning.

It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the young people on the project and we would like to wish them the best of luck in the future!

This project was run with funding from the Oxford and Cambridge Collaborative Network (part of the National Network for Collaborative Outreach). Further information about opportunities available across the Universities can be found on our collaborative outreach website.

This is a guest post by the Pembroke SLO Officer