Subject Sessions: Science and Maths

Studying Bioscience at Sheffield

Year 12-13 | Session duration: ~ flexible

Find out about the range of bioscience courses on offer at the University of Sheffield, what you'll study, how we teach, and how degree level biology differs from A Level or BTEC. This is an excellent overview for Y12 or Y13 biologists starting to think about their degree options.

Learning objectives:

• Understand how science allows you to change the world
• Understand what studying at University is like
• Understand our degrees
• Understand what you can do with a science degree

Biosciences taster lectures: Solving global challenges

Year 11-13 | Session duration: ~ 30 mins

Experience an undergraduate lecture from our Sheffield bioscientists, informed by current research that’s tackling global challenges.

You can choose a theme and topic that best suits you and your students from the following:

• Biomedicine: topics include disease, cancer, antimicrobial resistance, stem cells and ageing. 

• Ecosystems and global change: topics include climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, ecosystems, and food security.

Learning objectives:

• Understand a key scientific principle that has real world implications

What can I do with a biosciences degree? Careers talk

Year 12-13 | Session duration: ~ 10-20 mins

A Biosciences degree opens doors to a wide range of science and non-science careers thanks to the range of transferable skills it equips students with. This session will introduce your students to the different sectors that employ bioscience graduates, with examples of recent case studies from our own graduates.

Learning objectives: 

• Understand how science allows you to change the world
• Understand what you can do with a bioscience degree
• Understand the skills you develop in a bioscience degree

Biosciences taster lecture: Cell migration

Year 11-13 | Session duration: ~ 30-45 mins 

Join us for this interactive taster lecture on cell migration. We'll show you how cells move and connect, how single cells combine to build a whole organism, what happens when things go wrong, and how this can lead to disease. This session will show your students how our bodies actually build themselves, and how they can work together to create everything from plants, to animals, and even to human beings. 

Learning objectives: 

• Understand how science allows you to change the world
• Learn about the principles and mechanisms of cell migration and why they're important
• Experience a university lecture

Biosciences laboratory practical - taster session

Year 9-13 | Session duration: ~ Flexible 

Get hands-on with a biosciences laboratory practical and experience the kind of experiments our students conduct at Sheffield.

Lab activities can include: Nerve conductance, ECG, electrophoresis, enzyme activity, wildlife forensics, microscopy, clinical genetics, or microbiology.

Learning objectives: 

•  Experience a university laboratory practical
• Gain practical understanding of one of the areas of bioscience

Psychology in the real world - taster lecture

Year 10-13 | Session duration: ~ 30-60 mins

Introduce your students to the subject of psychology and how it helps us to understand human behaviour. Through activities and demonstrations, we'll share how psychology is relevant in the real world. Your students will hear about some examples from cognitive and social psychology, as well as some of the exciting and impactful research that's being carried out here at Sheffield.

Learning objectives:

• Explain how psychological concepts can be applied in the real world
• Give examples from classical theories and experiments, as well as from more current research that's being undertaken at Sheffield

Psychology taster lecture: Why are we always distracted?

Year 12-13 | Session duration: 30 mins

Why do you find yourself distracted from tasks you set yourself or are meant to complete? Learn about the cognitive psychology of attention in everyday life and the underlying causes of distraction. We’ll learn about the basic principles that guide attention, take part in experiments that exemplify the limits of attention, and find out if these limits are hard-wired, or if there is anything we can do to help us overcome them.

Learning objectives: 

• Understand basic principles of attention
• Learn productive methods to regulate attention and distraction in everyday lives

Psychology taster lecture: Addiction

Year 12-13 | Session duration: 30 mins

Experience an undergraduate lecture on addiction, informed by current research from a Sheffield psychologist. What is addiction and how can we help people who suffer from it? We'll introduce you to psychological explanations of addictions, and share some exciting new treatments that are based on “dual-process” theories.

Learning objectives: 

• Understand the psychology of addiction
• Understand the controversies in this area

Psychology taster lecture: The science of LGBTQ+ identities

Year 12-13 | Session duration: 40-60 mins

What does it mean to be LGBTQ+? Scientists have been trying to classify sexual orientations and gender identities into neat categories since the 19th century. In this taster lecture, we'll explore these efforts and their effectiveness before addressing common misconceptions about LGBTQ+ identities, and discuss the importance of these identities to the people who identify with them. 

Learning objectives: 

• Learn key findings related to the development sexual orientation and gender identity to dispel harmful misconceptions (potentially leading to greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ students)
• Critically appraise the ethics and social responsibility of scientists researching issues related to the lives of minoritised groups

Are we the product of nature or nurture?

Year 11-13 | Session duration: 1-1.5 hrs

This taster lecture will introduce your students to one of the biggest debates in Psychology: whether we're a product of nature or nurture. In other words, are we born as who we are or do we become who we are through our environment? We'll explore this debate and how Psychologists are looking to answer this question. We'll discuss whether some traits are hard wired from birth, and explore some examples including educational attainment and antisocial behaviour.

Learning objectives: 

• Be able to explain the concepts of nature and nurture
• Be able to apply discussion of these concepts to real life examples
• Be able to critique methods applied when studying these areas

Psychology careers in children's and young people's mental health

Year 12-13 | Session duration: 30 mins

This talk is for students who are interested in a career working in children's and young people's mental health. Experts from our Clinical and Applied Psychology Unit will give an overview of the role of Education Mental Health Practitioner, a role that's trained to deliver evidence based low intensity psychological interventions that contribute to whole school wellbeing in educational settings.

Learning objectives: 

• Gain a greater understanding of a career pathway - applied psychology/working with children

Physics Taster Lectures

Year 12-13 | Session duration: 30-mins

Experience an undergraduate lecture from University of Sheffield physicists, informed by current research. Gain an insight into physics beyond the classroom through a 30-minute taster lecture, which can be combined with a student ambassador Q&A or careers talk. 

Topics available: 

You can choose the topics that best suits you and your students, by selecting a first and second choice from the following list:

• Exploring the Universe
• Planets and aliens
• The Solar System
• Particle physics and CERN
• Dark matter
• Neutrinos
• Quantum computers
• Solar cells and sustainability
• Biophysics
• Applied physics: physics for changing the world (for example, detection of soil moisture using particle physics) 

A-level vs Degree maths

Year 12-13 | Session duration: Flexible

What is studying mathematics at university is really like? Find out what to expect from degree level mathematics and how mathematics differs when you take it to the next level. This is an excellent overview for Y12 or Y13 students starting to think about their degree options.

Learning objectives:

• Understand what to expect from the transition between school and degree level
• Understand how we teach and what sorts of topics you'll study
• Understand the wider skills developed through a mathematics degree

Modelling Epidemics

Year 12-13 | Session duration: Flexible

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how important it is for us to understand and predict epidemics. Join this session to learn about mathematical modelling, a key tool used to investigate and address real life problems. We'll explore epidemic models, which are crucial to understanding the spread of infectious disease.

Learning objectives:

• Discover how we build epidemic models
• Gain an understanding of what epidemic models can tell us

The Mathematics of Monopoly

Year 12-13 | Session duration: Flexible

Are you more likely to land on Park Lane or Trafalgar Square when playing Monopoly? This talk uses ideas from probability to investigate the mathematics behind the game of Monopoly. This includes topics related to the original PageRank algorithm, used by Google to rank web pages in their search results.

Learning objective:

• Develop an understanding of probability topics and how they can be applied to the game of Monopoly

Introduction to the periodic table 

Year 12-13 | Session duration: 3-45mins 

The periodic table is one of the most widely recognised images in science and an underlying theory that unites everything else we do in chemistry. Through this taster lecture, we'll explore a brief introduction to the history of the periodic table and some of the theories underlying it. This session will prepare students to look at any element on the table and predict its physical properties, chemical reactivity, and how it will form simple compounds with other elements.

Learning Objectives:

• Consolidate and develop students' understanding of the elements and relationships between them
• Understand why the periodic table has the shape it does
• Explore how the periodic table can be used by chemists to solve a wide range of problems