Projects help students get step closer to university
KING’S students held an open evening to show off the projects they have worked on to achieve extra credits when applying for university.
The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is an additional qualification which requires students to spend about 120 hours on a project of their choosing.
Among the projects on display during a special open evening was work by Rory Boyle, 18, who wants to read history at university and chose to question the assumptions behind a Eurocentric view of history.
School captain Rachel Catlin, 17, who wants to read music, examined the so-called ‘Mozart Effect’, which suggests that listening to classical music helps develop intelligence, and Paul Roberts, 17, who wants to read geography at university, studied how best to provide clean water in the Sahel region of Africa.
Hope Butler, 18, who wants to read psychology at university, examined whether the now widespread use of mobiles and tablets was helping students research more widely or merely encouraging plagiarism, and Sameera Lyons, 18, who wants to study medicine, argued that leprosy which still debilitates over 200,000 people mainly in India and Brazil could be eliminated.
Kelly Corcoran, 17, who wants to read English literature, looked at the impact of the Romantic Movement on later 19th century literature and how the poetry of Wordsworth, Keats and Byron was highly political and a reaction to the scientific focus of the Enlightenment.
Maria McMaster, psychology teacher and head of Year 13, organises King’s Extended Project Qualification which gives students the chance to work independently and to a high standard.
She said: “This is especially helpful if the student is going on to study a related course at university.
“The students have to present their findings and talk about the whole EPQ process, as not only does it help them learn the skills they are likely to need for university and future employment, it also forms part of their assessment.
“The EPQ presentation evening has been developed in order to give our students the opportunity to present their findings in an enjoyable way that allows them to share their hard work with their teachers, families and friends. We are very proud of what they have achieved and they should be too.”