Super Curricular
Super-curricular activities are those that take the subjects you study further, beyond that which your teacher has taught you or what you’ve done for homework. You may go into more depth on something you picked up in the classroom or learn about a new topic altogether.
Top Universities and degree apprenticeship providers receive thousands of applications every year from students who are predicted 3 A*/A grades. What can you do to show you are serious about your subject? Every student write that they are passionate about History, Maths, Engineering etc - but what can you do to show this?
Admissions tutors say the best personal statements are love letters to their subject, you need to be able to confidently talk about knowledge beyond the A level specification.
Super-curricular is about learning about your subject away from the classroom. Below are examples of how you can participate in super-curricular activities:
1. MOOC’s – Massive Open Online Courses
The best place to start is Futurelearn. This contains 100s of MOOCS which are free courses provided on a variety of topics from universities around the world. Here is the link:
You can search by course or topic area.
Here are 3 examples of courses you can do right now.
- Forensic investigation – 8 weeks, 3 hours a week. Open University.
- How to write your first song – 6 weeks, 3 hours a week. The University of Sheffield.
- Causes of climate change – 3 weeks, 4 hours a week. Bergen University (Norway).
2. YOUTUBE
YouTube has some great channels where you can watch documentaries, mini tutorials or lectures.
Tedtalks are free lectures usually less than 30 mins on every topic you can imagine.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector
School of life is whole programmes of 10 minute vids on Philosophy, Sociology, Politics, Literature, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/user/schooloflifechannel/playlists
RSA animate are great animations that simplify complex ideas.
https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-animate/2010/05/rsa-animate---the-secret-powers-of-time
The Royal institute includes interesting videos on everything Science based from “Can we trust Maths” to “Why have we not found aliens?”
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution/playlists
Universities: Universities themselves often offer lists of resources.
HE+: To really push your learning try the material on the Cambridge HE+ website
Oxplore: Explore interesting questions with Oxplore (hosted by the University of Oxford)
3. Podcasts
Houston we have a podcast – NASA’s official podcast
Stuff you should know – over 1000 episodes to choose from.
OR try the BBC website with a quality podcast for every topic you can imagine.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts
There are also excellent podcasts on Spotify, i-tunes and other streaming platforms
4. University websites
Some universities have recommended reading lists on their websites.
Warwick university and?LSE have great podcast sites – you just need to explore!?
5. Keep up-to-date with the news in your subject
Read the Guardian and BBC weekly to keep up-to-date about issues in the subjects that you love.
6. Watch documentaries
BBC iPlayer and Netflix are good resources for exploring your subjects as they have a wide range of documentaries.?
7. Follow academics on Twitter
Hopefully this should get you started with ideas…. enjoy exploring. Make sure you log your interactions on Unifrog.
Speakers for Schools
Speakers for Schools are excited to present their weekly Virtual Talks schedule! This schedule will be updated weekly and talks will be targeted to different age groups and is accessible via the link above or through a Google search. This week there are talks from a BBC News Director, a top Spotify Executive and a journalist to name a few. Tune in and listen!
www.speakersforschools.org/inspiration/vtalks/upcoming-vtalks/