University Taster Experience – Create Your Own Event

Architecture

How do architects play with light? - Architecture is one of the most complex and beautiful design disciplines, yet when we look at the finished building, we often see only an arrangement of bricks, mortar and glass. This session explores how architects use light and its relationship to atmosphere, proportions and the built environment. Participants will work on their own designs, requiring a pencil and some A4 paper at the ready.

Business Management

Accounting and finance - Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a numbers whizz to succeed within accounting. It’s actually more about common sense than you might think. Our software stores practical session tackles the world of budgeting and forecasting, and will help to build your confidence within the world of accountancy.

Digital marketing - Digital marketing is a fundamental part of marketing now. The use of social media plays a huge part in how we communicate and consume. Brands are constantly creating content to drive sales and improve their brand awareness…but what is good content? This interactive content creation session looks at what ‘good content’ is and gives you the opportunity to put your social media skills into action.

Enterpreneurship - Do you need to be someone ‘special’ to start your own business? Are entrepreneurs born or made? Explore what it takes to be an entrepreneur and ask the important question, what if?

Leadership - Have you ever wondered how people in positions of power get others to listen to them? This interactive session uses a specially designed card game to discover how persuasion works within the workplace. Learn what it takes to motivate and lead others.

Logistics and supply chain - Suffolk plays a huge part in the UK’s supply chain and, with large infrastructure projects in the pipeline, this is set to continue to grow and will offer a huge amount of career opportunities in the coming years. Play ‘Business on the Move’ with our academics to learn about the supply chain world. The game consists of running your own logistics company and you’ll need to move your products around the world by air, land and sea as quickly as you can — whilst making a profit and looking after the environment too!

Fine Art

Drawing workshop - This session brings students into the studio to draw. Whether drawing is new or very familiar, we focus on observing and recording using a range of materials and techniques. Led by artist tutors, they will be guided to explore drawing as a quick, notational activity and a completed outcome. Different sessions will focus on either life drawing with live models, landscape sketching or experimental drawing that might include shadow or string marking. Please note, this taster session is delivered on campus.

Fine Art or Graphic Design/Graphic Illustration

Printmaking - This session offers a range of printmaking skills from monoprints to risographs. Skilled artist, designer and illustrator tutors and technicians will guide students through the process from image construction to printed outcome; a wonderful way to learn about the possibilities of printmaking, as well as refining skills they may already have. This session is run with either a Fine Art or Graphic Design focus; please mention which you are interested in when booking. Please note, this taster session is delivered on campus.

Games Development

Introduction to games design - Participants will have a go at designing systems that make up the core loop of a game. They’ll learn some practical techniques based on behavioural psychology, used by designers to motivate players. By the end of the session, they will understand more about being a games designer and have a framework to build upon for future game development.

Graphic Design/Graphic Illustration

Visual messages - Graphic design surrounds us wherever we go and whatever we do. In this taster session, students will explore the communication potential of working with images and typography for a range of different applications and outcomes. Delivered by lecturers who are also practicing designers and illustrators, this interactive session will be highly creative and hands-on, whilst also firming-up the relationship between design education and future employment. Please note, this taster session is delivered on campus.

Adult Nursing

The deteriorating patient - In this session, we will explore the physiological parameters and holistic assessment of unwell adult patients. This will also include action plans and working with others to restore physical health.

The deteriorating patient simulation - In this session, we will use some of the simulation equipment and technology to recreate a patient scenario with students able to experience working in an acute hospital setting. Please note, this taster session is delivered on campus.

Midwifery

Breastfeeding - This session will explore the attitudes of women, families and society to infant feeding. Read through a short article with drawings and discussions in small groups.

Physiology of birth - Exploring the physiological processes that occur during the labour and birth process. The session includes both video and small group discussions.

Biomedical Science

The magic of stem cells - This session will introduce the wonders of stem cells and their amazing potential to regenerate our bodies. Students will learn what stem cells are, how many types there are and where they come from, as well as some interesting applications in medicine. The session is interactive and makes use of Kahoot! Expect quizzes and group discussion to reflect on the properties and ethics concerning stem cell applications.

Diagnostic Radiography

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes: We see right through you! - From skeleton puzzles to smashing carrots, what doesn’t this session include?! Diagnostic radiographers must have an in-depth knowledge of anatomy. By utilising different materials, we can demonstrate the radiographic appearances of fractures with different mechanisms of injury. During this session, students will gain an introduction into the everyday life of a diagnostic radiographer, including the equipment used and the variety of career options available.

Nutrition and Human Health

Knowing your metabolic rate and energy expenditure - The human body is an energetic system that burns foods exactly as you would burn it outside, but in a more controlled fashion. It generates essentially the same amount of heat produced in both cases. In this practical session, you will use indirect calorimetry to estimate the heat output produced by the body and, consequently, determine the basal metabolic rate (daily energy requirements to keep you alive). You will also learn about oxidative hierarchy and body fuel utilisation (carbohydrate vs fat burning).

Physiotherapy

Think like a physiotherapist: How do we walk? - This session will focus on movement analysis, one of the fundamental skills of a physiotherapist. It will explore theory and practical aspects of walking, and think about the key skills a physiotherapist needs to assess and rehabilitate someone to help them with their walking. Please note, this taster session is delivered on campus for a maximum of 15 students.

Sport and Exercise Science

Elite athletes: Nature or nurture? - In this session, we will explore the levels of performance required by elite athletes in sports that rely on aerobic endurance, and those that rely on anaerobic power and strength. We will attempt to understand if the ability to perform at those levels is a result of the physiology you are born with (nature) or the physiology you develop through training (nurture). Please note, this taster session is for a maximum of 15 students.

Therapeutic Radiography

How technology and science target cancer - In this session, students will explore the technology and physics that are used to treat cancer. They will work in groups to consider how X-rays are needed to see tumours in different areas of the body. Once they have identified the tumour, they will learn how X-rays are used to deliver targeted cancer treatment (radiotherapy).

Wildlife Sound and Conservation Technology

Hear some sounds you’ve never heard before and see some hi-tech research tools in action, as we learn how students from the University of Suffolk use ‘bioacoustics’ to study wildlife around the world. From yodelling monkeys in the Amazon Rainforest, to the rare bats discovered in student’s gardens!  Monitoring biodiversity with sound can help us slow the decline of animals and habitats and ensure that the food we eat is produced in a ‘wildlife-friendly’ way.

Childhood

Children and inclusion - All children are different and unique! This session examines the topics of inclusion and diversity, and how these can be supported when working with children. This session has an accompanying Lesson in a Box and can be taught independently of an academic, should it be required.

Children and learning - Children are learning from the moment they are born. In this session, we will look at what children can learn from their environment. This session has an accompanying Lesson in a Box and can be taught independently of an academic, should it be required.

What is ‘childhood’? - It’s time to question our ideas of what it means to be a child! This session explores many different sociological and psychological constructions of childhood to try to decide what childhood actually is.

What shapes children’s lives? - Each child’s life is different depending on a wide range of factors; from family members, relationships and exposure to media, to physical and mental health. We will look at some of these factors that could affect a child’s life and we will discuss how these relate to the areas of education, society and welfare, disability, health and wellbeing, and how we can view a child’s life holistically.

Creative Writing

Creating fantastic characters - An interactive workshop focusing on characterisation and fantasy writing. Students will explore creative writing techniques working up to creating memorable and complex characters. Please note, this taster session is for 20-30 students.

Criminology

Why do some people commit crimes and others do not? - When reading a newspaper or watching television, it is likely there will be some representation of ‘crime and deviance’; county lines drug dealing, illegal raves and political protests which extend into criminal activity. Criminologists try to understand why only some people engage in these activities while most conform to mainstream norms and values. This then raises the question of who determines what mainstream norms and values are, and how we reach an agreement. Participants in this session explore theories seeking to explain crime and deviance.

English

Forensic Linguistics - How do can we apply our knowledge of language to the real world? What are the implications of language structure to show intent? This workshop looks at how the scientific analysis of language works in the real world by considering issues such as language use as admissible evidence in court (the status of the so-called 'ear-witness'), using language to determine immigration status, and examples of cases in terrorism threats. Students will get the chance to discuss their own observations of data and discuss the wider implications of language analysis.  

Queer Poetry - This workshop explores queer poems from some of the best classic and contemporary writers, including Sappho and Danez Smith. Looking closely at selected poems, we will examine how writers disrupt gender and sexuality binaries and consider how poetry can be queer in form as well as content. 

Shakespeare - Othello has often been read as a play about racism – but is that all that’s at the heart of it? This session will help you examine Shakespeare’s text from the perspectives of race, class and gender focusing on the three main characters: Othello himself, Iago and Desdemona. Using audio clips of actors playing these parts, you will explore both the text itself and the effect interpretation can have on it. 

Writing Poetry - This practical workshop offers an introduction to writing poetry with hands-on activities designed to support students of any level as they explore poetic forms and their own original ideas.  

Robots and Rebels: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy - What is the difference between science fiction and fantasy? How can either genre help us imagine a different world? This interactive workshop introduces students to creative writing techniques used by science fiction and fantasy writers, focusing on world-building and the concept of the novum, or new inventions. 

Law

Mock court sessions - The Law team offer a range of different Law sessions in the University’s mock courtroom. These can be one or two hour sessions which introduce the sentencing process used in criminal courts. In the session, students participate in a mock sentencing hearing. We also offer schools/colleges the opportunity to bring groups of students onto campus for a Mock Trial Day in which students participate as lawyers, witnesses, defendants and jury members in a short pre-prepared mock trial (approximately two hours). Students can also attend sessions on other legal topics to get a full day’s experience. Please note, mock court sessions are suitable for students aged 16+ and work best for groups of 20 students.

Model United Nations: Zombies! - Dr Willis is a bit of an expert when it comes to zombies in the classroom. We can bring the zombies to your school in a mini-simulation using the official Model UN format, where students represent governments responding to a zombie outbreak.

She’s a witch! An introduction to defamation law - In this session, students will learn about the Law of Defamation from the Law of Slander in the 1600s, focusing on the widespread witch hunts which took place in England and America, and through to the modern day. Students will then use their newfound knowledge in a mini-trial, exploring hands-on how the law would work today if someone were falsely accused of being a witch. Please note, this taster session can take place either in our mock courtroom or at your school/college.

The power walk - A deeply immersive activity where students learn about human rights through the eyes of those whose rights might be denied or violated. Students engage in a deep discussion about these issues and, most importantly, what we can do about them. All participating students are given a special human rights passport at the end of the session to take home. Please note, this taster session is also suitable for students in Year 10+ (maximum 25 students).

Yes, Gloria, one woman can change the world! - Using her experience in strategic litigation for women’s rights, Dr Willis shares the very powerful stories of three women whose tragedies led to landmark legal cases in the UK, the EU and internationally. Students will learn about how the law is used to ensure that women’s human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled. Please note, this taster session is suitable for students aged 16+ as sensitive topics are discussed.

Sociology

Are things getting better? Worldwide happiness and wellbeing - This session will explore how we can subjectively measure happiness and wellbeing. It will outline changes in the objective wellbeing of people across the world in the 21st Century. The session is interactive and will allow participants to check their own knowledge of how well we are living.

Social divisions and intersectionality: gender, ethnicity and class - This session will focus on important aspects of the real world that are complex and challenging, with attention to social categories, including class, gender and ethnicity which often intersect. It will deepen students’ understanding about how these social categories often overlap to create disadvantage as well as power and privilege. Understanding intersectional approach can make a positive impact on addressing complex inequalities.

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