Social Sciences subject taster workshops

This engaging session will introduce students to the fundamental principles of business ethics, examining how companies navigate decisions that impact society, the environment, and key stakeholders.

We will explore essential topics such as shareholder vs. stakeholder theory, corporate responsibility, and ethical decision-making.

Through interactive discussions and hands-on activities, students will analyse real-world business practices, assess ethical dilemmas, and develop a deeper understanding of responsible decision-making in the business world.

This interactive taster session is designed to give students an engaging and realistic insight into what it means to study Business or Economics at university. Blending academic skill development with a real-world group exercise, the session aims to demonstrate how transferrable skills developed at school/college can be enhanced for a university setting.

Students explore three core competencies essential for university success: interpreting data visualisations, synthesising research, and making informed decisions. Using real-world graphs and short extracts, they critically evaluate information and practice drawing evidence-based conclusions.

The highlight of the session is ‘The Profit Challenge’, a team exercise where students run a business for a week. Responding to a range of business and economic dilemmas, they predict expected demand, calculate profits and compete to be the most profitable business!

The session concludes by showing the vast range of career options available, helping students connect classroom learning to future opportunities.

This session provides an in-depth examination of the economic, political, and strategic dimensions of technological leadership, highlighting key drivers such as foreign direct investment (FDI), research and development (R&D), and the rise of techno-nationalism.

Through real-world case studies and interactive discussion, you will explore how these forces shape industries, influence policymaking, and impact international relations. Designed for students considering future pathways in business, technology, or global affairs, this session illuminates the complex factors that underpin a rapidly evolving world.

In this session, you’ll explore how key macroeconomic ideas are used in real‑world economic policymaking. Rather than focusing only on theory, you’ll look at how decisions about fiscal and monetary policy affect different groups across the economy and the trade‑offs involved. By the end of the session, you’ll be able to assess different policy options and understand the challenges faced by policymakers when responding to economic problems.

The session builds on core macroeconomic concepts in an applied and interactive way. Through short explanations, individual thinking, and group decision‑making activities, you’ll take on the role of an economic adviser and respond to realistic economic scenarios. This will give you a taste of how economics is used beyond the classroom while helping you develop strong analytical and evaluative skills.

This interactive academic taster session explores the question “Can education change lives?” by examining learning and opportunity from a global perspective. Through a range of engaging activities, students will work with real-world examples, including images and short case studies of young people from different countries, to explore how access to education can be shaped by factors such as poverty, gender, family support, and location. 

Students will take part in group discussions and collaborative tasks that encourage them to identify barriers to education, consider possible solutions, and recognise patterns across different global contexts. The session introduces students to key ideas and approaches used in Education and Social Science subjects at university, including analysing case studies, using evidence, and applying concepts to real-life situations. 

By the end of the session, students will have a clearer understanding of what studying Education or Social Sciences at university involves, how these subjects connect to real-world issues, and how education can influence future opportunities and career pathways. 

Step into the role of an Earth Detective! This interactive workshop brings geology to life through hands-on activities and a real-world twist. Students will explore how rocks and soils form, what makes them unique, and how minerals and textures reveal the story of our planet.  

Using high-quality images, they will classify rocks and link them to the soils they produce. They will also interpret geological maps—building skills in observation and critical thinking. To make learning exciting, we’ll add a forensic twist: can they use rock and soil clues to solve a mystery and pinpoint a suspect’s location? This session benefits teachers by enriching Earth Science topics with practical, inquiry-based activities that promote observation, teamwork, and problem-solving.  

It’s a dynamic way to connect classroom theory to real-world applications in geology, environmental science, archaeology, and forensics—while sparking curiosity and engagement in your students. 

This engaging, curriculum-linked workshop invites students to uncover the hidden physics and climate importance of clouds. Blending atmospheric science with cultural perspectives, the session introduces how different types of clouds form, why supercooled water can exist far below 0°C, and how tiny ice-nucleating particles shape cloud behaviour, weather, and climate. 

Designed for Year 12 but easily adaptable across age groups, the workshop emphasises active learning through paired challenges, group problem-solving, and live interactive demonstrations. Students explore real-world issues such as cloud-climate feedbacks and the ethics of climate intervention, building skills in critical thinking, evidence-based reasoning, and scientific communication. 

This workshop illuminates key topics in weather, climate, and atmospheric processes, offering a fresh way to deepen students’ understanding of a complex and highly relevant area of environmental science. 

In this session, students will explore the ways many of the social, environmental, and economic issues their generation faces today and in the future – like inequality, climate change, housing shortages, etc - are interconnected. It will teach students about how achieving social, environmental and economic sustainability requires us to recognize the interconnectedness of the problems we face. 

During the session, students will create their own eco-social (economic/environmental and social) policy toolboxes in an exciting and informative playing card-based activity. This activity will teach them about how eco-social policies – such as working time reduction, community gardens, and wealth taxes – can be paired together to best address problems and achieve sustainability.  

This session will support students to develop their problem solving and analytical skills, decision making, and critical thinking skills, whilst teaching them to conceptualise the everyday problems they might hear about and encounter as sustainability problems. 

2 billion people worldwide are dependent on mountain glaciers. Glaciers in high mountain regions are often called “Mountain Water Towers”, as they supply around 60% of global freshwater. This freshwater supports ecosystem services that are crucial to human life, such as safe drinking water and sanitation, irrigation for agriculture, hydropower, and tourism, whilst the landscape holds important cultural and spiritual significance for mountain communities. 

Climate change is rapidly increasing the rate of glacial retreat, causing irreparable changes to the landscape and water resource. The importance of glaciers has raised such concern that 2025 was declared the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation by the United Nations. 

In this workshop, students will engage with real-life, innovative, contemporary climate challenges, as a taster of glaciological research in higher education.  

The key question: how do different communities engage with their local Mountain Water Tower, and what challenges do they face due to climate change? 

This interactive session will give students an overview of the presence and impact of microplastics in the environment. The aim of this workshop is to develop students' understanding of microplastics, gaining a detailed introduction to microplastic pollution - an issue that has prompted recent headlines due to the scale of the problem. Key themes covered in this session include sources of microplastics, how they are transferred through the environment and their impacts in the environment on living organisms. Students will then apply the knowledge they have gained throughout the session by creating new government strategies to combat microplastic pollution in the environment.  

This workshop is designed to support students to develop an awareness of the broader topics of sustainability and give them knowledge of the key issues in the textile industry. Students will be asked to consider the fashion and textile industry as it currently stands and sustainable fashion; where our clothes come from and where our clothes go. Students will be asked to critically evaluate the sustainability plans of major fashion retailers and design their own environmentally conscious business model for a company in the fashion industry.   

This workshop will give students an introduction into the Amazon rainforest and the impacts of deforestation. The aim of this session is to develop understanding of the complexity of the Amazon and the current global threat of misuse of the rainforest.  

Through interactive tasks students will journey through the Amazon to undertake a mission in sustainable development. Faced with conflicting options to act sustainably or for wealth development, students will expand their understanding of the real-world threat to the rainforest. By the end of this session students will have a deeper understanding of Amazonian deforestation and be able to offer meaningful solutions to improve sustainable practices for the future.   

This session will allow students to explore the compulsory topics and modules that they will cover if they study a Law LLB at university. From contract law to human rights law, participants will develop their understanding of the undergraduate course structure and begin to refine transferable skills and study strategies that will help them to succeed on the course.

The voting age in the UK is set to be lowered to 16 for the 2029 general election, yet 78% of students under 18 feel ‘unconfident’ in their political knowledge. This workshop aims to energise students’ engagement in UK politics and dismantle obstacles to the ballot box by illuminating the political dynamics shaping their interests, from sport to music.

Under the scope of different topical issues, students will debate their ideas and cast their ballots – developing the tools to formulate their own policy plan. This workshop reframes the drudgery of politics, presenting it instead as a powerful set of tools students can use to create change and dismantle obstacles.

This interactive workshop invites students to uncover the hidden rules, patterns and inequalities that structure everyday educational life. Through a series of interactive activities, students will explore how social class, culture and expectations shape who thrives in education and life, and why. Drawing on key sociological thinkers, the session helps students see how education both reflects and reinforces wider social forces. 

This session offers a powerful way to support learners’ critical thinking, social awareness and confidence in discussing complex topics. By revealing the ‘invisible’ rules of school - from the hidden curriculum to everyday performances of identity - students gain insight into their own educational journeys and develop language to analyse them. The aim is simple: to show that the world is sociology, and once you see it, everything changes.

Discover how music, culture, and technology intersect in this interactive workshop exploring how personal experiences connect to wider social forces.

Dive into key sociological concepts, including C. Wright Mills’ “sociological imagination,” to analyse music consumption habits, stereotypes, and identity formation. Engage with contrasting theories, such as Adorno’s critique of the “Culture Industry” and Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding,” to debate how platforms like Spotify and YouTube influence cultural production and audience behaviour.

Through interactive polling, group discussions, and case studies, you’ll explore critical issues like user-generated content, big data profiling, and the power dynamics in digital media.

Ideal for students with varied academic interests, this workshop fosters critical thinking and analytical skills, offering valuable insights into how digital media shapes modern culture. Whether you're into Sociology, Media, or just love music, this session is for you!