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Applied In-Course Learning

Applied In-Course Learning

A King’s education is steeped in reading, writing, and discussion, but many King’s courses and student societies bring hands-on learning into the student experience.

Students in the Foundation Year Program read Greek tragedy in September and then have the chance to experience acting in the Classics in the Quad production—or simply take in the play as an audience member. Night FYP events bring other dramatic works in the FYP curriculum to life and provides an opportunity to hear early music, also a part of the curriculum.

Many of the History of Science and Technology courses integrate the re-enactment of historical experiments or methodologies. Courses have built ancient technologies, recreated Newton and Goethe’s prism experiments, and re-enacted Louis Pasteur’s seminal work that changed the world. Students in the history of marine science course learn the history of statistics hands-on by counting plankton under a microscope. HOST even has a course on the history of brewing, which frequently culminates in a taste-off of students’ historical creations. The students pictured above are doing primary research on the Ami Stone Tools Collection, housed in the King’s Archives.

Students of early modern visual culture have created their own historical egg tempera paint, experiencing an often unseen dimension of the work they study through slides. Third-year students in contemporary studies have the opportunity to be embedded in laboratories to observe the human dimensions of laboratory life for their core science and culture class. Theory and practice are entwined from day one in our journalism program, with students interviewing and producing content in a variety of media.

Student clubs and societies bring further offerings such as the Experiments Club, which has tried its hand at constructing early modern batteries and astrolabes, or the summer reading club that culminated in a historical bake-off.