In the lead up to Option choices, some of our Year 11 students might like to consider the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) as an Enrichment opportunity, in addition to their A level choices.
Some of our Year 13 EPQ students have recently made contributions to the newsletter, sharing their experience with us, and our current Year 12 EPQ students have also been really busy drafting out their Year 12 projects and consequently also deserve a special mention!
Year 12 EPQ students have made a promising start to the two-year course, identifying areas of strong interest, readily launching into research and producing a draft discussion linked to their findings.
We have been truly impressed with the breadth of topics chosen and with the students’ commitment to the EPQ journey.
Project titles include the following (but this is not an exhaustive list):
- Have economic policies in post-Apartheid South Africa gone far enough to reduce inequality between racial groups?
- Is it possible to prevent isolated events of mass violence?
- How is French New Wave cinema a reflection of Rousseau’s concept of “returning to nature”?
- Is religious belief more likely to deter crime?
- Do biological predispositions of the brain alone determine criminal behaviour?
- Can Green Hydrogen actually be used as an energy source?
- Should engineers be made accountable for the failure or misuse of their designs?
- Should the UK justice system fund drug rehabilitation to reduce crime?
- Should designer babies be allowed?
Here are comments from a couple of our Year 12 EPQ students:
“I chose to do EPQ because it provides an opportunity to research a topic which does not come up in my other courses. So far, I have learnt how to research independently, find and critically evaluate different sources and explore different moral frameworks within my topic.
My project is based on the economical state of South Africa and how it has changed post Apartheid. I chose this topic as somewhat of a passion project as it allows me to explore problems within my nation, their causes and potential solutions to them”.
– E
“I chose EPQ so that I would be able to have more control over my academic experience, and am very pleased to be able to do both research and writing work on a subject that I am passionate about, and that in many ways is preparing me for my desired university course in law.
It has helped me learn new things about the way I work, as well as pushed me to find new ways to uncover information and meet deadlines.”
– G
