Packing up and saying goodbye! :(

Hi parents,

Peterhouse is very quiet today without all the students and the admin staff are packing up the office.

We are also able to announce the winners of the subject prizes! Congratulations to all 🙂

Chemistry – Jack Hoppus

Coding – Ahmad Asfour

Creative Writing – Grace Murphy

Drama – Emma Farrell

Engineering – Catherine Whitmer

Europe Since 1789 – Robert Russell

Filmmaking – Satori Rosen

Global Business – Alisha Gupta

Global Politics – Rhea Shankar

Law – Morgan Taylor

Math and Nature – Ozan Kayaalp

Medical Science – Ariella Mandel

Molecular Biology – Graham Foote

Photography – Nigel Stiger

Public Speaking – Muskaan Saha

Cosmology – Abdullah Al Shirawi

Social Psychology – Sonia Dhingra

Studio Art – Cathy Almakhmari

We’re so sad to see you all go but hope that many of you will come back to an Oxbridge Academic program here or around the world.

Here are a few highlights from our experience…

We hope you enjoyed the Prep as much as we did!

Until next year,

Much love from the admin team 🙂

Students ready for the final dinner

The winners of the Activities Trophy: Chemistry and Cosmology

 

Two students sharing their best CamPrep moments

 

Social Psychology students in market square

Students in theatre

Teacher appreciation day

Boat tour in Canterbury

Inside the castle walls at Lincoln

Ready for kayaking on the Cam

The UV dance

 

The staff at the final dinner

The Medical Science students and teachers

Espionage and Criminology at the top of Great Saint Mary’s Church

The Final Day!!

Hi Parents,

In classic CamPrep fashion, it has been an incredibly busy and emotional last day here at Peterhouse.

Students had their very last major classes, followed by their final staircase meetings with their mentors to get them packed up and ready to go.

At 6pm there was a formal dinner in Peterhouse’s hall, an opportunity for everyone to get dressed up and celebrate all the amazing experiences they’ve had over the past few weeks.

After that, all students and staff moved to the theatre to have the closing ceremony. Several students shared their favourite ‘CamPrep moment’ which were all as moving as they were entertaining. The faculty handed out their subject prizes, and our A.D.s awarded the much coveted and fiercely contested activities trophy – congratulations to Chemistry and Cosmology for winning that! 🙂

To end the ceremony a slideshow of all the highlights of this year’s program was shown causing a lot of students (and some of the staff) to shed a tear or two.

The students then moved on to their final dance, complete with cotton candy, popcorn and a chocolate fountain!

Until tomorrow,

The admin team 🙂

Showcase finale!

Hi all!

The CamPrep Program is coming to an end, culminating in a massive variety of final projects, including amazing visual displays and presentations.

The filmmaking students have been shooting the final scenes of their short film the past few days. Since then, they have been in the editing room to put everything together for the final showcase.

Math and Nature major students spent the morning discussion the various complexities of Integration, and all engaged enthusiastically with this difficult topic. Everyone picked up the topic very quickly, and it’s great to see them progress so much throughout this course.

The final showcase is in full swing, with really great displays and presentations by all the students. To see how much work they have done in just a few weeks is amazing, and all the students loved the opportunity to show off their work and see all the hard work of their fellow students.

This evening saw a debate between Law students about a land dispute between Chile and Bolivia, which is currently being discussed in the Hague. The judges and the audience ended up siding with Chile after much deliberation, but every participant made a persuasive and articulate argument.

The Drama students gave a performance this evening, which involved some of them playing the cast of the TV show ‘Friends’ as they were watching TV. Each TV scene that was watched was then played out by a separate group of the students, including ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘Amadeus’, ‘The Office’ and ‘Mean Girls’.

The Major and Minor short films were then screened. They were really amazing in their own right, but even more impressive considering that the students had no prior experience, and only had a few weeks to learn about film theory, write and shoot the films, and then edit them. The two films were rounded off with a combined blooper reel that showed how much fun the students had recording. The directors then did a Q&A with the audience, answering questions about the production and editing process.

Finally, one of the Veterinary Science students gave a really intelligent talk about why Veterinary Science is extremely important for global health, and must be considered alongside Medical Science to tackle world health issues.

It’s been a busy day, but everyone has produced a final project to be proud of that shows off all their hard work over the past few weeks!

 

Engineering, Exhibitions and Excitement

Hello everyone!

We’re coming to the end of CamPrep 2017, which means that the students have been completing final projects and preparing presentations and showcase exhibitions.

But first off, the major Law students spent the morning discussing a dispute over land taken from Bolivia by Chile in the War of the Pacific from 1879 to 1883. The class split into two groups, with half the students arguing the case for Bolivia, and the other half arguing for Chile. It was really great to see all the students engaging in a complex debate in such an intelligent and thoughtful manner. Aside from that, one of the Law students celebrated their 15th birthday today, so it was only right that the class had a birthday party!

The photography students took a trip down memory lane, to their first days in Cambridge this summer. They revisited their most vivid memory of their arrival and took photos to record how they feel about it now. Everyone was really excited to think back to their arrival, and reflect on how much has happened the past few weeks.

Engineering students followed up on their previous lesson in Telecommunication Engineering with a hands-on activity where they built and tested a (plastic cup) phone. Impressively, these worked so well that they were could clearly hear the other person talking even when they were almost whispering. This activity was linked to discussions around the way in which microphones work, and was part of a lesson covering the developments and operations of the telephone since the days of Marconi.

This afternoon, one of the Veterinary Science students, Maria, took the opportunity to connect with Dr John Gibson, Director of Studies in Veterinary Science at Clare College and University Reader in Pathophysiology. Maria took the initiative to get in touch with Dr Gibson, and set up the meeting herself. She spent an hour talking with him about the admissions process and what it’s like to attend Cambridge as a Veterinary Science student. It’s great to see that both the CamPrep Program and the University of Cambridge has really made an impression on Maria, and motivated her to learn more about the University and her favourite subject! Here she is standing next to Dr Gibson on Clare bridge, next to the Scholar’s garden at Clare College.

Instead of the usual dinner in the dining hall this evening, the students had a BBQ in the College’s Deer Park. Their was once again a large variety of main and desert options, and everyone enjoyed the opportunity to be outside in the sun after the rainy last few days!

This evening saw the first of the end-of-program exhibitions. There was a Public Speaking debate about the merits of television for teenagers, and whether it’s a distraction or a form of relaxation. Global Politics students did a moderated discussion of global issues including the political situations in Syria and Russia, economic issues in China, and the future of the UK after Brexit. One of the Law students also gave a talk about Muslim women wearing their veil from a social and religious point-of-view, and the programme’s Law teacher, Paz, also gave a really insightful talk on Feminism.

Sun’s out, fun’s out!

Hi Parents,

Today started in classic Sunday fashion, with brunch!

 

After that, our first activity of the day was the second opportunity to visit the nearby town of Ely. Highlights included visiting the cathedral and climbing the tower to the roof.

 

The cathedral also houses a beautiful stained glass museum that tells the story of how the glass is made, its importance (particularly in the medieval period) and how it has been used to tell stories. The permanent gallery displays over 125 glass panels representing eight hundred years of the history, from the thirteenth century to the present day.

 

Students also went to an ‘Escape Room’ and came in the top ten of quickest escapes ever in Ely! They also visited the home of Oliver Cromwell, the English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Wales in the 17th Century.

Back in Peterhouse, there was a scavenger hunt around the college. Students had to search for and decipher clues in order to solve the final challenge.

 

Meanwhile, a large group of students visited the arcade with our two Activities Directors. They did some bowling, played games and went to see the new Spiderman film.

 

After a fun-filled day, the kids settled down in Peterhouse’s dining hall to a classic British meal: a Sunday roast.

 

The final activity of the day was a film screening of Iron Man in the theatre.

We hope you had a great weekend!

Love the CamPrep team 🙂

 

Football, Face Painting, and Falling Over!

Hi everyone!

Today, in the Global Politics major, the class held a model UN Security Council crisis, alongside the Espionage class. Students represented the USA, the UK, France, Russia, China, India, Turkey and Iran, and discussed the displacement of 20 million refugees due to a severe storm in South-East Asia. They negotiated how many refugees each country would take, and how to account for all those affected.

In the Filmmaking major and minor classes, work continued on the two short films they have been producing over the past few weeks. The students wrote the scripts, shot, and edited the films entirely themselves, and have recruited some of our staff members to act in the films! They have also learnt a great deal about camera angles, and how these can affect a film’s tone or portray a particular emotion.

Over the past three weeks, the Cosmology class have been reading and discussing Stephen Hawkings’ book ‘A Brief History of Time’. They have been learning equations, functions, derivatives and the logic behind equations, and this week, they took a field trip to the Cambridge Observatory, where they were given the opportunity to look at a Victorian telescope! They also visited Gonville and Caius College, the college which Stephen Hawking attended, where they were given a tour and told about his life and his time at Cambridge.

Our activities this afternoon were football-themed. Some of our students took a trip to the Cambridge United stadium, to watch the Cambridge team play against Southend United. Unfortunately, Southend won 2-0 (although our Program Assistant Izzy was delighted, as Southend is her hometown!).

While some of the students watched this match, others played a slightly lower standard of football, in a game of Bubble Football (which is probably better explained in picture than in words!).

Today also saw the arrival of the weekly dance, which this week was a UV paint party!

 

 

Spies, ghosts and chicken drumsticks

Hi again everyone!

This week, the Major Espionage class has been secretly working on their final project, creating a spy mission for the minor class that took place today through downtown Cambridge. They had to include coded clues, secret contacts, invisible ink and local moles to set it up!

Major students preparing their final project

The minor class had to solve a series of clues in order to find the missing Major trophy. They spent the afternoon racing around Cambridge deciphering all the codes, and managed to find it!

Meanwhile, the Major Veterinary Science students, having previously practised suturing synthetic skin to a teddy bear, progressed to suturing fresh chicken thighs. In the words of their teacher, any and all fresh and frozen meat in need of treatment should be sent to these young surgeons for proper management.

The Creative Writing students have been discussing they how Shakespeare uses language, and sharing ideas for their next stories. Their teacher emphasised that they are more than welcome to use each others’ ideas because they’ll all write them differently.

They also recently took a trip to Cambridge’s beautiful Botanical Gardens in order to practise descriptive writing, by focusing on, and writing down, all the sights, smells and sounds around them. From here, they wrote impressive short stories inspired by their surroundings.

This afternoon saw teachers and students gather for afternoon tea (or Facul-tea, as we like to call it!) a way for everyone to bond in a non-classroom environment.

There was also a hugely engaging talk on material science given by engineer Jonathan Harris, entitled ‘What Will the Future be Made of?’. He discussed the future of material science, and in particular the development of super shock-absorbent materials.

Lots of students went swimming this afternoon because the last trip turned out to be so popular, and this was followed up by another film-screening in the theatre.

Finally, a large group of students headed out for a guided ghost tour around Cambridge this evening. They were told tales of Cambridge’s historical and ghostly past. Highlights included a story about Lord Byron being an alleged vampire and Cambridge medical students bodysnatching from graveyards to practise anatomy.

Have a spooky night…!