Year 12 Get Curious about...
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CONTENTS
Introduction 3 Art 4 Biology 5 Business Studies (A level and Btec) 6 Chemistry 7 Classical Civilisation 8 Computer Science 9 Drama 10 Economics 11 English Literature 12 English Language and Literature 13 Geography 14 HIstory 15 Mathematics and Further Mathematics 16 Music 17 Photography 18 Physical Education (A level and Btec) 19 Product Design 20 Physics 21 Politics 22 Psychology 23 Philosophy, Religion and Ethics (PRE) 24 Sociology 25 Spanish 26
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Introduction
Much of what I stumbled into, by following my curiosity and intuition, turned out to be priceless later on.
Steve Jobs
The joy of joining the sixth form is that you can really start to get curious about the subjects you have chosen; like Steve Jobs said, you never know how priceless the things you read, listen to and watch are going to be.
This summer you have time to get curious about your A level / BTEC courses. We have produced this booklet to supplement the information provided to you via the induction booklet and resources on the Google Classroom/Google Drive. It also supports the Queens’ School Super-Curriculum, which you can find here.
Every department has put together a small collection of resources that they would like you to try to read, listen to and watch before starting their course. You won’t be tested on these resources (they aren’t requirements for your course), but by getting curious about them you’ll start to understand where the sixth form might take you in the future, and how interesting your subjects are. Where more than one resource is listed, pick one first and then come back to the others if you have the time to.
In September, your teachers will discuss these resources with you and will be looking to hear your thoughts and find out what you got curious about.
We hope you enjoy exploring these resources over the next six weeks.
3 Get Curious about Art
A book you should read is:
Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● Art Matters. © Bob and Roberta Smith ● Talk Art. Talk Art podcast
A radio show you should listen to is:
The Radio 2 Arts Show
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: Any film by Wes Anderson
Social media you should follow is: Pinterest
4 Get Curious about Biology
Books you should read are:
● Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari ● The body: an occupant's guide by Bill bryson
Podcasts you should listen to are:
The 'ologies podcasts', each one is a something 'ology, like oceanology, rhinology etc
Radio shows you should listen to:
Radio 4: The infinite monkey cage.
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are:
● Anything Attenborough ● Sci show, or bizarre beasts on youtube
Social media you should follow are:
● Science alert and iflscience on instagram (iflscience also has a facebook and own website) ● Asap science on instagram or tiktok
5 Get Curious about Business
A book you should read is:
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense by Rory Sutherland
Websites you should read are:
● https://www.ft.com/stream/d22ff01b-f7b0-3c84-8543-c92e346b4585 ● https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business ● https://theguardian.com/uk
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrss1/episodes/downloads ● Open University 60 seconds lessons in economics with David Mitchell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyVXa-u4wE
A radio show you should listen to is:
Radio 4: The Bottom Line with Evan Davis
Documentaries you should watch are:
● Print the Legend ● Adam Curtis: Hypernormalisation; ● Don’t Panic, the Truth about Population with Hans Rosling;
Social media you should follow:
Larry Elliot and William Keegan on the Guardians Business Desk @BusinessDesk
6 Get Curious about Chemistry
Book you should read is:
Why chemical reactions happen by James Keeler and Peter Wothers
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● The Periodic Table by The Royal Society of Chemistry ● Weekly podcasts by Chemistry World
A radio show you should listen to is:
Radio 4: In our time; Chemistry
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are:
● Pandemic: How to prevent an outbreak ● Sci show; Chemistry
Social media you should follow are:
● Science alert and iflscience on instagram (iflscience also has a facebook and own website) ● Asap science on instagram or tiktok ● Chem with Kellen on instagram
7 Get Curious about Classical Civilisation
Books you should read are:
● Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ● Heroes by Stephen Fry ● The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● Totalus Rankium ● Emperors of Rome ● Trojan War: The Podcast
Radio shows you should listen to are:
● BBC In Our Time ● BBC A History of the World in 100 Objects ● BBC Great Lives
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are:
● Rome series ● 300 directed by Zack Synder ● Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott
Social media you should follow are:
● Openlearn: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/classical-studies ● Classics Confidential: https://classicsconfidential.co.uk/ ● Ancient Rome live: https://ancientromelive.org/ ● SCS blog: https://classicalstudies.org/scs-blog
8 Get Curious about Computer Science
Books you should read are:
GitHub free programming ebooks
Websites you should read are: ● https://www.computer.org/computer-magazine/ ● http://usingpython.com/python-introduction/
Podcasts you should listen to are: http://www.wired.co.uk/series/wired-podcast
Radio show you should listen to is:
The BBC Tech Tent
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are:
20 Must See TED Talks for Computer Scientists
Social media you should follow are:
● https://twitter.com/compscioxford?lang=en ● https://twitter.com/CompSciFact
9 Get Curious about Drama
Books you should read are:
● The Kneehigh theatre cookbook ● The Theatre and Its Double by Antonin Artaud
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● The National Theatre podcasts ● Listen to Sir Patrick Stewart read Shakespeare’s sonnets
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are:
● Talking Heads on BBC iplayer. ● National Theatre streamed productions on YouTube. ● The Goes Wrong Show by Mischief Theatre Company on BBC Iplayer
Social media you should follow:
On Twitter follow those listed below: ● Queens’ School Drama ● Frantic Assembly ● National Theatre ● Kneehigh ● Get into Theatre ● the Globe ● Watford Palace Theatre.
10 Get Curious about Economics
Books you should read are:
● Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner & Steven D. Levitt. ● How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities by Stephen Cassiby. ● Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith ● The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes.
Websites you should read are:
● https://www.ft.com/stream/d22ff01b-f7b0-3c84-8543-c92e346b4585 ● https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business ● https://theguardian.com/uk
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● https://freakonomics.com/archive/ ● https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrss1/episodes/downloads ● Open University 60 seconds lessons in Economics with David Mitchell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyVXa-u4wE
A radio show you should listen to is:
Radio 4: The Bottom Line with Evan Davis
Documentaries you should watch are:
● Print the Legend, The Great Hack, ● Adam Curtis: Hypernormalisation; ● Don’t Panic, the Truth about Population with Hans Rosling;
Social media you should follow:
Bloomberg Economics @economics and @ING_Economics
11 Get Curious about English Literature
Books you should read are:
● Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ● Germinal by Emile Zola ● 1984 by George Orwell
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● 1001 Short Stories ● BBC World Book Club ● Selected Shorts
Radio shows you should listen to are:
● Radio 4’s Open Book ● BBC Book at Bedtime
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Atonement directed by Joe Wright ● Othello available via BBC Culture on iplayer ● The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrman
Social media you should follow are: ● Goodreads ● WLT blog ● Granta ● British Council Literature blog
12 Get Curious about English Language and Literature
Books you should read are:
● Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ● The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey ● The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● 1001 Short Stories ● BBC World Book Club ● Selected Shorts
Radio shows you should listen to are:
● Radio 4’s Open Book ● BBC Book at Bedtime
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Atonement directed by Joe Wright ● Othello available via BBC Culture on iplayer ● The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrman
Social media you should follow are: ● Goodreads ● WLT blog ● Granta ● British Council Literature blog
13 Get Curious about Geography
A book you should read is:
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● The Economist ● Overheard at National Geographic
A radio show you should listen to is:
BBC news
A TV/Films/Clips you should watch is: Haiti: After the quake
Social media you should follow are: ● Instagram - World Health Organisation and National Geographic ● Twitter - @easygeography
14 Get Curious about History
Books you should read are:
● Andrew Marr, A History of Modern Britain. (There's also a great documentary series that you can watch) ● Simon Schama, History of Modern Britain, Volume 3: The Fate of Empire 1776-2000. ● Kenneth Morgan, Twentieth Century Britain: A Very Short Introduction
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● Churchill: The Great Orator – 4 episodes available online (Run by The Telegraph).
● The Historical Association podcasts
Radio shows you should listen to are:
● BBC – Churchill’s Roar – A study of how Churchill inspired a nation to beat back the Nazis in the 1940s. ● BBC – Baroness Thatcher: 1925-2013 – and excellent examination of Thatcher’s life and her leadership. ● BBC In Our Time
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are:
● The Iron Lady ● Darkest Hour
● Andrew Marr's series ● BBC – Churchill – Renegade and Turncoat
Social media you should follow: Twitter: @ChurchillCentre and @ChurchillToday
15 Get Curious about Maths and Further Maths
A book you should read is:
Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh
Podcasts you should listen to are:
TED Talks Maths Playlist
A radio show you should listen to is:
Radio 4 Maths collection
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are:
● Good Will Hunting (1997) ● The Man Who Knew Infinity
Social media you should follow are: ● Oxford Maths on Instagram ● Nrich maths
16 Get Curious about Music
A book you should read is:
● The Great Composers by Jeremy Nicholas ● Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance by Tan, Pfordresher and Rom
A podcast you should listen to is:
That Classical Podcast
A radio show you should listen to is:
Scala Radio
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are:
● In The Key of Genius Ted Talk by Derek Paravicini and Adam Ockelford ● Music as a Language Ted Talk by Victor Wooten ● The Transformative Power of Music Ted Talk by Benjamin Zander
Social media you should follow are: YouTube:
● Rick Beato ● Jacob Collier
The Listening Project @listening_16
17 Get Curious about Photography
Books you should read are:
● The Photograph: A Visual and Cultural History (Oxford History of Art) ● The Photograph as Contemporary Art (World of Art)
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● Scenario Podcast ● United Nations of Photography
A radio show you should listen to is:
The Radio 2 Arts Show
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: Any film by Wes Anderson
Social media you should follow are: ● Ello ● Instagram ● F-stoppers
18 Get Curious about Physical Education (A Level and Btec)
Books you should read are:
● Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim Grover ● The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, And Thrive by Jim Afremow ● The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● Sport Psychology Today with Dr. Andrew Jacobs ● Sports motivation podcast ● Instant anatomy
A radio show you should listen to is:
Sports coach radio
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● The English Game (History of Sport) ● Icarus (Drugs in Sport) ● Fittest on Earth (Anatomy & Physiology, Exercise & Training) ● Eat Race Win (Nutrition)
Social media you should follow are: ● Believe perform - Twitter, facebook and instagram ● Visible.body - instagram ● Muscleandmotion- instagram ● Sport psychology today- facebook and twitter
19 Get Curious about Product Design
Books you should read are:
● Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming by Ellen Lupton ● Design as Art by Bruno Munari ● The Design of Everyday things by Dan Norman ● The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● The Crazy One - Episode 1: Creativity ● Why Design Matters with Debbie Millman
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Home is where the ART is ● Netflix series Abstract ● California by Design episodes 1 -6
Social media you should follow are: ● @DesignMuseum ● @of_Making
Magazines you should read are:
● FX magazine ● Design week
Exhibitions you should see are:
● Design museum ● Harry Potter Studios
20 Get Curious about Physics
A book you should read is:
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● Physics World Weekly ● The Titanium Physicists Podcast and StarTalk
Radio shows you should listen to are:
● The Infinite Monkey Cage ● In our Time – Concepts in Physics
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Particle Fever (2013) ● Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014) ● Wonders of Life (2014) ● Interstellar (2014)
Social media you should follow are: ● astro_nicole (Instagram) ● @DrRubidium (Twitter) ● @ProfBrianCox (Twitter) ● marscuriosity (Instagram) ● @AstroKatie (Twitter) ● @NASA (Twitter)
21 Get Curious about Politics
Books you should read are:
● Andrew Marr, A History of Modern Britain Stig Abel - How Britain Really Works ● Isabel Hardman - Why We Get the Wrong Politicians ● Barack Obama - Dreams of My Father
A podcast you should listen to is:
The A Level Politics Show
Radio shows you should listen to are:
● BBC – Baroness Thatcher: 1925-2013 ● BBC In Our Time ● LBC – Leading Britain’s Conversation – has some really good speakers to discuss political issues
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Brexit: The Uncivil War ● Andrew Marr, A History of Modern Britain ● Inside the Commons
Social media you should follow are: Instagram: Simplepolitics and SOSpolitics
22 Get Curious about Psychology
A book you should read is:
The Brain: The Story of you by David Eagleman (2015)
A podcast you should listen to is:
Super Psychology by Anna Stapleton
A radio show you should listen to is:
BBC Radio 4 – All in the mind
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Zimbardo – The Psychology of evil (TED talk – Social influence) ● How reliable is your memory (TED talk – Memory) ● The Brain – A Secret history (Documentary – Bio Psychology) ● Body Clock: What makes us tick? (Documentary – Bio Psychology) ● Babies on Netflix (Attachment) ● A Beautiful mind (Film - Schizophrenia)
Social media you should follow are: ● British Psychological Society ● The Psychologist on Twitter
A magazine you should read is:
Psychology review (magazine for A Level Psychology students)
A Society you should join is: British Psychological Society (BPS) for A Level Psychology students
23 Get Curious about PRE
A book you should read is:
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
Podcasts you should listen to are:
● Philosophy:https://medium.com/the-mission/35-best-philosophy-podcasts-28e79725a6 96 ● The Religion of Hinduism - https://blog.feedspot.com/hinduism_podcasts/ ● Ethics: https://theought.com/2017/10/25/three-of-the-best-podcasts-about-ethics/ Radio shows you should listen to are:
● A History of Ideas ● The Global Philosopher ● Beyond Belief
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Western Philosophy ● Crash course Philosophy which outlines Philosophical and Ethical topics covered throughout the A-level course
Social media you should follow are: The following on Twitter:
● Philosophy Matters, ● Religion in the News ● Ethics in Bricks
24 Get Curious about Sociology
Books you should read are:
● Progressively Worse: The Burden of Bad Ideas in British Schools. By Robert Peal. ● The War Against Boys. By Christina Hoff Sommers Podcasts you should listen to are:
Podology; Sociology Podcasts
A radio show you should listen to is:
BBC’s Thinking allowed
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Youtube interview with Helen Smith discussing her views on the roles of modern men. ● Youtube documentary with Christina Hoff Sommers offering an alternative equality feminist view of modern feminism. ● Benefits street, a documentary exploring a community where 90% of the population is on benefits and how this impacts their lives.
Social media you should follow is: The British Sociological Association (BSA)
25 Get Curious about Spanish
Book you should read are:
● Short stories in Spanish By Olly Richards ● Como Agua para Chocolate By Laura Esquivel (This is the book we will study in Year 13) ● Spanish Short Stories: Cuentos en espanol By John R King ● Spanish Short Stories: Cuentos hispanicos Volume 1 Text series By Jean Fran
Podcasts you should listen to are:
News in slow spanish
Radio shows you should listen to are:
● www.telecinco.es ● www.antena3.com ● radio ambulante ● TVE ● www.ver-taal.com
TV/Films/Clips you should watch are: ● Volver--Pedro Almdóvar ● Mar Adentro-Alejandro Amenábar ● María eres llena de Gracia-Joshua Marston ● Ocho apellidos Vascos-Emilio Martínez-Lázaro Social media you should follow is: https://blog.lingoda.com/en/10-best-people-to-follow-on-twitter-for-learning-spanish
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