Scholars' Society: which inventions have changed our world?

PUBLISHED 30 September 2023

In the first of this year's meetings of the Scholars' Society, Head of Scholars, Michael Hodgkinson explored the question, 'which inventions have changed our world?'. He opened the session by asking students to name and date a series of inventions, before they split into mixed year groups to rotate around five 'challenge' tables, which each focused on a different theme: money, time, the internet, nuclear power and a final task for them to generate their own ideas for what could change the world in the future.

The activities involved debates as well as card sort and matching tasks designed to stimulate discussion - ably facilitated by our Year 13s. On completion of the rotation, Mr Hodgkinson asked them to guess which of the activities had been entirely generated by AI (the 'money' task, with the 'nuclear power' activity being a hybrid of an AI generated excerise, which Henry Y - the Year 13 facilitator - had subsequently developed).

It was great to see so much energetic debate and to welcome our new Year 7s.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: Academic Scholars' Programme Dates 2023-24

These events are a fantastic way to develop academic skills and to engage with material beyond the classroom. They are open to all students, and all academic scholars are expected to attend:

Scholars' Society (OAKS Hall, 4.00pm to 5.00pm)