Schools and outreach

Lots of the content in our sessions is delivered by our own student ambassadors. Your students will be given plenty of opportunities to engage in question and answer sessions with our current undergraduates as well as University staff. 

What we offer

All of our sessions incorporate information covering a wide range of key themes underpinning the Gatsby Benchmarks. We highlight career and labour market information, make links between the science curriculum and careers, offer opportunities for students to interact directly with the University as an employer and a higher education institute, and raise the aspirations of underrepresented groups through the promotion of equality and diversity. 

What can I do with A Level Biology? 

Year group: Y10-12 

Duration: 60 minutes online or face to face

Suitable for A Level biology students, or GCSE students thinking about studying it in the future. 

An interest in biology opens the door to a wide variety of different courses: from ecology and conservation to zoology, biology, biomedical science, biochemistry, molecular biosciences and much more. The amount of choice can be confusing, so to help your students explore the routes available, we’ll look at real world problems and hear from our current students how biologists tackle the same issue using their different specialisms. They will also find out about the many and varied career options open to bioscience students and how the transferable skills and techniques can be applied to a multitude of career pathways both in and out of STEM. 

This session offers an excellent opportunity to hear directly from our current undergraduates. Time within the session is dedicated for your students to ask them questions about the subject they study or learn more about their experience of studying at the University of Sheffield.

What can I do with A Level Chemistry?

Year group: Y10-12 

Duration: 60 minutes online or face to face

Suitable for those currently studying, or thinking about studying, an A Level in Chemistry. 

Chemistry can open so many doors into a fantastic and successful STEM career. During this session your students will be given examples of real world problems which can be solved using the skills developed from studying chemistry. We’ll be hearing from some of our students about how they would tackle such issues using thought processes and techniques from degrees such as Chemistry, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering.

This session offers an excellent opportunity to hear directly from our current undergraduates. Time within the session is dedicated for your students to ask them questions about the subject they study or learn more about their experience of studying at the University of Sheffield.

What can I do with A Level Maths? 

Year group: Y10-12 

Duration: 60 minutes online or face to face

Suitable for those currently studying for an A Level in maths, or thinking about studying it in the future. 

An A Level in Maths, and the transferable skills developed while studying it, will open many career pathways both in and out of STEM. During this session your students will learn how different undergraduates studying STEM degrees approach solving a real world problem. They’ll describe how maths is used in their everyday studies and how they practise and develop skills across subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science and Engineering.

This session offers an excellent opportunity to hear directly from our current undergraduates. Time within the session is dedicated for your students to ask them questions about the subject they study or learn more about their experience of studying at The University of Sheffield.

Careers in STEM

Year group: Y11-Y12

Duration:  30-45 minutes online or 60 minutes face to face

Suitable for students studying STEM A Levels or GCSE students who may do so in the future.

We can offer career focussed sessions for Biosciences, Chemistry, Maths, Physics and Psychology. These short talks provide a deeper look into where these degrees can lead, with an overview of the graduate jobs market in those sectors and examples from our own graduates. These can be supplemented with current student Q&A if required. The content of this session also links with several Gatsby benchmarks to support your establishment’s ‘good career guidance’. We endeavour to raise aspirations, challenge stereotypes and break down barriers likely to be encountered by underrepresented groups in STEM.

This session may also be of benefit to year 13 students prior to the UCAS application deadline.

Why study science?

Year group: Y8-12

Duration: 30-45 minutes online or 60 minutes face to face

This talk is aimed at students who enjoy studying science and want to find out where it can take them. 

It can be differentiated to suit any stage of your students’ learning journey, whether they are selecting their GCSE or A Level options or thinking about studying a STEM degree at university. We’ll also hear from current students about their experiences of studying science, and find out who employs science graduates.  

There’s more to health than Medicine

Year group:  Y10-12

Duration: 60 minutes online or face to face

This session aims to support your students to consider a variety of different science courses and careers within healthcare as an alternative to studying medicine.

Everyone knows about medical doctors, but there are many more alternative courses and careers out there directly related to health and disease. Biomedical scientists, molecular biologists, chemists, bioengineers, medical physicists, and psychologists are just some examples of specialists employed across the wider healthcare sector in health and medical related roles. Part of this session will involve asking your students to evaluate their own motivations and interests within health, disease and medicine to better assess which degree options match the outcomes they are looking for. 

Subject Taster Days

Year group: Y12/13

On-campus and virtual science subject tasters run throughout the year for individual students to book on to. Subject tasters offer excellent opportunities to experience what it is like to study a science subject at the University of Sheffield. Please direct your students to find out more information on our tasters webpage. 

How else can the Faculty of Science support you?

The Faculty of Science organises various other outreach sessions across the subjects of bioscience, chemistry, maths, physics and psychology. These can take place online, on our campus or at your school.

If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch and we can discuss the options that may be available to you. 

Channel Talent Online Tutorials

The University of Sheffield runs online tutorials through our partners at Channel Talent. These live and interactive online sessions are free for schools and individuals to book onto. Faculty of Science webinar topics have included:

• Biosciences – Organisms and Environment 
• Chemistry – Polymers 
• Maths – Applied Probability
• Physics – Large Hadron Colliders 
• Psychology – Research Design

 Visit the Channel Talent website and make a booking

Contact us

To make an enquiry please email science.outreach@sheffield.ac.uk.

You can also follow @SciOutreachShef on Twitter.