Bury St Edmunds County High School
01284 754857 office@countyhigh.uk

Year 9 Super Curricular

Examples of and links to Super Curricular activities for our Year 9 students include:

English

Watch:

  1. Watch some videos of the Notting Hill carnival in London to see how London communities work together in a positive way. You could write a poem inspired by what you see.
  2. Watch this short video by a Syrian NHS worker (who is a refugee) and summarise his key points.
  3. Watch this video that explains features commonly employed within dystopian young adult literature – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0AA_JKascQ.

Listen:

  1. Listen to a poet running a poetry lesson entitled ‘Poetry inspired by your environment’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZMHzlOG4Jc.
  2. Listen to real writers’ journeys, from how they find their inspiration and work with a stimulus, to how they edit and perform a written piece – https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/ks3-ks4-english-literature-language-inside-the-writers-mind/zbkgr2p.
  3. Listen to a talk by Margaret Atwood about her dystopian novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1KS5yhZqKc.

Read:

  1. Nye was the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2019-2022. Nye’s experience of both cultural difference and different cultures has influenced much of her work. Read more about her and find her poetry at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/naomi-shihab-nye.
  2. Read Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah to broaden your reading and appreciation of themes.
  3. Read the classic and influential dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell or read another classic dystopian novel called ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood.

Participate:

  1. Write your own poetry inspired by where you live. You could write one poem about the physical location and another about the people and community within that place. Experiment with poetic methods and forms.
  2. Visit The Imperial War Museum to contextualise the theme of conflict in relation to the novel explored in class.
  3. Using the correct conventions, write your own description of a dystopia. Then write a juxtaposing description of a utopia. You could then draw your descriptions and annotate them with phrases from your descriptions.

Maths

Watch:

  1. Problems with Powers of 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPoh5C9CcI8. Pentagons and the Golden Ratio – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3QBgkQi_HA.
  2. ‘A Beautiful Mind’ starring Russell Crowe, directed by Ron Howard. Research the mathematical genius of John Forbes Nash Jr.
  3. 10 excellent videos of maths in TV shows and movies – https://www.resourceaholic.com/2023/02/ten-videos-for-maths-lessons.html.

Listen:

  1. Travels in a mathematical world podcast – https://www.travelsinamathematicalworld.co.uk/.
  2. A brief history of Maths BBC podcast – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00srz5b/episodes/downloads.
  3. A variety of interesting podcasts – https://plus.maths.org/content/podcast and The Art of Mathematics Podcast – https://theartofmathematicspodcast.com/.

Read:

  1. Transformations and Symmetry – https://mathigon.org/course/transformations/introduction. Polygons and Polyhedra – https://mathigon.org/course/polyhedra/polygons.
  2. Sums of Powers – https://nrich.maths.org/5435. An Introduction to Irrational Numbers – https://nrich.maths.org/8394. The Dangerous Ratio – https://nrich.maths.org/2671.
  3. How Not to Be Wrong, The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life – Jordan Ellenberg; The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets – Simon Singh; Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterly.

Participate:

  1. Cambridge Maths Eureka Programme – 18th April.
  2. Intermediate Maths Challenge – 1st Jan/1st Feb – with follow up challenges for successful students.

Physics

Watch:

  1. Watch The Science of Doctor Who to see if the science on the show holds up to real life laws.
  2. Watch How to Engineer a Viral Music Video to hear from the leader of the team who created the Rube Goldberg machine in OK Go’s song This Too Shall Pass.
  3. Watch Brian Cox: Seven Days on Mars to find out more about the search for life on the red planet.

Listen:

  1. Listen to Crowd Science: Human v Machine to try and answer the question “how efficient are humans?”.
  2. Listen to It Is Rocket Science for a comic, but scientifically-accurate, look at the science and history of space exploration.
  3. Listen to the Bluffer’s Guide to Science, a series of short episodes so that you can sound like you know it all about big questions in science.

Read:

  1. Read an article from the Young Scientist’s Journal.
  2. Read about whether we can change the rate in which we normally travel through time and answer the question “can time travel ever be possible?”. 
  3. Read about the 7 SI base units and how they are defined – kilogram, metre, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela.

Participate:

  1. Join Marvin and Milo in their series of Do Try This At Home experiments.
  2. Use the simulations on the PhET website to do physics practicals we can’t do in class.  Miss Pascoe’s favourite is this one.
  3. Investigate the links between Football and Physics by completing the tasks on the worksheets.

Chemistry

Watch:

  1. Watch the video on the physical properties of different substances – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW8v2Fx0Y8c.
  2. Watch the TED talk – https://www.ted.com/talks/deepika_kurup_a_young_scientist_s_quest_for_clean_water?language=en.

Listen:

  1. Science Friday podcast – such a smart and interesting programme covering science and current affairs.
  2. Listen to the podcast – https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/naked-scientists-podcast/microplastics-and-forever-chemicals-here-stay.

Read:

  1. Ice cream is a mixture that can be called a formulation and an emulsion. Research what both these terms mean.
  2. Find out how survivalists create clean drinking water from polluted water when they are stranded on a desert island.

Participate:

  1. Make some ice cream using the following method – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scrumptious-science-making-ice-cream-in-a-bag/. What role does the salt play?

Biology

Watch:

  1. Watch some of the clips about how the human body can defend itself – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0537ADF3F3372F8A.
  2. TED talk: What happens when your DNA is damaged? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP8-5Bhd2ag

Listen:

  1. The Naked Scientists podcast – https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/naked-scientists-podcast/flu-vaccinations-and-calls-ai-regulation.
  2. The Naked Scientists podcast – https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/science-features/how-does-dna-fingerprinting-work.

Read:

  1. Research why foot and mouth disease only affect animals and not humans.
  2. What is Electrophoresis and how is this used in DNA fingerprinting?

Participate:

  1. Does mould grow better on white or brown bread? Conduct an investigation to find out!
  2. Create your only family tree (going as far back as you possibly can) – include photos to demonstrate characteristics that have been inherited form generation to generation.

French

Watch:

  1. Watch Les Choristes (the chorus film, with subtitles).
  2. Watch Astérix et Obélix: Mission Cléopatre (rated PG, with or without subtitles).
  3. Watch an episode of Peppa Pig (everyone loves Peppa!) in French – Peppa Pig Français – Chaîne Officielle – YouTube.

Listen:

  1. Videoclubs’s French songs (on all good streaming platforms). Listen with or without lyrics.
  2. Listen to tales of Babar on Spotify (search for ‘Histoire de Babar’).

Read:

  1. The Culture and Recipes of France by Tracey Kelly.
  2. Read the cartoon book of Le Petit Nicolas (a cheeky little boy and his adventures).
  3. Read an Astérix comic book in the school library.

Participate:

  1. Duolingo for Key Stage 3 French.
  2. Take a virtual trip of the Louvre Museum in Paris – https://tinyurl.com/vx6a98e.

German

Watch:

  1. Into the Beat on Netflix. Watch with original German audio and English subtitles (rated 12).

Listen:

  1. Fabian Wegerer: German singer.

Read:

  1. Die Wohngemeinschaft – https://mojevirtualnopotkrovlje.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/learn-german-with-stories_-cafe-in-berlin.pdf.

Participate:

  1. Duolingo quizlet.

Technology

Watch:

  1. Watch Jamie’s 30 minute meals make notes and try a new recipe.

Listen:

  1. Podcast – STEM. Listen to the Stemettes Podcast. Do you want to expand your knowledge of STEM but don’t know where to begin? Venturing into STEM podcasts can be a little daunting as there are so many out there and it’s hard to know which one to begin with. In this article, they have compiled a list of favourite podcasts by women in STEM to help you get started in the STEM podcasting world… 

Read:

  1. Gutsy Girls Go for Science: Engineers by Diane Taylor. Have you crossed over a bridge today? Have you ridden an elevator to a top floor? Have you opened up a carton of milk? All of these things were made possible through engineering! InGutsy Girls Go for Science: Engineers with STEM Projects for Kids, meet five female engineers who revolutionized the role of women in engineering.

Participate:

  1. Visit www.bbc.co.uk/goodfood and try a new recipe from one of their pages.
  2. Foodscapes. The artist Carl Warmer creates ‘Foodscapes’ as educational tools to help inform people about health eating, food culture and nutritional literacy. Have a look at some of his images and then design your own ‘Foodscape’ following his ideas.