EPQ Exhibition Excellence

After months of hard work, the Year 12s gained the opportunity to display their Extended Project Qualifications. Before 4pm, the students hastily prepared their boards ready to present; a huge thank you to Ms Collins at reprographics for what must have been a busy day of printing! The Exhibition was filled with many display boards covered with different research products and a range of diverse ideas and invigorating topics around the room, from the political sides of Eurovision to the Patrance of Florence.

I went around and visited a few EPQ presentations and was extremely impressed with the amount of effort and diligence each student had put in. A few examples include: ‘To what extent are nucleic acid therapeutics effective for cancer immunotherapy?’ by Ameya Borase. This included information on how effective nucleic acids were for the treatment of cancer immunotherapy; evidently, it functions by altering the DNA or RNA expression to halt the production whilst leaving other healthy proteins unaffected.

Additionally, Alexandra Procop researched ‘To what extent is the jury system effective in the UK?’ Her EPQ, in particular, reflects the bias that jury members may experience, as well as issues regarding transparency - the jury cannot and will never be required to explain their reasoning. It also focuses on more aspects such as instances of jury misbehaviour as well as media coverage of high-profile cases.

This evening allowed students to focus on their presentation skills, a key element in the EPQ course, and allowed members of the public to watch the different presentations and students to demonstrate how they displayed the responsibility and discipline presented through their self-directed and comprehensive products; the exhibition was an excellent opportunity for the EPQ students to show their interests in their topics and the hard work that had come out in the end. Overall, it was an immensely successful night and all students should be immensely proud of their fascinating projects!