Hi all! My name is Zoe and I am currently in my third year of four on the Interdisciplinary Science (ISci) programme here at the University of Leicester. In this blog I hope to illustrate what my life it like as a student and I will try to cover all aspects of my experience. However, before that, I thought I would let you know a little bit about me, what I am like and why I chose ISci here at UoL. Our story starts back when I was in 6th form and darting all over the country in the nerve wracking sport of Uni hunting. . .
My love for all the sciences and my terrible decision making skills meant that I was having a really hard time in my Uni search. I went to lots of Universities and saw many different science departments. When I found the ISci degree I couldn’t believe my luck. Not only was it a course that allowed me to continue all of the sciences but also taught them in a integrated way. The mixture of lectures, lab work, group work and individual learning sounded really intriguing and was another big factor that lead me to chose Leicester as my first choice. I am not going to lie, it is hard work at times but I find it is more than worth it. Leicester is the only University in the UK to have an ISci programme like ours so it was lucky for me that I loved the University and the city so much.
When I am not studying I often like to indulge in an array of creative activities. I love to sew, knit, paint, bake and generally anything that means I get to get in a bit of a mess. For example, I recently tried out candle making which went really well. That is, apart from the point when I stuck my legging to my leg with hot wax. . . I also love to spend my time playing video games or immersing myself in the worlds of Science-Fiction and Fantasy, be it a book, film or TV programme.
I realise I have been babbling along for some time now and I congratulate you on your attention span! But what would a conversation be with just one speaker? Please feel free to comment and I look forward to hearing from you! Until next time. . .
Subscribe to Zoe's posts
Hi zoe, i like your blog! It’s nice that you do sciences and are creative too – it’s a rare thing! What is the course like at leicester? Is it flexible – do you get to make choices about modules? It sounds pretty good, something i might be interested in.
Hi Anya, thanks for the kind words. I am glad you enjoyed the blog and that you might be interested in the course!
As I mentioned, the course here at Leicester is pretty different from any other course that I know of but it could most closely be likened to a natural sciences course. There are 5 core modules in a year which each last 5 weeks. Each core module is defined by a certain problem statement that the module content is then based around. The first 4 weeks of the module involve us learning the content needed to answer the problem statement through a mixture of taught and individual learning tasks. In the final week we work on (most commonly in groups) a set of deliverables which can take on a number of forms ranging from the traditional essay, to presentations, to podcasts and videos. So to answer your question on the flexibility, I am afraid not so much as the modules are preset and you will need to cover all the topics that are included. However you do cover a large range of different topics and there is also great emphasis on peer and group learning which means you help each other out in areas that you might find more difficult. It is also important to note that there are a number of other modules that run alongside these core modules such as lab, skills, maths and computing modules as well as two optional modules. I would suggest it would be in these optional modules that you would choose to look a bit more deeply into a subject area that you are especially interested in.
I hope that answered the question and if you have any other questions or want more detail please feel free to let me know! Also, feel free to have a look at the course website;
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/interdisciplinary-science
And also feel free to contact the department as well if you want, they are an absolutely lovely group of people and will be happy to talk to you!