Schools and Colleges

The university is one of the partner universities in the South East Physics Network aiming to promote excellence in physics across the region.  This partnership funds many of our outreach activities.

Some of our activities include an annual physics competition for sixth form students, a taster day as part of a university wide summer school and a wide variety of talks and workshops.  As part of the SEPnet partnership, we run a series of revision events for GCSE science students.

If you would like to find out more about our outreach activities or be added to our mailing list, please contact us. Please see below for details of our upcoming activities.

Physics at University taster day, 9th and 18th July 2013

You are invited to bring a group of year 12 students to experience physics at the University of Surrey. The event will involve a talk from one of our lecturers, a 2 hour practical in our undergraduate labs and a tour of the campus.

Olympic Physics Competition, 17th July 2013

A one day hands-on challenge for teams of KS5 students based on an Olympic sport. 

GCSE Taster Sessions, 10th July PM, 11th July AM, 11th July PM

A half day activity on a university campus, designed for students who will soon start, or have just begun, their GCSEs. The session includes a short lecture, an exhibition of hands-on activities and a quiz, based around energy and energy resources.

For examples of previous activities, see our Schools Liaison Newsletter.

If you are interested in having one of our researchers give a talk in your school, see our list of talks and get in touch

The department attended the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2011 with our stand on quantum computing called 'Schrodinger's Cat in a Silicon Chip'.  We will be attending more festivals in 2011/2012, starting with Manchester Science Festival on Saturday 29th October.  Visit us and learn about our research.

What would you do if you could be in two places at once?

Over the course of the Summer Science Exhibition, visitors to the stand were asked what they would do if they were in two places at once.  The best suggestion of the week won a guitar. 

The shortlist included:
"I would be in the crowd at a music festival while hang-gliding above it"
"Climbing Everest and organising the rescue!"
"I would do cartwheels + build robots at the same time"
"Play princesses + robots at the same time."
"I would tickle myself .... hehe"
"KICK the second guitarist out of the band and do all the duties myself"
"Go through two Young's Slits"
"Give myself a high 5 across the border of 2 neighbouring countries"
"Travel around the world in opposite directions + meet myself in the middle, having travelled around the whole world already!"

The winning entry is "Tell my other self a joke to see if I'm funny".