The Cambridge Experience for Grades 8-9

Students assess the power of suggestion, persuasion, and product placement. Using a range of case studies and creative examples across all media, they explore early salesmanship, modern advertising, branding, and the increasing use of new media. Balancing creative skills with business acumen, they engage in branding exercises, interactive sales games, and the design and development of their own advertising campaign.

Aerospace Engineering is quite literally "rocket science!" Participants examine the disciplines most important to the industry, including aerodynamics, electronics, mechanics, operations systems, statistics, and thermodynamics. The course culminates with the replication of real design offices of aircraft and spacecraft companies. Students go through every stage in the creation of a new vehicle, including aerodynamic profiling, engine sizing, and structural design.

Students cover the evolution of, and relationships between, banking and markets, from their ancient origins to present-day, including the development of the stock, commodity, and capital markets. They learn how money itself is evolving, with the emergence of cryptocurrencies, and how financial institutions and markets are responding to the challenges of the modern economy. Finally, they visit the London’s Square Mile to investigate how money moves and what makes a career in finance.

Drawing ideas and inspiration from the university that nurtured Newton, Darwin, Turing, and Stephen Hawking, students immerse themselves in cutting-edge issues at the fringes of current scientific knowledge and endeavor. They study advances in diverse areas, including atomic and molecular physics, artificial intelligence, astrophysics, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, particle physics, space travel, and stem-cell research. They identify the possible futures that science and technology are creating for humankind, and debate how these will affect our daily lives, our society, and our planet.

Students compose fiction and poetry under the guidance of a published writer, with Cambridge's rich literary history as their inspiration. They explore their own potential by experimenting with new forms and styles of writing. Successful poets and writers give workshops in which students learn about the creative process and the practicalities of publication. Students develop a portfolio of their best writing and collaborate to design, edit, and publish a literary magazine.

Students learn the principles of engineering science. Both world-renowned and local examples are examined, and the findings are applied to a variety of case studies to solve mechanical, structural, and architectural problems. They complete the course by designing a model engineering project of their own.

Students explore the tools and structures of international commerce, focusing on free enterprise, economic development, and engagement with the global marketplace. Visiting the University's renowned Judge Business School, students obtain firsthand experience of a cutting-edge business education. Course projects include real-life case studies and the design of a start-up venture.

Students discover how the British and American legal systems reflect the values and institutions of their respective societies. They consider precedent-setting cases and delve into various branches of legal practice. Through meetings with lawyers, legal scholars, and human rights advocates, and through visits to working courtrooms, they discover how lawyers turn theory into practice. This course culminates in a formal moot court competition.

As opinions become radicalized, and the broad, postwar consensus is replaced by increasingly angry confrontation, students seek to discover what is now understood by politics. On what bases have we, as citizens, agreed to hand much of our power over our lives to governments? What power should governments legitimately be allowed to exercise? When, if ever, are citizens justified in refusing to comply with governments? What distinguishes legitimate from illegitimate protest and how should governments deal with protest? Through contemporary case studies, and guided by a range of thinkers, students seek to redefine the role of government and the rights of protestors.