On Friday, 8th November, the Year 10 GCSE RS class went to Yeovil for a day on Philosophy, Science and Maths, and how they are all related.
We arrived in Yeovil, and were invited into the hall where we would be listening to three guest speakers – Julie Arliss, Professor Tom Greggs, and Dr Mark Lewney. Julie Arliss started the day by welcoming us to the conference, and explaining that all subjects that we learn at school – such as English, Maths and Chemistry, are all interlinked. She enlightened us to the fact that greater knowledge can come from many different, and surprising, areas. She then spoke about Descartes by showing the various steps Descartes took to prove the existence of God. He decided to break down everything he knew, so as to find what he knew was absolutely certain – to find the bad apple in a barrel, you must empty them all out. We found that while we agreed with this first step, once Descartes tried to prove the existence of God using this theory, it started to break down.
The next speaker was Prof. Tom Greggs, who is the youngest professor in the country. His lecture was entitled – “Picasso and Lady Gaga in Starbucks.” This speech was about the paradigm shift from Medieval - wearing tunics, and painting religious pictures – to Modernity, where the New York Skyline and certain fashions are introduced. He also invited us to think about how we may be now shifting into a post-modernity stage, where buildings shaped like bubbles, and gherkins, and singers such as Lady Gaga, are welcomed.
After a break, there were two slightly different lectures. Though the most interesting was based on an interview question for a student hoping to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge. The question was… “How many animals were there on the ark?” Julie Arliss introduced how one could go about answering this question in three different ways – by taking it literally, ecologically, or flipping it completely on its head.
The final lecture of the day was by Dr Mark Lewney. He started off his speech by playing rock guitar, with requests from the audience. He then went on to introduce his title – “Are we made of Maths?” He introduced the idea of what makes up 2G, 3G and 4G on our phones. He spoke about harmonics on a musical instrument. He talked to us about what we are made up of, and came to the conclusion that we are made up of fields, which are in turn made up of ‘strings’. He showed us how we are all connected to everything, and in the end, we are indeed made of maths.
Thank you to Ms Harris and Mr Mitchell for taking the time to take us to Yeovil. We all enjoyed ourselves, and thought about the bigger picture whilst (and after) we were at this conference.
Rosie, Year 10
