Toward a Qualification
Latin, Greek, Marine Science, Astronomy …
These are examples of subjects leading to GCSE and A level qualifications. They also feed into other disciplines, and open the way for an exploration of possible university degree choices. Individual exam boards offer different options.
Latin and Greek
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Astronomy
The names of the stars and the stories behind them. The names of the mares on the Moon. The philosophers and scientists who first wrote about and understood the science that would later become astronomy.
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History and Religion
The original manuscripts and the writing of the Greek and Roman historians, writers and philosophers. The letters written by soldiers and their families, and preserved on tablets at Vindolanda.
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myctophum punctatum
Understanding the derivation and morphology of language, and a familiarity with the Latin and Greek still used in scientific texts.
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Philosophy and science
A connection with the texts and the lives of the authors and scientists.
Marine Science
CREDIT: Cattle egret, Lieutenant Elizabeth Crapo, NOAA Corps
IMAGE: Spriggina, Ediacaran Metazoan (Public Domain)
Anthropology
Earth Sciences
Marine Archaeology
Metallurgy
Oceonography Petrochemistry
Toxicology
CREDIT: Ribbon seal pup on the ice, Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps
Aquaculture
Biogeography
Ecology
Geophysics Immunology
Pharmacology
Zoology
CREDIT: Kilauea summit eruption in Halema’uma’u crater, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
Climatology
Geochemistry
Geology
Glaciology
Meteorology
Seismology
Volcanology
Astronomy
Museum of the Moon, Durham
Earth-Moon
Once upon a time there was a person
He was walking along
He met the full burning moon
Rolling slowly toward him
Crushing the stones and houses by the wayside.
He shut his eyes from the glare.
He drew his dagger
And stabbed and stabbed and stabbed.
The cry that quit the moon’s wounds
Circled the earth.
The moon shrank, like a punctured airship,
Shrank, shrank, smaller, smaller,
Till it was nothing
But a silk handkerchief, torn,
And wet as with tears.
The person picked it up. He walked on
Into moonless night
Carrying this strange trophy.
Ted Hughes
CREDIT: David Martin
“I got into science fiction by being interested in astronomy first.”
