Category: Independent Learning Assignment

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Independent Learning Assignment STEM

How altruism and prosocial behaviour can be explained from an evolutionary, psychological, and chemical perspective.

This essay was written by Lower Sixth Form student Joe Millar as an Independent Learning Assignment (ILA) project. It was the winning submission in the STEM category of the 2025 ILA/ ORIS award. The following provides a short introduction to the full report, which can be found below:

Altruism refers to the tendency of social organisms to display prosocial
behaviour to other individuals at their own detriment, or without benefitting themselves. At first, it appears to be an evolutionary paradox. If anything, selfish behaviour – the opposite of prosocial behaviour – would appear to be the most certain path towards reproduction. Even so, across the human and natural world we see evidence of altruism occurring. Whether it be in insect colonies or human civilizations, altruism appears to
be an integral part of the global ecosystem. This essay will attempt to explain the evolutionary, psychological, and chemical reasons why we see altruism so often in nature.

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Arts & Humanities Independent Learning Assignment Music

Bel Canto: To what extent is the Germanic school of singing technique the opposite of the Garcian school of singing?

This essay was written by Lower Sixth Form student Oscar Ford as an Independent Learning Assignment (ILA). It was the winning submission in the Arts/ Humanities category of the 2025 ILA/ ORIS award. The following provides a short introduction to the full essay:

Bel canto is a term widely used, and one surrounded by misunderstanding and controversy. While it saw its culmination in the 19th century with pivotal teachers such as the Spaniard Manuel Garcia II (Stark, 1) and Giovanni Battista Lampert, its roots can be traced back to the North of Italy in the late 16th century to small and specialised groups of singers. It was in these groups “whose vocal prowess eclipsed amateur choristers” (Stark, 190) that singers began to display their virtuosic skills through their ease in coloratura, diction and emotional expression. This gradually developed, over lifetimes of dedicated study and experience, into a more familiar idiom of singing that is well studied (despite easily being approximated [Potter, 31]) and that we take for granted today as the healthiest method of classical singing. While the bel canto operas of Bellini and Donizetti were still flourishing, a radical, new, seemingly irreconcilable school of singing came about in Germany, arguably as a nationalist separation (Whitener, 155) from the Italian tradition that had “no other ambition than to satisfy this shallow audience” (Wagner, 44). While derived from similar fundamental principles as bel canto, this new Germanic school took the muscularity and physicality of the style to new heights and new pedagogy emerged. In order to compare these sometimes seemingly incompatible styles, it is logical to try to break the technique down into individual, manageable parts within a phrase; preparation, onset and phonation. Through this method, one can locate both similarities and differences in small scale vocal physiology while maintaining a somewhat comprehensive image of how each aspect integrates with one another to form a complete technique.

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Independent Learning Assignment STEM

Modelling Acoustic Scattering via Fractal Mesh Decomposition

This essay was written by Lower Sixth Form student Yuvan Raja as an Original Research in Science (ORIS) project. It was the winning submission in the ORIS category of the 2025 ILA/ ORIS award. The following provides a short introduction to the full report, which can be found below:

In this project I develop a variety of strategies for code that produces fractal meshes for Koch Snowflake and Heighway Dragon curves. These meshes are created so that the mesh components can represent infinitesimal elements when approximating numerical integrals on fractal domains. The task of performing numerical integrals on fractal domains is an area of interest, as evaluating these integrals is a key challenge in finding the solutions of Integral Equations on fractal domains, such as those governing acoustic wave scattering.

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Independent Learning Assignment Lower School STEM

Dobble – Brilliant but flawed

This essay was written by Third Form student Junior Shaw as a Junior Independent Learning Assignment (ILA JNR) project. It was the winning submission in the Third Form category of the 2025 Junior ILA awards. The following provides a short introduction to the full report, which can be found below:

Back in October of 2024, my family and I were on holiday. Accompanying us was the game of Dobble, from which my research began. In particular, my father and I became quite intrigued by the nature of the game, the ‘mono-match’ principles of it, and how it was constructed. Over the course of my investigations, I discovered an unexpected flaw within the game!

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Independent Learning Assignment Lower School STEM

Is time travel fact or science fiction?

This essay was written by Fourth Form student Thomas Aczel as a Junior Independent Learning Assignment (ILA JNR) project. It was the winning submission in the Fourth Form category of the 2025 Junior ILA awards. The following provides a short introduction to the full report, which can be found below: 

The essay that you are currently reading has travelled through time. This is not even in the boring sense that most people would fall into the misconception of accepting. It is, yes, going into the future as we all are, but not only that, the series of binary digits that make it up have been sent through a combination of electrical signals and electromagnetic waves. This is a more interesting and different type of time travel. The difference would be the same if you ran up and down a corridor with it in your hands. Why? Time travel is not what you think …

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Independent Learning Assignment STEM

Will Knot Theory Pave Our Future?

This essay was written by Lower Sixth Form student Thomas Dowson as an Independent Learning Assignment (ILA) project. It was the winning submission in the STEM category of the 2024 ILA/ ORIS award. The following provides a short introduction to the full report, which can be found below:

A knot is a simple yet complex object, which can be found almost anywhere in the world. If you have ever been climbing, I’m sure you can appreciate the power a knot has. Can a knot be more than just a rope used as a safety measure for people who can’t climb?

If we look at a knot, surely there must be some way of describing it. Looking at the dictionary definition, it states: ‘a join made by tying together the ends of a piece or pieces of string, rope, cloth, etc’. In comes Knot Theory, a constantly developing branch of mathematics and physics, where advances are being constantly made in the quantum branch with new knot variants and invariants being discovered, and quantum fields and gravity being developed consequently.

Although quantum might seem unfamiliar to many, knot theory finds applications across various fields of science. Both computer science and mathematics feature specialized branches dedicated to the study of knots.

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Independent Learning Assignment STEM

Initiating the development of a library for plastic polymers using Raman spectroscopy

This essay was written by Lower Sixth Form student Joel Sellers as an Original Research in Science (ORIS) project. It was the winning submission in the ORIS category of the 2024 ILA/ ORIS award. The following provides a short abstract of the full report, which can be found below:

Plastics, and particularly microplastics (MPs, plastic pieces <5mm), are ubiquitous and have developed into a serious issue for our marine environments. Not only do they pose a threat to aquatic organisms directly exposed to plastic pollution, but there is also a potential risk to humans further down the line, due to prolonged exposure to these small particles through the food they eat, the air they breathe, or the water they drink. Scientific evidences have been provided showing that plastic polymers have been detected in human blood, as well as in the placenta or human stool. Consequently, it is critical to assess the sources of MPs exposure to humans. One source is table salt, particularly when it comes from sea salt. The characterisation and detection of such small particles remain an analytical challenge due to their small size, the quantity of material available, the colour of the material, and the natural organic matter that can adsorb onto MPs degraded in the environment. Raman spectroscopy is one of the leading tools for MPs analysis as it is non-destructive and requires little to no sample preparation with a spatial resolution of 1 mm. However, in order to identify these tiny pieces of plastic, reference spectra are needed. There are many obstacles in providing these spectra that make building up a library challenging. This project set out to not only initiate the process of creating a plastic polymer library using Raman spectroscopy, but also to identify potential interferences. 15 different samples of plastic litter were analysed and added to the library, and possible challenges were identified. The project provided a foundation for further research and development.

Joel Sellers ORIS Project Final ProjectDownload
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Features Independent Learning Assignment Law & Politics Social Sciences

Unprecedented: An in depth look into attitudes to China across 2020 alongside an investigation into how respondents make decisions at surveys

This essay was written by Lower Sixth Form student Joshua Inglesfield as an Independent Learning Assignment (ILA). It was shortlisted for the 2023 ILA/ ORIS award. The following provides a short abstract of the full report:

The Covid-19 Pandemic has been extensively shown to have contributed to declining attitudes to the PRC. Various organisations, including the Pew Research Institute and TUC of Wales, have reported how the coronavirus pandemic has led to increases in such unfavourable attitudes. However, no studies have specifically examined whether the trend is a result of conscious bias regarding the pandemic, whereby citizens actively view the PRC more negatively due to their handling of the pandemic, or subconscious bias, whereby citizens view the PRC more negatively due to a broader sentiment change influenced by undertones and subliminal messaging in society (caused by the PRCs handling of Covid) as opposed to active views regarding the PRC and the pandemic. Thus, in this study I aim to not only examine how British attitudes to China have been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic, but also determine whether the trend in attitudes seen is a result of subconscious bias following the pandemic, or conscious bias regarding the pandemic. Through unique methods such as precise analysis of daily new COVID-19 cases alongside attitude figures, as well as the designing of unique fieldwork to determine the biases prevalent, I have enabled the research into the pandemic’s impact on global attitudes to China to be breadthened, adding new dimensions to debate on the topic. Overall, I conclude that the United Kingdom saw, as with other Western nations, a marked increase in negative sentiment to the PRC in 2020. Further investigation then reveals an undeniable link between daily new COVID-19 cases and negative attitudes, with greater levels of negative attitudes to the PRC occurring in periods of higher infection rates. With regards to biases, I show that subconscious bias was the primary driver of negative attitudes to the PRC as a result of the pandemic, with individuals likely acting upon subliminal messages and undertones they are exposed to, such as speeches by political figures criticising the PRC, rather than them actively recognising the PRC’s actions in the pandemic and forming opinions from such recognition.

To view Joshua’s full report, follow this link below:

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Features Independent Learning Assignment STEM

The rise of obesogens: could synthetic chemicals be the hidden catalysts of the obesity epidemic?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This essay was written by Lower Sixth Form student Rohan McCauley as an Independent Learning Assignment (ILA). It was shortlisted for the 2023 ILA/ ORIS award. The following provides a short abstract of the full report:

Obesity is a huge problem in both the developed and developing world. Rapidly rising levels of obesity mean that every year, a greater proportion of the population is at risk from diseases such as type II diabetes and various cardiovascular disorders. My ILA aims to explore the role of obesogens, endocrine-disrupting chemicals that contribute to obesity, by examining their impact on factors such as adipocyte differentiation and appetite control which lead to weight gain. Understanding obesogens is crucial for effective policy-making and prevention strategies, although it is evident that factors such as diet and exercise are ultimately more significant, and that tackling the obesity epidemic is an incredibly complex issue which requires the consideration of a broad variety of contributing factors.

To view Rohan’s full report, follow this link below:

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Economics Features Independent Learning Assignment Social Sciences

Are Economic Networks the Key to Successful Business Management? A Case Study of Google and Amazon

A tower of used books

This essay was written by Lower Sixth Form student Xavier Wallin as an Independent Learning Assignment (ILA). It was shortlisted for the 2023 ILA/ ORIS award. The following provides a short introduction to the full essay:

The field of network economics has transformed business management over the last fifty years by highlighting the importance of networks, coordination and relationships within organisations in achieving efficiency, growth and innovation. A better understanding of the dynamics and principles of networks has enabled firms worldwide to navigate complex internal business ecosystems (that is, the management and utilisation of staff). In the case of Amazon.com Inc. (“Amazon”), its management’s ability to embrace network theory in order to adapt to transitions in market dynamics has played a large role towards the company’s success. This paper will discuss the impact of network economics (network theory) on the management of firms and organisations generally with reference to the impact on Alphabet Inc (otherwise known as “Google”) and Amazon in particular.

To view Xavier’s full article, follow this link below:

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