Summer School part of our activities to support the BSL Plan 2018-2024 The University of Edinburgh is committed to supporting the use of British Sign Language (BSL) in University activities through its BSL Plan 2018-2024. As part of this, the BSL working group put together a free, two day summer school for deaf & hard of hearing S5/6 (Yr 12/13) students all across the UK taking place on August 10th & 11th 2021. The first of its kind delivered by the University of Edinburgh, students learned about the application process for university courses, university life, and support for deaf & hard of hearing students while studying at the University of Edinburgh. BSL/English interpretation and live captioning was available during the summer school which was delivered via Zoom. As part of the line-up, students were able to experience a university style lecture from both the School of Chemistry and the School of Law. The School of Chemistry lecture was delivered by Dr Rebecca Burns and concerned the role of chemistry in society. The importance of chemistry in many, disparate industries and sectors (including law!) was covered and students learned about cosmetic chemistry, drug discovery and the use of analytical chemistry techniques to characterise and define the properties of a molecule. Also covered was the problem solving nature of chemistry and how this is applied to solving global issues such as ocean pollution. Following the lecture was a stimulating Q&A session wherein the importance of soap in combating Covid-19 and the fantastic, world-leading chemistry conducted at the School of Chemistry was discussed. We thank the BSL team for inviting us to lecture at their very first Deaf & Hard of Hearing Summer School and look forward to joining in again next year! This article was published on 2024-03-18
