Inspire the next generation of changemakers and learn more about what Brock University’s Faculty of Social Sciences has to offer through our local high school visits. Our introductory sessions give students the opportunity to explore career paths in the social sciences, get a taste of the university experience, learn how to think critically about important local and global issues, and participate in interactive activities led by current faculty members.
Who it's for
How it works
Review the offerings below from our different departments to find the session(s) of interest to your group. Sessions are designed to be 60 minutes. If you would like to request a shorter or longer session, please indicate this in your initial outreach.
While our faculty and staff will do everything they can to accommodate high school visit requests, please note that we do not guarantee session availability.
Reach out to the lead contact for the session(s) that you would like to schedule at your high school. When discussing availability, please note that preferred time slots are posted below with lead contact information.
If you are interested in booking sessions from multiple departments for your group, they may need to happen on different days depending on faculty member availability.
A designated faculty member will arrive for their scheduled visit at your high school to deliver their session. In some cases, students or staff will join them.
Please note that presenters will bring brochures and swag on behalf of Brock University that high school students are free to take.
Shortly after our high school visit, we will follow up with you to see how your session went and send a short feedback form for you to complete.
Your valuable feedback will help us improve our high school programming for future students!
Session details
Communication Sciences & Disorders – A Crash Course!
Presented by the Department of Applied Linguistics
Learn how language is represented in the brain, discover the impact of stroke on language, practice using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), watch x-ray videos of how people swallow and see what it looks like when they can’t, listen to how sounds are distorted by hearing loss, explore the challenges of learning to read, and examine early language milestones. All this and more in our interactive crash course!
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Health Care, Human Growth and Development.
Living the Teenage Dream?
Presented by the Department of Child and Youth Studies
What does it mean to be a teenager in 2026? What are the issues that matter most to you? How do you engage with the world? This interactive session offers information on how childhood and youth are defined by society, culture, development, and bodymind diversity, while engaging students in relevant examples from their own lives. We will discuss how understanding different perspectives on young people gives us a deeper understanding of, and appreciation for, how teens navigate a complex world that is often indifferent to their interests and knowledges.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Psychology and Sociology.
How Economics Can Save the World
Presented by the Department of Economics
Students will be introduced to some key economics concepts and learn how to think like economists. Together we’ll apply this thinking to some problems that students might not think of when they hear “economics” — tackling climate change, curbing bad behaviour, or helping people get new kidneys!
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Business, Entrepreneurship, and Social Justice.
Places, Stories, and Going on a Cruise: Global flows, local places and the Port of Vancouver
Presented by the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies
Using the Port of Vancouver as an example, this presentation will focus on the ways in which global processes impact local places. It will also try to demonstrate how individual decisions play a role at both scales.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Geography, Travel, Tourism, Sustainability, and Technological Design and the Environment.
Doing Geographical Research – Road Construction & Social Change in a Mountain Village
Presented by the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies
Have you ever thought of asking people to take photographs and then talking with them to learn how they experience their surroundings? This is a real research method – called auto-photography – which is easy to learn, fun for researchers and participants, and often used by geographers. Learn how auto-photography was employed in a Pakistani mountain village to study how construction of the community’s first road changed villagers’ everyday lives and the community’s landscape. See some of the photos people took, hear what they said about them, and give analysing auto-photography data a try.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Geography, Travel, Tourism, Sustainability, and Technological Design and the Environment.
Do You Know Your Rights at Work? An Introduction to Labour Studies
Presented by the Department of Labour Studies
Work affects everyone and everything — our work determines how we spend many of our waking hours and shapes our position in society, our health and economic well-being, and our self-image. This interactive presentation will introduce the academic field labour studies by examining workers’ rights in Ontario. How well do you know your rights?
This session may be a good fit for co-op students and classes related to Designing Your Future, Business, Career Studies, and Social Justice.
Baldur’s Gate 3…And Politics?
Presented by the Department of Political Science
The popular video game Baldur’s Gate 3 is based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, but gaming isn’t just for fun — role-playing simulations also help us to understand the world of politics. Play a brief simulation with us, The Starship Game, to see how political scientists use games to understand elections, justice, and war and peace. Hopefully Orin the Red doesn’t show up while we’re playing…but we can’t promise she won’t.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to History, Civics and Canadian Law.
America, Are You OK?
Presented by the Department of Political Science
Donald Trump was a candidate unlike any other in American history, and his presidency presents challenges to Canada’s existence that we have not faced in generations. How did Trump, a convicted felon who fomented insurrection in 2021, manage to regain power and actually win a majority of the popular vote? How is he reshaping the fundamental norms and institutions that used to make up American democracy? And what does his authoritarian presidency mean for Canadian sovereignty? We answer these questions, and many more, in this “explainer” session with Brock’s specialists on American and international politics.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to History, Civics and Canadian Law.
Wow, That’s Psychology?!
Presented by the Department of Psychology
When we think of psychology, we often associate it with counselling. However, psychology is actually the science of understanding people, and it includes a wide range of topic areas. In this interactive presentation, we will discuss some of these areas and take part in a couple of cognitive psychology experiments to better understand how the mind processes information.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Health Care or Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology.
The Last Straw! A Board Game on Social Disparities in Health and Wellness
Presented by the Department of Sociology and Criminology
The Last Straw is a simulation game designed to introduce a sociological analysis of health and wellness. This session is serious fun! In small groups, each player creates a character who strives to live in good health to a ripe old age. Players soon discover that they are not fully in control of their fate. How does social environment, social policy and community connection matter to the game? Why does it feel unfair? How could we even the playing field?
Content disclaimer: This session contains discussion of sensitive subject matter in relation to health, including violence, smoking and drug use, abortion, illness and death.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Health Care or Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology.
Slicing the Wealth Pie
Presented by the Department of Sociology and Criminology
In this guided activity, we illustrate how wealth is distributed in Canadian society, specifically looking at inequalities in the household wealth of Canadians. We will play with different ways to visualize wealth inequality and reflect on its implications. The activity introduces a major preoccupation of the discipline of Sociology: examining various patterns of social inequality (such as wealth, occupational status, organizational rank, income, and so on), asking how these patterns interact with other social attributes and identities (such as class, race, gender, age, and ability), and exploring how inequalities persist or change.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology.
Representation and the Evolving Feminist Perspective
Presented by Women’s and Gender Studies
This presentation will focus on various feminist movements, more importantly reasons as to why they evolved and shifted in various directions. Present states of devaluing women and genders necessitate response to historical and on-going harms. Further, representation will also be discussed as it pertains to power and privilege within greater society and how these points are interconnected.
This session may be a good fit for classes related to Gender Studies, Social Justice, Politics, and Civics.
*Please note that this presentation is only offered in March and April, but you can reach out to the lead contact in advance to schedule a presentation.