{"id":3117,"date":"2018-04-24T09:24:50","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T08:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copyright.lboro.ac.uk\/students\/?p=3117"},"modified":"2018-04-24T09:24:50","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T08:24:50","slug":"the-importance-of-doing-nothing-teaching-kids-rocket-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/students\/engineering\/the-importance-of-doing-nothing-teaching-kids-rocket-science\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of doing nothing \/ Teaching kids rocket science!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello and welcome to my April blog! It\u2019s the Easter holidays right now; I\u2019m writing this blog with a beer in my hand and a sea breeze in my hair, somewhere on the Balkan coastline (it\u2019s a hard life), having spent the last two weeks travelling in the sun (read:<\/strong>\u00a0avoiding my coursework\u2026)<\/p>\n

Doing nothing<\/h3>\n

I believe it\u2019s super important to take breaks from study\/work, and before talking about rockets (again), I want to touch on the importance of doing nothing. Now, taking a break can mean saving up for months to go abroad, or it can mean simply taking a day off each week to do the household chores and catch up on that\u00a0really addictive<\/em>\u00a0Netflix series. Time to actively\u00a0not<\/u><\/em>\u00a0do work, to have a life beyond your studies.\u00a0You-time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, this may seem obvious, no? Well, I mention this because a year and a half ago, 21-year-old me didn\u2019t think so. I thought I could squeeze work into every waking moment and get more done. I wanted to squeeze every drop of productivity out of my day and to do that, I thought, I had to keep myself\u00a0busy<\/strong>. So, as if Part C Mechanical Engineering wasn\u2019t enough, I started the Space society, signed up to the TEDx society, and joined the AU Lacrosse club. \u2026And the AU Scuba Diving club. \u2026And took up two part-time jobs.<\/p>\n

The result? I was busy.\u00a0Really<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0busy. I ended up working from 8 am until midnight, every day, for three months. It was the most productive I had ever been, I was keeping on top of everything, and I was doing loads of awesome stuff. But I was\u00a0miserable<\/em>. And I had no idea why. And sure enough, that started to affect my productivity, and my work started slipping.<\/p>\n

Take a break<\/h3>\n

Basically, after having chatted to my personal tutor, I realised I didn\u2019t have any \u201cme\u201d time in my schedule, and I didn\u2019t have a \u2018life\u2019 outside my course, my sports, or my societies. He gave me some valuable advice that I\u2019ve tried to stick with ever since;<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMake sure you do nothing for at least one day a week. Make sure you can put down your work for a day, and not feel guilty about not doing it\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And while it didn\u2019t fix my problems overnight, adding a break into my routine did work, and my mood slowly improved. I didn\u2019t get quite as much work done, but I was in a happier place, and I started to do stuff for me that I enjoyed. A year on, and I\u2019m still by no means perfect at it yet, but I feel very strongly that doing nothing (in measure, of course) has improved my long-term productivity, morale and mood. Give it a try!<\/p>\n

Now, I do believe the title mentioned something about rockets\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"\"

“Rocket in a Box” demonstration at Humphrey Perkins School.<\/p><\/div>\n

Before term ended, I managed to support the first-ever deployment of Loughborough University\u2019s \u201cRocket In A Box<\/a>\u201d\u00a0\u2013 something the School & College Liaison team and the Space Society have been working on for several months together. All the hard work from both teams culminated in a complete, self-contained box that can be mailed out to schools, for secondary school students all over the country to learn about rocketry and projectile motion. To test out the box, myself and a few members of the rocketry team travelled to a nearby school to deliver the lesson.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding my perpetual derp-face in professional photos (see above), the outing went great. One of the student teams managed to launch a rocket over 40 metres! It was thoroughly enjoyable to see our work translate into excitement and happy faces in the classroom. Making engineering exciting, engaging and fun for the next generation is crucial to the industry, and I am thrilled we managed to make a contribution that will, hopefully, have an impact on thousands of kids over the years (not literally, I do not condone firing rockets at kids\u2026)<\/p>\n