Tag Archives: Kinesiology

Happy KIN Week!

Remember back in October, when I applied to be a part of the KIN Week committee and got it?

Well, KIN Week is here! I’m super excited to see how our events pan out, because this is the first ever KIN Week. This week will set the stage for future KIN Week events! So here’s the breakdown:

Today we have a free KIN BBQ and dodgeball. We challenged Science to come out and play with us, but I’m a little doubtful that they will. In any case, we have lots of teams ready to play a round-robin tournament! My favourite team name? Kinner Kinner Chicken Dinner. Bahaha.

Tomorrow’s event is one of the bigger highlights of the week— The K-Factor. It’s sort of like a beauty pageant, except the judging isn’t based on your physical attractiveness, but rather how well you answer the questions and perform. Besides, everyone in KIN is good looking 😉

On Wednesday is the Kinesiology Career Fair. If you’re stuck on what to do with your life career-wise (I’m sure we’ll all hit that point one day or another), I recommend you go to this one. I heard there’ll be firefighters there. Firefighters.

Thursday evening is devoted to a Dinners For Kinners Potluck! I was in charge of coordinating this event (mostly, anyways), so I really hope it goes well! We’ve got lots of fun games lined up, thanks to our DFK team 🙂

On Friday there’s a bar event at Lola’s, but since I’m underage I’m not going 😛 So no comment from me on that.

You can find all these events on Facebook. Here is the main event page!

I have to go set up for the barbecue now. See you there!

5 things that happen in a Sunday exam

  1. Cheap parking.
  2. No one studied—unless you count looking over the cheat sheet once studying. In that case, yes, studying went great.
  3. People show up in Winnie the Pooh character onesies. Actually, it was just Tigger and Piglet.
  4. The prof doesn’t print off enough copies of the exam, leaving about 10 people stranded for 20 minutes.
  5. This was our last final… but no post-final relief, because there’s school tomorrow!

The 4 Steps of Successful Studying

I’m a little late to the advice-giving bandwagon, but here… you… go!

Prioritize: What’s your most important class? Which exam comes first? What are you best at, and what are you worst at? What exam can you cram for? Unfortunately, the answer to the last question is almost always a resounding NONE.

Make a plan: What do you need to do to study for your exams? Do you need to make cue cards, go over lecture notes, or do textbook problems? How much of your precious studying time will each method take? Each exam has a different format, so tailor your studying to match it!

The Study Plan of a Kinesiology Student

As you can see, I have made a comprehensive list of what I have to study for and how I’m going to do it. You can also see that I have not cleaned my desk. Bad Courtney.

Prepare: Find and use all the resources you can! Go to Vista or Connect and look for practice questions, or dig through all those emails to find those darn handouts you’d forgotten about. Don’t forget to take advantage of office hours, your prof’s email, and all your classmates too 😉

Do it! For a distraction-free environment, clear your desk and your computer desktop. Set up Songza to play lyric-free music. And honestly? I wouldn’t worry about making breaks for yourself, if you’re a procrastinator. Once you’re in the flow of studying, it doesn’t really make sense to stop and give yourself a chance to procrastinate more. When you find yourself getting tired of studying, then it’s time to take a break!

Best of luck with your exams!

KIN Lab Crawl

Today I went on a kinesiology lab crawl!

“Wait,” you ask, “what’s that?”

A lab crawl is like the nerdy version of a club crawl, which basically when you bounce from nightclub to nightclub.  Though in this case, you go from lab to lab. When you get to each lab, the lab experts at each place tell you what their research is about.

It was pretty cool to see what type of research actually goes on in the field of kinesiology.  I mean, you don’t expect there to be much, right?  Although a lot of people don’t even know what kinesiology is, let alone have preconceptions of it…

But there’s actually an awesomely wide range of things being studied by kinesiologists! We saw a robot that mimics the way a person shifts their weight, and someone throwing darts whilst blindfolded.  The researchers, most of whom are actually teaching assistants in the School of Kinesiology, explained who they were (more often than not, Masters or Ph.D students) and what they did in their research.

Honestly, the stuff they talked about was way over my head sometimes. I was one of the few first years in attendance, so I guess the event must’ve been more geared towards older students.  But even though I didn’t understand all the content, we had a chance to mingle with the TAs and I got some useful information about getting involved in research, and becoming a Ph.D student! And oh boy, is it a lot of work.

All in all, I think it was a good experience! I’d definitely recommend (what, recommendations again?) doing a lab crawl at least once in your years at UBC.

Unless you’re an arts student, but I’m sure there’s probably an equivalent for it somewhere.

But anyways. If you can, do it!

PS. Bulletin! The director of UBC’s School of Kinesiology, Dr. Sparks, is retiring.  Le gasp.

Taking steps to getting involved

Congratulations! We would like to offer you the opportunity to be a part of KIN Week.

Yay! Upon the sight of this, I did a happy jig. Well of course not on the outside. I limited myself to loud squealing and gushing only.  I applied to be one of the coordinators for UBC’s first ever KIN Week, and as you can see, I got the position!  I’m actually a little proud of myself.

It’s surprisingly easy to get involved. You don’t have to do much—just find something that interests you!  Maybe that means sports, or politics, or volunteering, or even clubbing 😉 It’s up to you! If you’re anything like me and you find talking to authorities figures terrifying a little intimidating, then simply do your research online.  There are tons of online resources out there for you to discover—here are some places you can find some neat volunteering and job oppurtunities!

  1. UBC FYI is a great place to start! Not only do they post about the cool going-ons around campus, but on the side there are links to excellent (UBC-owned) sites that can help you find your niche! I found out about Blog Squad through here. 🙂
  2. Your undergraduate faculty site! For me, it’s the KUS, but everyone has a different one!
  3. Facebook. No, no, I don’t mean stalking people! I’m talking about following pages of clubs and societies that you’re interested in—that way, you won’t miss opportunities as they arise.
  4. Need a job? Find one here.
  5. If you’re interested in the volunteering and leadership side of things, browse around the Centre for Student Involvement.  There’s tons of information there.  A mind-numbing amount, actually, so you might be better off just walking into the centre in-person.

Alright, I realize that most of these sites are UBC-owned.  But this is what I’m thinking: I chose to go to UBC, so I’m going to be a part of UBC.  Not just a random student fumbling through school, but a real, valuable member of the community! So using the resources available through the school to me—and you—isn’t a problem at all 🙂