Getting involved

It is that time of year again when deadlines are upon us and exams loom in the distance. Nevertheless there are smiles to be seen all around campus, as the festive spirit begins to ignite in us all, bringing a real sense of community across the University. Nowhere was this more evident than at the annual Christmas Lights switch-on event at the end of November, where crowds gathered with mulled wine in hand to enjoy an evening of festive celebrations.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the switch-on for very long, because I was going to an evening presentation on routes into becoming a Physics teacher. For regular readers of my posts, you’ll know that my career ambition is to become a Medical Physicist. However, I also think that at some point in my life I would like to turn my hand to teaching. The talk discussed the different ways of getting into teaching, including the increasingly popular Teach First method, as well as the traditional PGCE course based here at the University of Southampton. It was a very useful evening, which was made even better by the free pizza and refreshments laid on by Physoc (the University’s Physics Society), who organised the talk.

There was in fact another talk that evening that I really wanted to attend, which was hosted by the Mercedes Formula One team, where they discussed different aspects of Formula One engineering. Sadly though it was at the same time as the teaching presentation and I had to let my head guide me, rather than my heart.

A collection of Formula One cars I saw in the summer.

I think it is very important to remember to still get involved with University life despite the large workloads you tend to have at the end of term. For me, this comes includes continuing to go badminton training and matches, as well as attending ArtSoc every week. In fact, I really look forward to Wednesday evenings when I can completely forget about my work and regress to being a child in an art class!

Our latest session really did feel like a junior school art lesson, as the evening’s theme was finger painting. There was also a serious table where you could practice your drawing skills, but most people chose to sit on the floor in a circle and produce fairly questionable paintings using their fingers and hands alone. It was great fun, and relaxing!

I was fairly pleased with my finger-painted landscape.

Previously to this we spent two weeks on creating our own plaster of Paris sculptures (term used incredibly loosely!). We started by constructing a rough model out of cardboard and newspaper, before we coated it in plaster of Paris to make it turn rock hard. The following week we then got to paint our creations, completing the process and turning my ambiguous white creation into a duck! It’s not all mucking about though, as prior to the finger painting week we had another life drawing session, which I find really pushes my drawing skills to the limit, but at the same time it also helps me to improve.

My plaster of Paris duck!

The last few weeks have really flown by and I can’t quite believe it is the end of term this week. Despite still having a fair bit of work to complete, I am feeling very festive and I am looking forward to taking a well-earned break!

James