In June we swapped our labs coats for sports kit and held the first IMPS sports day. (Author: Apple Chew, Editor: Annis Richardson) After 3 years of limited in-person events and interactions Dr Sophie Haupt and PhD students Apple Chew and Liat Adler decided that we needed to get together and have some fun. Apple says that their “aim was to help integrate new and old students and staff of all ages and ethnicity into the community in a fun way that will create memorable experiences and help to (re)create a resilient community, particularly in post Covid-19 times.” And they most definitely succeeded! Some of us approached with trepidation remembering disastrous school sports days. But this sports day was no ordinary sports day! It included games that required the technical skills of a scientist such as measuring accuracy, speed calculation, and many more. We had eight teams of five players. Each time was a diverse mixture of postgraduate students, summer students, research assistants, post-docs, and lecturers. Games included the ‘protocol race’, flowerpot stacking (how fast can you build a tower of flowerpots?!), science charades (ever tried to mime what a graph is?), guessing games (who new grass seed was so light?) and blindfold measuring. Everyone’s competitive spirit was out, and every team was laughing hard, some teams even interpreting the rules flexibly to try to beat others. It was a great day and further enhanced by the incredible BBQ and potluck run by Sophie and her team of chefs with over 70 staff and family members attending. The day as recorded by Ella Catherall – check out our sports day video to see the chaos and fun shared by everyone. This event really kicked off a new community in IMPS and is the prelude to a bright future. This article was published on 2024-06-17
