Week 1 Lab: Orientation: Welcome to Life

The first Lab — an honest check-in across all five areas, run before any instruction changes anything

Before the Lab#

Bring nothing prepared. The point of a starting check-in is that it happens before any changes, so arriving having already fixed something you noticed in the lecture defeats it. The check-in covers all five areas — hygiene, dress, sleep, conversation and money — and ends with you nominating one as this semester’s first priority.

In the Lab#

Introduction. You’re not here to fix anything yet. There’s no lecture to apply and no schedule to follow — just five minutes to hear what the next twelve weeks are actually about before spending an hour finding out where you stand.

Activity 1 (groups of 4): Triage. Each group gets these ten cards, printed one to a card:

1. Has reused the same tea bag three times this week.
2. Bedsheets have not been changed since move-in day.
3. Eats standing at the fridge more often than sitting at a table.
4. Has not spoken to a stranger, unprompted, since enrolment.
5. Owns seven identical hoodies and considers this a wardrobe.
6. Says “I showered this morning” — three mornings in a row.
7. Has a chair that has become permanent storage for clean laundry.
8. Replies to messages exclusively between midnight and 3am.
9. Has eaten the same meal five nights running and calls it a routine.
10. Has not seen sunlight before 2pm, as far as they can recall.

Groups sort the ten into Critical / Monitor / Stable and must justify their top and bottom pick.

Discussion: Compare lists across groups — disagreement is the point; it previews that “how bad is this, really” is exactly what the semester will pin down properly.

Activity 2: Starting point check. Individually and privately, complete the self-assessment first: for each of the five areas — hygiene, dress, sleep, conversation and money — rate how much you agree with the statement “I have this under control right now,” honestly and against what you actually do rather than an ideal, using this scale:

1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree nor disagree
4. Agree
5. Strongly agree

Discussion / debrief (pairs): Compare scores with one other student at a category level only — no specifics required — and each name one area you expect to improve fastest. Nominate the area you will prioritise first.

Wrap-up: This is a starting point, not a judgement — the scores you gave yourself today aren’t graded, and they aren’t fixed either. Keep them: week 12’s Lab has you revisit these same five scores and measure what actually changed.

Afterwards#

Nothing is submitted from this Lab. The check-in is yours to keep; the area you nominated is the one the first few weeks of Labs lean on.