As the unit for Semester 1 BCM 212 commenced we were outlined with an assessment task brief. This task asking us to outline a topic that applies to University students whether this be their way of lifestyle on campus, a university students eating habits and how that may affect the brains ability to learn, what it is like to study in a foreign country and so on. For me I brain stormed these many potential ideas of study but one that stuck out for me above the rest was the question

• How does doing extra-curricular activities help a university students well-being and academic life?

I believe that this question is a timely research idea as its something that can span across all university students and does not single out a certain target in a university making it highly relevant to all students as extra-curricular is a huge part of university life and too is students well being. This research question too is worth exploring as from experience of myself I noticed this change and affect on my well-being. From research I have gathered thus far in the semester I have been able to find thorough research on the matter and how extra-curricular activities both positively and negatively affects a university students well-being and academic life.

For my initial research on the matter I both used social media influence as a way of reaching out my question, in-person conversation (questioning) as well as overall internet research allowing me to broaden my research further then just UOW but instead nationwide. This left me with 4 research evidences’ upon the idea from my three techniques of research gathering. I began by doing some internet research once our task brief was assigned to assist in the brainstorming process which led me to two resources which I found through the Universities library. The first one being (

The Effect of Time Management on Academic Performance among Students of Jazan University.

) an academic journal that was conducted on a certain University by accumulating statistical data on the research question. It found that students that have exposure to extra-curricular activities adapted the skill of time management and therefore faired better academically due to this rather then those that did not do extra-curricular activities. My second evidence towards the research question was an academic article published by The Conversation. It explores how physical activities in Australian educational systems affect and help to prevent the well-being of students across all learning levels. It proved that physical activities is an effective control and assistance in reducing harm to a students well-being throughout their education and more importantly in secondary school to University education. My third research evidence was a physical conversation in which I conducted myself with my peers of my university. I asked the research question I am conducting as well as what they are currently apart of to my peers and gathered their feedback responses to the question. My first person was Lillie (19) at UOW in which she replied “I feel as though it is both positive and negative, I currently am involved in poetry and writing groups which help me to manage my time effectively because we are constantly bringing new works into the group and the deadline being the following week but it also means that I can sometimes forget or put off university assignments or readings that I am supposed to be doing”. Ethan (20) responded with “I’m in the AFL team for UOW the Bulldogs and we train every Tuesday and Thursday so I find that those days I completely put off for doing any homework as I am tired from Uni that day and then training but it has definitely helped my mental state during uni because it takes my mind off the stress of uni workloads and allows me to connect with mates”.

The final piece of research evidence was a Twitter poll which I put out. I asked the question with the response options of “It helps a lot” or “It does not help” which i had 14 votes on and gathered the data that (64.3%) believed it does help your well-being and too way of life at uni and the (35.7%) believing that it does not help a students well-being or wayof life.

In conclusion this research question has a lot more exploring to be done towards and backs up with some relevant feedback and research data. I believe that extra-curricular activities helps a university students well-being and academic life. I am excited to delve further into the idea and find out more on the topic.