We recently had a student who was incredibly motivated and was interested in delving into the world of materials engineering. We gave them many online course suggestions, had them read a book from the book list we created, and helped them put together a plan to create a makerspace at their school. Over the course of three months, barely anything happened. The student was able to start the book and the online course, but kept putting off the real project: creating a makerspace at school. This was because they were so preoccupied with homework during their off-time between track tournaments and after-school track team practice.

Let us begin with a story.

One of our writers has an older sister who was captain of the high school basketball team. Her sister was a natural power forward with nimble feet.  Our writer was, well, better-suited for writing. As she entered high school, she thought being on the team with her sister looked like a lot of fun, so even though she had no idea what a layup was until the first practice, she joined. She subsequently developed the nickname “Bench” because that’s where she sat for most of the season.