Some things just make you say "wow"

Today's image of the day from NASA is of Saturn, looking back sunward and taken by the Cassini probe. It's exaggerated color, sure, but it's just stunning.



You can see Earth pretty well just above the main ring system and to the left, and I think the small red dot to the bottom right is Mars. It's a pretty amazing photo, and really makes you think about how really insignificant all our fighting and wars are in the grand scheme of things.

We really dodged a bullet...

Apparently McCain doesn't understand why anyone would want to conduct basic research.

I'm no expert, but it seems like two organisms that have important economic impact in their respective regions of the country would be worth throwing some money at to understand. Olive fruit flies are apparently quite the pest in California, so it makes sense to do research on them where they're native (the mediterranean), and why pick on poor lobsters?

Now obviously I can't see the future, so I can't guarantee that Obama is going to be light-years ahead of McCain on science policy, but judging from his appointments to scientific advisory positions he's on the right track. Perhaps in the future we'll get to see a nice article about McCain shaking his fist and yelling for "them durned kids to get off my lawn".

A belated farewell to 2008

2008 was a pretty good year, overall. Despite finding out how awful working nights really is, especially when there's little or no work to stay occupied with, I did manage to meet some interesting people and enjoy my time there. And then the fall brought the start of my doctorate, and my move to Colorado.

Part of the trouble with academia thus far has been the reality that the friends you make are going to move away, or you are going to move away, and then you see them only occasionally at conferences or when you can schedule time to travel. The benefit is that people are always coming in and out of a given university, so there's always an opportunity to meet new people as new students start. In this sense I've been fortunate to meet a host of individuals that I'm happy to consider friends.

My first teaching experience went quite well--my students were all pretty attentive and I never had any major disruptions from any of them. I enjoyed getting to know them all and did my best to try and introduce them to the wide host of topics we had to cover, while not being too terrible when it came time for quizzes and practicals. I'd like to think they learned something from me, especially as they were very helpful in letting me know what did and didn't work as I tried to figure out the whole teaching thing.

On the coursework side of things, I did quite well--I'm pleased with my performance. A's in my Foundations of Ecology and Pedology courses, and an A- in statistics. I learned quite a bit about the different subfields of ecology that I haven't really been exposed to (I'm mostly familiar with community ecology), and it was extremely helpful to have a good overview of soils, since that's kind of what I do now. Plus it didn't hurt to come away with a 3.87ish GPA for the first semester--especially since I'm not used to having ever seen numbers like that on my transcript before.

My new labgroup is great, as is my advisor. The people in the department as a whole, and the cohort we operate within for ecological work are vibrant and engaging, and it's great to see what everyone does and how it all fits together. Moving to Colorado may have made certain things more difficult than they otherwise would have been, but nothing that can't be solved, and there's no doubt in my mind that it was the right thing to do.

With any luck, 2009 will be as good as 2008 was! If I can stick to my intentions, I'll also update much more regularly, possibly even with more diverse topics!

Ending the term

So far, one final done (pedology--should have an A in the course), and both of my practicals administered. Now I just have to grade them and get the laboratory marks taken care of, and then it's just a paper for Foundations and the dreaded Stat-511 final.

Home on the 20th!

What were they thinking?

Who decided I'd be a good mentor figure, and what made them think that would be a good idea?

What it all boils down to (so far)

It seems like the #1 skill to learn during this whole ordeal isn't anything to do with ecology or research (necessarily). It's an elaborate game to teach you how to manage time effectively. I'm not losing, per se, but I'm certainly not at the front of the pack. Yet.

Semester 1 mid-term update!

So I've got half of my exams back (one) and my teaching evaluation done for the term so far.

So to recap, I'm taking Pedology (soil science), Foundations of ecology (discussion-based course, no exams) and Statistics for Researchers. I think I'm doing pretty well in all of my classes--no troubles in any of them, really. Discussion questions of mine are fairly regularly picked to get put up on the powerpoint presentation to be discussed (we email questions ahead of time, so that he can choose ones that will be good for discussion), and my stats average is around a 96 or so for my homework.

So today we got our first midterm back for stats, and I managed to pull a 92. I think the average was an 82 (I'm not sure, I cut out after the exams were handed back--I don't really attend my stats lecture normally), and only 25 of ~80 students got above a 90, so I'm feeling pretty good. I get my pedology exam back tomorrow, but it was pretty easy, so I'm not too worried.

The big one for me, I think, was my teaching evaluation. I've never taught before, as McGill had very few TA positions available within my department, and they gave precedence to Canadian citizens first. So when I got this Teaching Assistantship position for this term (with the ability to be re-appointed next term, depending on my marks and my evaluation), I was pretty happy. First, it gives me teaching experience, which is good since I want to remain in academia after I get my degree. But it also comes with a nice stipend ($1,400 or so net, for ~20 hours of work) and the biology department pays my tuition (barring student fees) and half of my health insurance premium.

So last night the lab coordinator for the biology department snuck into my lab and observed me teaching, and then watched me interact with my students for a bit and then would ask them what they thought of me while I was on the other side of the room from them and pre-occupied. I've got two labs, and my wednesday evening lab is my larger one, so there were more students for her to pull from, which also lends to having a wider range of how those students felt about me.

So in her estimation, I'm doing a pretty good job. I know the material, I explain what they have to do well, and I help them out and answer questions very well, and allow them to ask them. All I have to work on is varying my tone a bit more, and slowing down my speech, as well as getting more class involvement going. So I have to get them to answer more questions during the lecture part of my lab, and make it interactive. I can handle that.

My students (who I have no idea who she ended up speaking to) all gave pretty glowing reviews. The only negative thing they had to say was that I need to vary my tone a bit. One girl apparently thinks I'm the best TA she's got this term. Considering most of my students are freshmen and not really all that familiar with university yet, and that I'm one of the first instructors they really have to deal with, I'm going to take that as a pretty big compliment. They all seemed to think that I do a good job of not acting like I'm above them and that I'm extremely helpful and engaging during the lab.

So all in all, I'm feeling pretty good. I love where I am, and what I'm doing, and I honestly do wake up every day grateful that I get to do this. Getting grades back from a fairly difficult class, and then having a pretty good overall evaluation of my teaching skills has definitely re-affirmed my belief that I've found something I'm pretty good at.

Now to get my manuscripts out and published....