So I didn’t really… it just feels like it here. BUT I’ve been super fortunate in that the ONE day last week I had to take my three lab sections on field trips was the ONLY non-rainy day that week… and so far it looks like tomorrow (when I do it again) should be non-rainy too! (knocking on wood now.)
Last week was fun so I’m looking forward to this field trip too. This is a big class (~140 students, two TAs, so I have a total of 70 students in my three sections) so we print up a lab manual that the students buy for this class so we don’t have to make copies of the labs every week. When the semester started I thought this was super awesome, but I’ve since been slightly annoyed by it (although I still think it’s worth it… I guess) because pretty much every week there’s something I want to change–either add, remove, or change a question, or rephrase the instructions because I think they’re unclear or we have different materials to work with, etc., etc. Usually I just go over the couple of changes at the beginning of class and have the students make a note of it in their manuals.
This week’s field trip involves three different stops and trying to get non-geologists to visualize how Nittany Valley and the surrounding ridges are part of an anticlinorium made up of variably resistant rocks… and there’s no map in the lab manual! Going on geology field trips and not having a map sucks! How are you supposed to know where you are?
So I made this kickass map (thanks Google Maps!):
Totally excited.
In other news, I thought this was REALLY cool.
