The big picture overview is that things went quite well. I'm happy that we got to show the students a lot of science things that they probably haven't seen before, but more importantly that they got to do some science things that they haven't been able to do before. From what we learned about the science curriculum when talking with them, there really isn't much of one. And whatever science they've learned, they haven't really had any hands-on experiences with it. That makes it somewhat easy for us because anything that we do that gets their hands dirty (both literally and figuratively) will be a step up from where they were before. But a part of me is a little disappointed because we left one an important piece of the science, which is to make measurements and make predictions. If we get to do this again next year, I think I'd want to bring down some stopwatches and tape measures to help the students engage a little bit with those ideas. As it was, we just did a bunch of random fun things. Also, because I had a smart phone this year, I was able to take a lot of pictures of things, and I look forward to using those to piece together my time in Oaxaca.
But I'll get to that later. I took Monday off this year to give myself a little extra recovery time, and it was both good and bad. It was good in the sense that I think the extra day was actually helpful for recovering and getting rested. However, I think I'm really going to miss that day of work because of all the things I've got to catch up on. I had a surprisingly low number of emails (80 emails + junk mail -- last year, the number was 230). But I think people knew I would be gone and either decided to figure it out on their own or wait until I got back to ask. My email counts for my first two days back (Tuesday/Wednesday) were 52 and 54, respectively. But there are several projects I've got swirling around and classes to prep in the coming weeks, and every minute is going to need to count.
I still haven't moved into my new office yet, but at least I have a moving date of July 30th. This will be an interesting move because I'm going to need to get set up as quickly as possible so that there will be as little of a work disruption as possible. My new office is pretty big, but I can't get too used to it. In just another 18 months or so, I'll be starting to plan my exit from the big office that's reserved for the chair, and return to slumming it in a normal faculty office. But until then, I'll have the big office.
What projects have I got right now?
- Robotics student project: I've been working with a student to build a robot that's designed to carry a GoPro rig that allows for 360 degree recording. The big robot is basically done, but now she wants to try to make a smaller one that can go under the brush and such.
- Math 095M: This is our new remedial math class. This week, I was able to confirm a print date of August 4, which means we'll have the desk copies to distribute and students will be able to buy the book not long after that. But I'm still only about 75% done with the in-class lecture notes for the PTIs (we do this to ensure better consistency across the various sections). And I've been working with a student to get some supplemental problems and to get a tests built. So there's a lot left to do there.
- Math 455: This is the number theory course that I decided I would do completely differently this semester. One of the other math faculty found a commercial DVD that has pretty good lectures that I can use as a base for a class, and this will increase the level of interactive time I get with students because the lecture content has been pushed off to the homework. But since this is completely different from what I've done before, I need to do a lot of work to determine how I'm going to structure the class time and class activities. And I've still got 3 more lectures to watch, so I'm not even done with the passive part of the preparation.
- Math 389: This is the 3D printing course. I've been waiting for the move into the new building to be complete so that I can get software installed on the computers and test a few things out. I have a good general outline, but there are some details that I'm going to need to work out.
- Math 491: This is our Putnam Seminar course. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this class because I haven't really thought about it at all.
- Scheduling Spring 2016: I'm trying to get ahead of that one as much as possible. One area that I think I haven't done nearly as well with as I've wanted has been the scheduling. I haven't really gotten it right. There's a level at which I think this should be a very routine process (at least in the planning stages) and that certain classes should just be able to be established like clockwork. But for some reason, it seems that things don't go that way and I'm scrambling around trying to figure out why there's so little space for classes. We also need to work with some of the academic advisors to try to find a good schedule that works well for what they're trying to do.
- Staffing for Fall 2015: Yes, there's also this semester coming up that hasn't even started yet. We've got a couple little fires that we're trying to deal with. Our remedial math enrollment looks like it's going to be way up, possibly in the 350 student range. So I've been working with our remedial math coordinator to try to help her prepare for it. There's an extra level of stress because of all the changes that are going on. We've also got a mysteriously low enrollment in our introductory Biology courses. Last year, we were at about 90 students, and so far we're only looking at a number in the mid-20s, and we can't figure out why.
So it's a busy time. There are also some social activities going on this weekend, which is why I'm doing this in the morning instead of the evening like I normally do. If I don't do it now, I probably won't do it until maybe Wednesday of next week.... maybe. And then I'm leaving again next Saturday to go to California, and that's another week off the grid. I think a normal pace of life will return in mid-September or so.
