Last lecture in fourth year module

When my new job started, it was the Climate and Climate Change module that kept me busy. I had to do all lectures in the first weeks of the job, and I hadn't done them before. It was a lot of work! But now I have given the last lecture in that series. That feels good. And this moment came about a week too late; I should have done that lecture on the day storm Doris stopped all Bangor University teaching. I had the lecture rescheduled to Friday the week after. I had prepared it, so the hard work was done, but I still thought actually having given that lecture would be worth mentioning here.

That last lecture didn't go entirely according to plan; when I went to the lecture room a few minutes in advance there were people in it. I assumed it was someone's lecture wrapping up. When their time was really up I walked in. I found a colleague in it: John, who had actually only just started. He said he had his lecture rescheduled from the day of the power cut. That made two of us! We discussed who should move to the lab next door; as he had already started, I volunteered to go there. This did mean a late start. The computer in the lab had not been used since the power cut and it took forever to start up. And I wanted to be done on time; I had the 11:10 - 12:00 time slot, and at 12:00 our weekly Friday Lunch seminar starts. This week it was my old PI Ivan Haigh talking (more about him in the next blog post). I really wanted to be there, and I wanted the students to be able to be there too! So I would have to stop early. Combined with a late start that meant quite a squeeze on the lecture.

I admit I rushed it a bit. I hope it wasn't too bad. I did manage to get quite some stuff across; I mentioned I would go into detail on stable oxygen and carbon isotopes, and suggested the students would have heard about these many times before. They confirmed that! But when I asked them stuff they often didn't have the answer, so they learned new things anyway. I think it went OK, given the circumstances! And my next job is marking their first assignment. And in a week's time, the students will present about topics they chose themselves. It's a lot of work, this module, but well worth it!

During the seminar, BTW, I received a message from John; he apologised; he had been in the wrong room with his students. Oh well! Happens to the best!