Recently in School Category

• Japanese test on Wednesday.
• Crow census report due on Thursday.
• Bird watching lab and salamander hunting lab on Thursday.
• MFAT (Major Field Achievement Test) on Thursday. Some dumb test I have to take to graduate. We have three hours to do it, and no one is allowed to leave until everyone else is done. Lame!
• Pick up Kory's friend Ron in Lorain on Friday night and bring him back to stay with us for the weekend.
• Have the kids from my biogeography group over some time this weekend so we can work on our presentation about the Monotremes.
• Meet with the kids in my Japanese group so we can write a ten minute skit that we have to perform next Wednesday.
• Go to Towner's Woods with Jess and Dr. Foote to catch bugs, probably Saturday morning.

Help!

We went out to Jennings' Woods today for my vertebrate zoology lab. We were supposed to go last week, but it was too cold out. It was really one of the most fun lab field trips I've been on. We went out to catch fish with sein nets, and we really caught a lot. And I managed to not fall into the water, although I came close a couple of times. Marilyn and Megan told me they would rescue me if I fell in, but only after they laughed and took pictures of me. So here are some photos from today.

There are also more over on Flickr.

I really like my vertebrate zoology lab. I have a lab practical in a few weeks over all these fish, plus 20 more fish I haven't put on that page yet, 24 amphibians, and 10 frog calls. Wow. It really is a lot of memorizing, but I think I'll do good. The labs are pretty ridiculous though, because we have to be able to sight ID these fish that have been in jars for years and years, and that really don't look much like they do when they're alive. The majority of their coloration is gone, and that's one of the easiest ways to identify them. A lot of them also have their fins all ripped up, which is sometimes a key distinguishing feature. Example: one of the fish I have to identify vs. what the fish looks like while it's alive. So instead we're left to count how many rays are in their dorsal fins (if they're not totally ripped up) and annoying things like that. We should be out in the field catching these fish and learning to identify them that way. It would also teach us a lot more about their ecology rather than having our TA just tell us that "it's a bottom feeder" or "it lives in fast-flowing water". We'd actually be able to see it first hand. I don't know why we don't do that, it's not like it's expensive to hop into a van and drive a few miles down the road to a river or lake.

Biogeography Where animals live, why they live there, and why they don't live in other places. Dr. Grafton teaches this. I had him for embryology and environmental physiology too, he's a good teacher. The class is ok, I think it will get more interesting as time goes on. There isn't a lab for this class which is fantastic.

Ornithology Birds, the most amazing creatures ever. They're going to take over the world. I've been wanting to take this class forever, but this is the first semester it's fit into my schedule. I'm excited about this one. Dr. Grafton teaches this also, and there is a lab which is probably just memorizing species.

Vertebrate Zoology Dr. Orr teaches this. He's really nice, but I heard his tests were really hard. We're studying all vertebrates in Ohio, except birds. I also heard that in lab we have to memorize frog songs and about a million different vert species, including 70+ fish species alone. This class should be interesting, but tough.

Japanese II I have a different instructor this semester, and he's not Japanese! And he's only a grad student! I was worried about this, but I actually think he's a better teacher than my professor last year, who was Japanese. He's certainly a lot more laid back and interesting. There are only 4 people in the class, including me, who didn't have him last semester, so it's very strange. He certainly requires more out of us that my old professor did, so I have a lot of catch up to play. And he's always calling on me in class. Seriously, he called on me to answer questions at least four times yesterday, when there are people in the class that he never calls on at all. I miss the days of just sitting there and not having to worry about that.

Senior Seminar This is some "capstone" course that is required to graduate. There are about 30 of us who have taken a billion classes together already and we all sit in this little tiny room and talk about our futures and current hot topics in biology. Supposedly we're going to learn about grad school, job opportunities, etc....shouldn't we have learned about these things a year ago when we needed to start applying for them? That's my biggest complaint about this school - terrible advising. My vert zoo teacher has shown more interest in what I'm doing after I graduate than my advisor ever has. Anyway, there are some hilarious people in this class, so it should be fun.

I don't think my brain can process any more information. Luckily I only have one final left and my writing intensive paper to finish, which is what I'm working on now. I can't believe I'm having so much trouble finishing this paper. I just can't seem to find any new information. Maybe fasting in penguins isn't a broad enough topic? It seems like it should be. One of the problems I'm having is that I don't have access to about 75% of the journal articles that could be helping me write this paper. There's only so many articles I can get from the journals through Kent's library, and if I want any others I have to either have a subscription to the journal or I have to pay to view the article for a day. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to pay $8 - $30 an article for this one paper. I think it's ridiculous that these journals are not open to the public. One thing we're always hearing about in school is how the public is not informed enough about science, and how scientists need to "come down from their ivory towers" and start teaching the public more. Limiting the public's access to these journals is just the opposite of that.

Ugh, Joe just pooped on my shirt. I think I'm going to be pulling another all-nighter.