Friday, November 20, 2009

The semester is almost over.

This has been the hardest semester so far, no contest. Organic chemistry is not easy. I have done well, with an exam average of 93.5, but it hasn't come easily and I've spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the textbook, doing practice problems, attending reviews and taking practice exams. I am not sure how I have done in the lab portion of the class. For the most part, I've gotten decent grades on my lab reports; however, I have failed at least two lab quizzes (with 1 out of 3 possible points). My TA does not hand out perfect grades - he claims that it is nearly impossible to get a perfect grade, and so he just doesn't assign them. At the end of the semester, all of the lab grades will be scaled in case one TA is easier than another. I believe that my lab grade will be scaled up. The lab is worth 1/4 of my grade. Two midterm exams make up 50% of my grade. The final is worth 25%.

I have done extremely well in my Ecology and Evolution class. I am pretty confident that I will end the semester with an A.

A couple of weeks ago, my Eco & Evo professor gave an interesting lecture on creationism. He recorded it, so I will try to get a copy of the video to post.

On Tuesday, I signed up for classes for the spring semester. I'll be taking the second half of organic chemistry and a course called Earth, Life and Environment Throughout Time through the geology department. We have a weekend trip to NYC to visit the AMNH. I think I'm going to like that class!

Sometimes, my job is highly entertaining...

We received this email in regard to a manuscript we published last year about the correlation between teen pregnancy and sex on television: