It’s going pretty well in the class I was worried about. There was a slightly rocky period for a few days where I retooled my brain to study for an engineering course (more drills, fewer lecture reviews). The first wave of practice problems really helped me dust off my algebra skills. Barring mistakes made when [...]
I’m starting Intro to Environmental Engineering Science today. It’s a bit like a quantitative sequel to the Env. Sci. course I just finished. The previous course emphasized the effects of oxygen sag downstream from a wastewater outflow. This course talks more about how much organic matter in a waste stream causes a dissolved oxygen decrease [...]
My prof is big into metaphorical explanations.
She often refers to enzymes as Oompa-loompas, I think this is a perfect way to think of them.
Last week was spent putting the finishing touches on, tearing down, and re-finishing my slides on microbial bioremediation. It was pretty fun, and the first presentation I’ve prepared in a while. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up learning about topic I felt pretty solid on (well, solid enough for a 15 [...]
All water is poo water. Unless you want your guts eaten, your brain eaten, or cysts in your tissues, don’t swim and stick to beer.
(edit: This was written last Saturday, but I accidentally saved it as a draft, rather than publishing it.)
We were assigned an extra credit project, make an 8 to 15 slide presentation deck on a microbiology topic of our choice.
I’m doing mine on microbial bioremediation, of course. I’m amused that my biggest problem is figuring out [...]
The lecture topic was on metabolism. If you know that means the TCA cycle ad nauseum, then you pretty much know what this lecture was about. Once we got to fermentations, things got better. It’s always fun to think about just how damned versatile bacteria can be when it comes to deciding what to eat. [...]
The prof’s enthusiasm wasn’t just a first day fluke. Today, she had as much energy and good humor. We got through the slides almost exactly on time both days. I wonder if she does a practice run to time them? I get the impression she really wants to be teaching and wants to do [...]
Man, I was nervous going in. Heart pounding, wobbly kneed nervous.
Would I find out I liked reading about bugs a lot more than formally learning about them? Would I confirm that I suck at listening to lectures, regardless of interest? Would I be surrounded by kids and feel like the weird beardy non-trad student that [...]
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