Thoughts
1. I'm already burned out with the introductory physics sequence here at UW. I honestly didn't know that an impersonal instructional approach buttressed by a focus on the evaluation of knowledge (instead of the transmittal of knowledge) could piss me off so much, so quickly. Perhaps it's that I'm already jaded to this: I've seen how bad general chemistry is here, and I've seen how amazing introductory biology is... and I expect something more like the introductory biology sequence. In any case, I couldn't bear the thought of going to my PHYS 121 lab today, so I'm going to do a make-up of it at the end of the quarter, and I am already looking at next quarter's time schedule knowing that there is no way in hell I'm going to go ahead and register for PHYS 122.
2. I'm entertaining the idea of switching from oceanography into forestry. Now, I don't have a distaste for oceanography coursework, and my performance in their department so far has been anything but lousy. I still am interested and engaged with the material, but I've grown to see oceanography as much more peripheral to what I hope to do than I came in thinking. Every quarter I look at the time schedule and drool at the thought of taking some classes from CFR, so next quarter I'm going to go ahead and register for a course or two of theirs. If nothing else, it'll be eye-opening and I'll get some useful hands-on coursework experience.
I have my second (of three midterms plus a final in a ten-week quarter???) PHYS 121 midterm in a bit under two hours. Let's hope my sourpuss phase ends before then. Let's also hope that I don't get unnecessarily angry at the fact that half the exam is multiple-guess. Multiple-guess exams are of inherently bad design no matter how you cut the cake.
2. I'm entertaining the idea of switching from oceanography into forestry. Now, I don't have a distaste for oceanography coursework, and my performance in their department so far has been anything but lousy. I still am interested and engaged with the material, but I've grown to see oceanography as much more peripheral to what I hope to do than I came in thinking. Every quarter I look at the time schedule and drool at the thought of taking some classes from CFR, so next quarter I'm going to go ahead and register for a course or two of theirs. If nothing else, it'll be eye-opening and I'll get some useful hands-on coursework experience.
I have my second (of three midterms plus a final in a ten-week quarter???) PHYS 121 midterm in a bit under two hours. Let's hope my sourpuss phase ends before then. Let's also hope that I don't get unnecessarily angry at the fact that half the exam is multiple-guess. Multiple-guess exams are of inherently bad design no matter how you cut the cake.