I left the planning board early (10:00 p.m.) last night, as I knew today would be a long day. The upshot of the meeting was that we'll have to make modifications to our design, but the project will still happen. It was recommended that we seek outside facilitation. I've recommended the Public Conversations Project as a resource, but we'll see what happens. It seems to me that we all have a chance to get out of a very destructive process.
As for my job, this academic year has brought interesting work - a lot of it. It's tough on everyone. I work with four courses, one of which is a product development class in the mechanical engineering department. It's very intensive. The second most demanding course is microfluidics, which is all new material for me. The mech e course is complex, but I get what it's about. Microfluidics is way over my head, but it's important that I do well because it was a course that has been held up as an exemplary combination of subject instruction and communication practice. I have several students who are in both classes at the same time, so we are all staggering through this intensity together. Today the microfluidics students had a big paper due, and tomorrow night the mech e class has a big presentation. As I was sitting in lab waiting for students to consult with me about their presentations, I started to check on the microfluidics course site for the papers that were due. There was a commotion in the lab and it became evident that one of the students had collapsed. I realized it was the same student whose paper I was reading on line.
Jeez.
I hope your student is ok. Do folks know the reason for the collapse? Fatigue? Illness?
Sounds intense.
Posted by: Roy | October 22, 2009 at 08:38 AM