Whew!

I taught my last class yesterday. We did a poster session on the tardigrade research project the class had taken up. I always worry a bit when we do these big projects -- they're always a bit risky and don't always work out perfectly. Last semester, several of the groups had crashed-and-burned, in spite of (what I thought) were herculean efforts on my part to support and sustain students' efforts. This semester, things went relatively smoothly. One group insisted on using Powerpoint for their poster and, sure enough, it wouldn't print properly. We struggled with it and eventually -- at the very last minute -- we were able to get something to print. Overall, however, the posters were fantastic. The students had worked very hard to collect tardigrades, mount them in slides, identify them, and collect beautiful imagery. The posters were attractive, well-organized, and most had carefully constructed figures.

It was fun talking to the students about their projects. Several had reported how hard it was to find any tardigrades at first, but how, once you trained your eyes what to look for, you began to see them everywhere. Several talked about how cute and engaging the tardigrades are -- not everyone liked them so much, but I think everyone liked them more than the cockroaches I had students study the previous fall. (Maybe next fall, I can do something else warm and cuddly, like leeches. The cuddle up real close and are quite warm, especially as they finish their blood meal.)

I made a request at the beginning of class that, if anyone had any extra time, I would appreciate some help cleaning up the lab, since it had gotten messy while they were finishing their projects. I went down later in the afternoon to start cleaning and it was already done! A couple of enterprising students had taken it upon themselves to really make it shine. I was really touched and, in spite of the gathering gloom, it made the day seem brighter.

Some of the students have contributed their slides to the departments Natural History Collections too -- it will be useful to have them in the teaching collection so that future students will be able to see what a tardigrade looks like. (Although they're really easy enough to just go find when you need some.) A very successful semester in writing.