The semester comes to a close

It's been a while! I've been busy busy busy this semester teaching first year Environmental Science. It was a fun course to teach, we read three books, Silent Spring (Rachel Carson), A Short History of Progress (Ronald Wright), and Shovelling Fuel for a Runaway Train (Brian Czech).

The first addressed the increasing contamination of our environment with synthetic chemicals. The second addressed historic society collapses and highlighted how we are on a similar path. The third speaks of a different approach to economics, one that strives for a steady state and not economic growth.

The students had to complete a term project that investigated the Saint Mary's University Campus and suggested ways to improve sustainability. The projects ranged from reducing waste from Tim Hortons Cups to reducing the impact of water coolers by replacing them with hydration stations (water bottle fill-up sites) to powering the campus gym with energy harnessed from stationary bikes.

Today my students are writing their final exam (in fact I'm sitting here moderating it currently... perhaps I shouldn't be typing). I cannot believe a whole semester has went by. It feels like I've only just started - too bad I don't have a course to teach next semester! I really enjoy telling people about something really interesting (to me) and then seeing that knowledge come up at a later point (on an exam or in an assignment) - it shows that they were actually listening (and that I can actualy teach!).

Now it's onto the dry stuff, marking finals, marking term projects, inputting marks... I almost don't want to do it, because then it will really be over. I guess this means it's time for me to start a new chapter, and hope that my students move on from here with a positive attitude about the environment and continue taking courses in Environmental Studies (one can hope) :)