3 Feb 2010

Day 34:
When it rains, it pours! Demonstrating for the marine and ecology courses always seems to come at once and this year is no different. Today I found myself out on Dartmoor near Cadover Bridge working with 2nd year undergrads in the Threatened Aquatic Ecosystems module. The forecast was less than good, but fortunately for all of us, the rain held off until right at the very end as we were getting on the coaches to head back to uni. The students got to explore the joys of kick sampling, getting a bit wet (or a lot wet in some cases) and collecting some interesting freshwater invertebrates. I even got to see my first few dragonfly nymphs and their jaws are the most incredible things I've seen in a long time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_nymph). When looking at all of these different types of inverts, it's so easy to see where the movie industry gets its ideas for aliens and outer space creatures. Overall, it was a great day out, despite feeling like crap. In fact, I think that the fresh air might have done me some good... only to be undone when walking back on to the stuffy, overheated 6th floor.  UGH...