And The Beat Goes On...
And The Beat Goes On...
Another week has slipped by and I’ve been bad about blogging. I’ll try to do better in the coming several days. Teaching has been going along smoothly.
The Modern Biology students had their first exam on Sunday and they did pretty well. A class average of 72% ± 8 is sort of the sweet spot to hit for exams. A few students performed in the high 80’s. The class size has stabilized at 24 students. (A pretty large class for a summer semester here. I suspect that CMU-Q students are starved for Biology.) Next Tuesday we will hit the half-way point for this semester and it will be all downhill from there.
The Genes and Diseases class (6 students) has now handed in 2 written papers. It is interesting to teach a class where writing and discussion are the main components. It is very interesting when English is the second language of the students. Some of the students are learning very fast how to write a scientific summary paper, some of them seem to have some experience at it. In any case, these 6 students are really learning some important biology.
I have not had much chance to get out and about Doha this week, with the grading of exams and papers; but I have informal plans to do something either Friday or Saturday that will involve a road trip. Some of my Pgh colleagues and I might travel about an hour either north or south to the next major city. See this map:
Just for a frame of reference, the whole of Qatar is about the size of the US state of Connecticut.
There has been a slight change in the weather from last week. The winds have shifted around to blow from the NE rather than from the SE. So the humidity has risen from ca. 20% to 75%. I’ve noticed that the temperatures have slightly moderated too. It’s not routinely getting into the 100’s to 110’s like it did last week. I think there is some heat capacity thing going on here. It takes a lot more thermal energy to heat moist air, so it’s only in the high 90’s today. But I have been warned; before the end of June, thermal energy will win and it will be both humid and much hotter - Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy !
I continue to do a little walking around my residence in the West Bay area of Doha. I can’t find a view where there is nothing being built. Construction is everywhere. Here’s a picture of my residence building from about a block away:
It’s the orange striped building where the top looks like a hoot owl. It’s a 30 story apartment building and it is one of the small ones that is finished and definitely going to be one of the smallest ones after all the construction is finished.
So it’s Thursday night, my Friday and it’s time for me to meet colleagues at a local hotel for the end of week libation. I’ll blog you later...
Thursday, June 3, 2010
End of Full Week 2