11 Jan 2014: "Henslow used to take his pupils, including several of the older members of the university, field excursions, on foot or in coaches, to distant places, or in a barge down the river, and lectured on the rarer plants and animals which were observed. These excursions were delightful." Darwin autobiography
Now at Cambridge, Darwin found academics as boring as those at Edinburgh but he loved being out in the field. He also joined a campus hunting club that met after hunts for drinks and gambling.
Having a field component to courses is an incredibly important aspect. Seeing organisms in their habitat gives lectures context. Plus being in the forest beats being in the classroom. I'm not sure how on-line courses accomplish this type of inspiration and I worry about a student that has never gone to the field.
At home, temperatures above freezing. Black-capped Chickadees and Song Sparrows were singing. Classes start in two days and I'll be working on lectures most of the day.
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