End of the Fall Semester

I've reached the end of the Fall semester. It was a very busy time towards the end of the semester. I had problem sets due for two classes and a paper and an accompanying presentation due for another, and all of these projects were due within a few days of each other. I managed to get it all done and on time too. Then I had finals to prepare for. It's all over now and I'm back in Ireland for Christmas. I think the finals went ok.

I'm looking forward to the next term. I haven't finalised my class list yet. I have selected 21 credits, which I think works out at about 6 classes, but seeing as I only need to do 15 credits next term I can be flexible. So I plan to attend the first few weeks of as many of the 21 credits as possible and then chose the 15 credits that work the best for me and my degree.

The presentation that I mentioned above was for my architecture of sedimentary deposits class. It was my first time doing a presentation on my own. I spent a lot of time preparing for it and I read many scientific papers on my topic, which was cold-water coral carbonate mounds in the northeast Atlantic ocean. The presentations were staggered over 3 classes as there were 14 students in total. I was the last on the last day of class, so I was a bit anxious by the time my turn arrived. I was worried nobody would be interested by that stage but I think from comments made afterwards that they did find it interesting and I think they understood my presentation. The nerves got the better of me in places and I could feel my voice shaking, but I still tried my best to speak slowly and clearly and to use eye contact every now and then. I will more than likely have more presentations to do next term so it was good practice and hopefully I will improve the next time. I would however suggest, that perhaps it would have been beneficial to have done a solo presentation before whilst in UCC. It is a great experience to do all that preparation work by yourself and to then display it and explain it to your class and to show just how much effort you put into your work.

I'm really looking forward to next term and I can't wait for the weather to pick up so we can get back out in the field again. We will no doubt have lots of short field trips for our classes and we have a spring break field trip and I've heard we might be going to New Mexico for that, so there's another state I can cross off my states to visit list! I'll keep you updated on all the happenings next term and I aim to do a better job of posting to my blog than I did in the Fall term!