Rangitoto field trip

I was demonstrating for the Rangitoto field trip this weekend. It was wet and cold! The students and demonstrators were standing in the rain storm doing vegetation islands survey on Rangitoto Island. We were out in the field for at least 6 hours, and by the end of the trip, everyone clothing were soaking wet. It was miserable! Don't think the students enjoyed the trip, and neither did any of the demonstrators.

I was lucky to have very good students on both days. They were doing their surveys meticulously even though rain was pounding on them. In between short intervals when the rain stopped, I managed to find time to talk to them about writing the reports for their field trip. I realized most of the students do not know how to write a proper scientific report. The courses they are in just tell them they NEED to write a report, but did not really teach them HOW to! Talking to Hannah, we think we had a really good undergraduate education in Florida Tech, where we were taught the foundations - writing scientific papers, citations etc. For example,  they were told to write a DESCRIPTIVE title for their graphs, but NOBODY had told them what is a descriptive title! Personally, I think University of Auckland need to look into their courses, and re-structure them to get the students' foundation in order before they expect them to be fully independent.

The funniest thing that happened on the field trip - one of the demonstrators (Esther Dale) - she had the worst students! The two students (suspect that they are a couple!) left the whole class in the middle of the field trip, took an earlier ferry out of Rangitoto Island, and back to Auckland city. Esther was devastated, and confused when she realized they were gone, without informing her.

The rain hasn't stop... it has been raining for 4 days straight now...at least we are certain our water tanks are full :) Luckily, we had stocked up firewood as well, and now it's seems an appropriate time to a have a glass of wine by the fire :)