Hi Steve,
Mark Johnsson here. I'm back from the field, and frantically trying to get
caught up before the institute. My sincere condolences on your late school
year! I guess we guys in colleges and universities have it WAY easy, eh?
Glad to hear of another group interested in the nitrate project. With the
number of groups attacking that problem, we should be able to have each
group focus on a slightly different aspect and get some very intersting
data. And while I'm glad to see so many groups doing so much planning and
thinking about their projects ahead of time, remember that the bulk of the
work wil be during (and after!) the institute, so don't get too carried
away at this point. This is especially true of the groups--such as
yours--choosing "faculty-suggested" projects; those groups who have
proposed their own projects may have a little more leg-work to do.
Steve, to you and to everyone, remember that the idea of these projects is
for you to explore a _style_ of learning and teaching; a research-based,
active-learning approach. We feel that an exploration of that style of
learning is the most important aspect of the institute. A secondary goal is
the project itself; and although it MUST be a project that makes use of the
natural (and less than natural) areas around Princeton and is do-able at
Princeton, transfering the techniques and approaches to your own local area
is a prime concern. So, be thinking about how you might want to conduct
your own active-learning based teaching making use of the skills you will
learn at the institute--that's the main thing to do before coming to
Princeton. We'll spend some time exploring these questions and issues
during the first week at Princeton, but the more you've thought about them
ahead of time, the better!
I'll leave it to the folks at WWNFF to answer the question about the check...
Looking forward to meeting all of you!
Mark
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Mark J. Johnsson Phone: (610)526-5110
Department of Geology Fax: (610)526-5086
Bryn Mawr College johnsson@brynmawr.edu
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 http://www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Geo/Tierra/Tierra.html
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