Being a Judge

One of the great things about being a science professor (even at the assistant level) is that sometimes we are asked to participate in really great events. I'm at a state institution, so tax money supports some (or possibly all) of my salary. Which to me means, not only do I do my job, but I should give back to the community whenever I have the opportunity to do so. So when I was asked to do this, I readily agreed. Some faculty think these things are a burden, and in some cases I would agree. This, however, was not, actually, it was kind of fun.

The Junior Sciences and Humanities Symposium is a DOD sponsored program to get high school students involved in science. The regional symposium, which is the state-wide level, is held at my institution each year. Students from all over the state present original research to compete for a scholarship and the chance to go to the national competition. One of the many opportunities this program provides is feedback from practicing scientists (like me!). By serving as a judge, I interact with students by asking them questions about their research projects and hopefully provide positive feedback on their work. Students get not only involved in science at a very real level, but learn communication skills as well.

Holy cow, these kids are smart! Some of the projects in other fields like chemistry and microbiology went right over my head. One girl was doing research closely aligned with something I just got a grant to do! I was seriously impressed. Weather you are a parent, a scientist or a lay person, I would encourage you to get involved in this program, or something similar. For a brief moment, I got a glimpse of the future, and it isn't as bleak as TV news would lead us to believe.

Why would I say to get involved? Well there are a couple of reasons, the main one being that it is these kids that will eventually make the discoveries that may save lives, or discover something new. That alone is is worthy cause. The other reasons are a little sadder, but still very valid:

As great as this program is, not a single competitor was from a regular public high school. Magnet schools and private institutions only. These kids were smart and curious by nature, but they were successful in getting to this level because of their parents' economic status. Poor kids are smart too. So are middle-class kids for that matter. And as judges, we don't care if they did the research at their parents' fancy biotech firm lab, or in their garage. We care about how they did it, and how well they understand it.

If you are in a position to do so, get the word out. It doesn't cost anything to apply. The high school doesn't have to do anything, parents can do this on there own. So can teachers: start a program, incorporate it into your teaching, make a science club, whatever! Even if you just give the program information to one kid, you might change a life, and that life can change the future.

And finally, this program is sponsored by the DOD, so it will keep going on some level, but the people who run the regional competitions are mostly paid by universities. My university is in the midst of a budget crisis, as most state institutions are. Here, that budget crisis is exasperated by a series of bad political decisions and a lack of public support. Half of the judges, you know, the practicing scientists for kids to see, will very likely see pink slips next week. They are in teaching positions that will be cut. Which means, not only will the high school kids lose out in the future, but the college kids too. If you are in a state where things like this are happening, call your representative!!! Without education, our society can't progress forward. Without funding, education can't survive.

Roller Coaster Week 1

I got alot of encouragement about Monday's post, and I thank everyone for that. I have been keeping track and I thought that I might try to do a weekly(ish) update on the life of a new tenure track faculty. This is partly because I think the whole exercise will be good for me and partly because I think it might be good for others.

So here we go, week 1. Good (2), Bad (1), OK (2).

Overall the week was more good than bad, which surprised me a bit. The bad day was caused by some major rudeness from another professor across campus, whom I've never met, but gave me the vague feeling that a "conflict" might be in my near future. That was early Monday morning, and I had a similiar rude experience with another professor last week so it was hard to take it lightly. For the record, the rudeness is not in my head, others read the emails for both instances, and had similar feelings, and my department head offered to back me up in both situations, and took great care to make sure that I knew that I had done nothing out of line to deserve this treatment. Last week's situation was resolved; not to my liking, but I at least stood my ground and carried it out to the best of my abilities, without having pissed anyone off. A skill that I am rapidly learning to master.

Tuesday's grant news was very good and it's hard to get knocked down off that high. Even a killer sinus headache that stuck around for most of the rest of the week didn't completely ruin my days. Neither did the faculty meeting for that matter. The grant also required me to get back in touch with the collaborators and the joy of science was reignited. It also reminded me that I can pick up the phone and have someone to work with and comiserate with a bit, which made me feel less alone. It is important to keep those professional/friendly contacts alive, especially since I haven't really made any at the new U yet. Teaching could have gone better this week, but it wasn't dreadful, I'm still new and I'm still learning, everyone says that you will improve your teaching with time and practice. The students tell me they are learning, so that's what really matters.

Today was good. I did some socialization with the other knitters on campus, which was very nice. Several in my regular knit night are grad students here, so they are going through what I went through a few years back, are headed towards what I'm going through now, and they knit, so there is always lots to talk about :) They are much closer to my age then any of the faculty I see on a regular basis (by about 15 years or so) and I enjoy spending time with them and they've been super nice to me, even if I am an old woman!

I still feel like I'm behind on my work, but I think in some sense ever faculty feels like that all the time. The thing is no one says it.

So there you have it. I like that I'm starting this experiment on a positive note. I know that not every week will have more good than bad, but I don't feel like I'm in the hole or anything.

Riding the Roller Coaster

You might have been able to guess from the snarky edition last week that things weren't going so well around here. This is both the complete truth and a blatant lie at the same time. It is the enigma we all know as life. Yesterday was bad (bad enough for me to start looking at job postings), today is good (NSF grant! woohoo!), and it's anyone's guess what tomorrow will hold. It's a roller coaster with the ups and downs coming faster than you can handle. Mornings can be good, one email can change it all and make you feel like the gum on the bottom of someone's shoe. I've always maintained a "c'est la vie" mostly optimistic attitude, beleiving that as long as the good outweighed the bad, I was leading a quality life and couldn't really ask for much more.

Here's the thing: What to do when the ups and downs are just about equal, or the balance starts to tip and your're feeling like you want off the ride more often than you are enjoying it? Is it just a rough patch? Does the long term average count for more? Or is it an indication that it's time to take a long hard look and figure out what's causing the imbalance?

There have been times in my life when I knew a change was required. The balance was clearly tipped and the long term average just wasn't ever going to make it ok. I've always been pretty good about knowing myself well enough to know what was right and what was wrong, for me and then taking the steps to fix it. I do beleive that to some extent our fate is in our own hands, so I rarely take the wait an see approach, preferring to be a little more pro-active in my life.

But here I am on a rollar coaster bigger, scarier and more stressful than I've been on before, and I'm not sure I like it, and I'm not sure I want to ride it until it's over. (I guess all new rollar coasters feel that way the first time you ride them, but once you survive they feel like kiddie rides in the rear-view mirror, but still...)

We are just shy of 6 months post move so I no longer consider my life to be "in transition". You see, to me the rules of self-evaluation don't apply to the transistion periods, all bets are off.

When I discuss this situation with others who have riden on the tenure track, they say the first year is just like that, give it a year before making any drastic decisions. So as difficult as it might be I'll give it the year, but I need a plan.

So, here's my plan, in a pseudo-scientific manor, I'm going to keep track, (mostly) day by day. Good, bad, ugly, ok. I'm going to keep track of why good, bad, ugly, or ok (i.e. is is my doing or someone elses that I can learn to shrug off) and I"m going to try to tell the stories behind the good, bad, ugly, and ok. I'm going to take a tally. Then we'll see where we are.

This is the roller coast we call the tenure track. My internal optimistic, hopes (and very nearly beleives) that this will be an inspirational activity for any tenure track riders just slightly behind me, but we'll see, I don't like my science to be tainted by preconceived notions, then it's not science :)