Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

I thought my cousin was enrolled in the 2pm lab class. He didn't show up.

It turns out I misremembered his schedule. His only class yesterday was the 8-930 robotics class. His mechanics class isn't until today at 1pm, and his lab section meets tomorrow. He went home immediately after the robotics class.

There were only 8 students in the 2pm lab class, who we divided into 2 groups of four members each. There is already an indication as to who the slackers are for this class because towards the end he complained as to the groupings, saying the other group had all the smart and hardworking people, even though I emphasized that assigning a leader and a secretary for each experiment will make sure that everyone does their own share of labor for the term.

No one complained though when I suggested that the groupings be by lottery instead, so the smart ones were evenly distributed among the two groups. The three girls in the class, in fact, were divided to two in one group and one in another.

David and I already have the components checked for the first activity, which is Significant Figures. Now we have to find ramps for the Errors activity two weeks from now, or any equivalent that can have the students taking 30 points of data for computing averages and so on. The newly ordered equipment will still take weeks to get delivered.

The apparatus for linear momentum seems a poor substitute because it requires the student to track the path of the ball which lands at a point almost five feet away.

If we have time to think something up we can use everyday materials that we'll ask the students to bring for the meeting of that particular activity.

Anyway, we have two weeks to figure it out.

Before both classes yesterday I also met with the head of the science and engineering courses, who told me and David about the preparations needed for a showcase in March which would feature both the Lego Mindstorm robots the students would build that could play soccer, as well as the real soccer robots for international competition such as the one being worked on by his thesis advisee my former co-faculty Nap for his doctorate.

David was tasked to take care of the hardware while I would be helping out with the software, in other words, the strategy of the robot soccer team that relies on input from the vision system that Nap is programming.

According to the students there are only three new enrollees for this term, although up to yesterday there were still a lot of parents in the waiting area outside the registrar's office. If it's anything like last term, there will be students (both new and old) enrolling late into my classes until the second week.

Well, my first mechanics lecture class meets in a few minutes. I'll probably post all about that (and this morning's TrigApp first meeting) tomorrow.