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Operation Marking Garden

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags , , on May 21, 2025 by telescoper

Posts will be a little thin for the next ten days or so here as I am preoccupied with correcting examinations and other assessments. I am spending most of the time doing that at home to avoid interruptions. I’ve also taken the opportunity afforded by this fine spell to do some laundry which I can peg out to dry outdoors. I think this is called multi-tasking. Fortunately (barring yesterday’s thunderstorms), the weather has been nice enough to do the marking outside, in my little garden.

Yesterday evening’s thunderstorms

A few years ago I posted an item about red valerian which grows in profusion around here on verges and embankments. Red valerian (aka spur valerian, kiss-me-quick, fox’s brush, devil’s beard & Jupiter’s beard among other names) is not to be confused with True Valerian, which has white (or very pale pink flowers). I mentioned in that post It’s red valerian (aka spur valerian, kiss-me-quick, fox’s brush, devil’s beard & Jupiter’s beard among other names). I mentioned in that post that I’d like to have some in my garden. Well, it seems that the seeds I planted have grown, perhaps spurred on by the rain yesterday evening:

red valerian

It’s not exactly a profusion, but it’s a start.

UPDATE: 31/05/25 On my way into Dublin by train I saw Red Valerian and True Valerian together by the railway tracks.

Anyway, I spent this morning marking until I remembered a couple of things I had to do on campus. That’s only 20 minutes’ walk for me so I went there at lunchtime, getting a haircut on the way. I stayed for lunch in Pugin Hall and then came back to continue with my correcting duties.

When I took a break for tea I suddenly remembered (for some reason) that the debit card on my UK bank account was about to expire and I hadn’t updated the address since I sold my house in Cardiff. Strangely, I couldn’t update my details online but instead had to use the telephone banking service. One can change to another address in the UK using the online banking app, but can’t do that if you’re moving abroad. Although it took longer to do than I had anticipated it might, the person I spoke to was very helpful. Fortunately they hadn’t yet despatched a replacement card and/or PIN so all was well.

So there you are. Another exciting day in the life of an academic has passed.

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After Lectures and before Examinations

Posted in Education, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , on May 15, 2025 by telescoper

This morning I did my last teaching session of the Academic Year 2024-5, a revision lecture/tutorial on Computational Physics. It was optional, as this is officially a study break, and was at 9am, but I had about 30% attendance which wasn’t bad in the circumstances. As is often the case with optional sessions, I think the students who came were the keenest and probably therefore those who least needed last-minute tips for the examination, but that’s always the way.

The Examination Period starts tomorrow morning, but most of the students who turned up this morning have their first examination on Monday 19th May which happens to be Computational Physics.

Anyway, now that my teaching is over I thought I’d take the opportunity to wish all students the best for their examinations:

You shouldn’t really be relying on luck of course, so here are some tips (especially for physics students, but applicable elsewhere).

  1. Try to get a good night’s sleep before the examination and arrive in plenty of time before the start. Spending all night cramming is unlikely to help you do well.
  2. Prepare well in advance so you’re relaxed when the time comes.
  3. Read the entire paper before starting to answer any questions. In particular, make sure you are aware of any supplementary information, formulae, etc, given in the rubric or at the end.
  4. Start off by tackling the question you are most confident about answering, even if it’s not Question 1. This will help settle any nerves. You’re under no obligation to answer the questions in the order they are asked.
  5. Don’t rush! Students often lose marks by making careless errors. In particular, check all your working out, including numerical results obtained your calculator, at least twice
  6. Please remember the units!
  7. Don’t panic! You’re not expected to answer everything perfectly. A first-class mark is anything over 70%, so don’t worry if there are bits you can’t do. If you get stuck on a part of a question, don’t waste too much time on it (especially if it’s just a few marks). Just leave it and move on. You can always come back to it later.

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Maynooth University Library Cat Update

Posted in Maynooth with tags , on May 14, 2025 by telescoper

I was on a mission to the South Campus just now and found Maynooth University Library Cat behind bars. He’s actually just resting in the semi-shade behind the gate to conserve energy before the exams start on Friday morning, at which time he will need to make himself available for last-minute consultations and therapeutic petting.

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Botanical Garden

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , , , on May 13, 2025 by telescoper 
How many kinds of sweet flowers grow
In an English Irish country suburban garden?
I'll tell you now of some that I know
And those that I miss you'll surely pardon..
Bush Vetch (Vicia sepium)
Cowslip (Primula veris)
Scarlet Pimpernel (Lysimachia arvensis)
Meadow Foam (Limnanthes douglasii) aka Poached Egg Plant

These are all wild flowers, often considered to be weeds, but I like having them in my garden!

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Marking Time

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on May 12, 2025 by telescoper

So here we are, then, with only a few days before examinations start (next Friday, 16th May). The examinations for my two modules take place on Monday 19th and Tuesday 27th May, and after that I’ll be busy with marking for a while.

 

Marking doesn’t just mean written examinations. I have been teaching a module on Computational Physics to 3rd Year students here in Maynooth, and 40% of the assessment for that is a mini-project (usually done in groups of two or three). Early on the term, I put up a list of  16  projects and asked them to pick first second and third choices so I could form groups in such a way that most students get to work on a project they have actively chosen.

Anyway, the deadline for projects to be handed in passed last week so I’ve got a stack of those to mark which, you will realise, why I am indulging in a displacement activity by writing this blog post. My plan is to mark these during this week so that they’re done before the written examinations come in, which means by next Monday (19th). This year we have had a bigger class than usual, so this I have quite a lot of marking to do.

Last week also saw the deadline for the last assignment in Particle Physics to be handed in. I want to mark those as soon as possible, but I’m not sure I’ll have time this week, but I should be able to do them before the exam on the 27th.

Incidentally, one of the submissions of the last assignment came with a note that this was the last assignment the student had done in Maynooth and that the first one he had done, when he was in his first year, was also set by me.

 

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Last Remarks

Posted in Biographical, Education, Euclid, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff, Uncategorized with tags , , on May 11, 2025 by telescoper

On Friday (9th May), the last day of undergraduate teaching at Maynooth, I gave the last lecture in my module on Particle Physics. I actually finished the syllabus on Tuesday (6th) so the final one was more a revision class than a lecture. I used it to go through some past examination questions and (try to) answer some general points raised by the class.

What surprised me about this lecture was that, as has usually been the case, there was more-or-less a full attendance. Examinations in Maynooth start on Friday (May 16th), but the Particle Physics examination is not until May 27th, near the end of the examination period. I therefore expected that many students would be concentrating on their revision for their other modules, which have exams earlier in the season or finishing their projects (which are due in before the exams start). There were one or two absences, but most came anyway. In fact there was even an extra student, one of our MSc students. When I saw him at the back of the lecture hall I asked, jokingly, why he had come. He replied “I haven’t got anything better to do”. I wasn’t sure how to interpret that!

That lecture was at 11am. Later that day, at 3pm, I gave a Departmental colloquium (which had quite a big audience). The title was Euclid: The Story So Far and the abstract was

The European Space Agency’s Euclid satellite was launched on 1st July 2023 and, after instrument calibration and performance verification, the main cosmological survey is now well under way. In this talk I will explain the main science goals of Euclid, give a brief summary of progress so far, showcase some of the science results already obtained, and set out the time line for future developments, including the main data releases and cosmological analysis.

The audience for these talks is very mixed: experimental and theoretical physics staff, postgraduates and even some undergraduate students (including some who were in my lecture earlier) so it was quite a general talk rather than one I might give to an specialist astrophysics audience. If you’re interested you can find the slides here.

Having a quick cup of tea after the end of the talk and before I headed off to catch the train, I talked briefly with a student who is taking his final examinations at Maynooth this year. He told me that I had actually given the first lecture he attended when he had just started his first year and the colloquium was the last talk he would attend at Maynooth. That would be the case for quite a few students in the audience, I suppose, but it won’t be true for any in future: I am no longer teaching any modules taken by first year students, and I’ll be retired when the current first year students graduate…

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Darkness into Light Maynooth

Posted in Biographical, Maynooth with tags , on May 10, 2025 by telescoper
The start
Dunboyne Road
The end
Carton House Grounds

It’s about 6am and I’m back home after Darkness into Light. Despite having to get up at half past three in the morning, it was a very enjoyable event: a large crowd of at least a thousand, and a lovely morning without a cloud in the sky, not particularly warm, but an acceptable 8°C, and made all the more atmospheric by the mist, especially over the grounds of Carton House (the entrance to which we passed en route) and the birdsong of the dawn chorus.

The walk itself is about 5km, but I had to walk about 2km from home to get to the start at Maynooth GAA and about 2km home from there afterwards, so it was a good bit of exercise. More importantly, I raised €312.28 for Pieta. Thank you to everyone who contributed! The fundraiser will stay open until the end of June if you’d like to donate you still can!

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go back to bed for a couple of hours…

P.S. Darkness into Light is a national event, as you can read here.

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After the Lectures

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth, Music with tags , , on May 9, 2025 by telescoper

Today has been such a busy day that I’ve only got time for a quick post. This morning was spent preparing and delivering a revision lecture, and this afternoon preparing and delivering a Departmental Colloquium.  That done I headed straight for the railway station to get the train into Dublin and thence by foot to the National Concert Hall.

So here I am, sipping a glass of nicely chilled white wine as I wait for tonight’s performance. I’ll post a review tomorrow but, until then, Cheers!

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Guiding Lights

Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on May 8, 2025 by telescoper

Just a quick post to mention that this afternoon the Physics Department held a nice event about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Although today is the penultimate day of teaching, so many undergraduate students will have been busy finishing off their final assignments, it was well attended. I had to miss the first hour as I was involved in the Computational Physics lab until 4pm, so I missed the two presentations, but I took part in the panel discussion (that was largely about the results of a recent student survey held in the Department) and (of course) stayed for a glass of wine at the end. Well, done to the organizers (James, Emma and Graham) for organizing this event, which I hope will be the first of many!

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Reminder: Darkness into Light

Posted in Maynooth, Mental Health with tags , , on May 8, 2025 by telescoper

With your permission (or indeed without it) please let me remind you that taking part in Darkness Into Light in Maynooth on Saturday, 10th May, from 4.15am, to raise vital funds for Pieta and people affected by suicide and self-harm. This is only a couple of days away so please donate if you can.

You can help keep Pieta’s essential services FREE and available to anyone who needs them by donating now to help me reach my fundraising goal. Every euro counts. Even a small donation can make a big impact. You can contribute to my fundraiser here.

Thank you so much for your support

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