Hi all! Here it is, finally! My greatest thanks go to my wonderful editor, Tccrusher, who not only puts up with me missing the deadlines I give myself, but does so without complaint. Myka's Tail would not be even half as good without his endless support and guidance. As I mentioned in my bio section, what I wrote for chapter 5 was huge. Both Tccrusher and I felt it best to split it down the middle so as not to overwhelm anyone, and as soon as he has the second half edited, I can get that to you ASAP. And thanks again to you all, my dedicated readers. You make all of this worth it.
***
My thoughts drifted for about the fifteenth time. I had to put my mind in the present so that I could be there for the students that were now my responsibility. I wasn't a professor yet, but part of the program was to assist the professors with their classes. In fact, it was a requirement of all students that were receiving funds to cover their graduate tuition, and it was especially rough for me because I was both a third semester PhD student, and I was the director of the McAllister Wildlife Refuge. Don't get me wrong, I loved being in the program, and I was thrilled that the university was willing to partner with the refuge for both graduate and undergraduate classes, but sometimes it was a highly complex juggling act to keep up with all the work I had to do.
And to top it off, while I was out here with the students I couldn't run like I usually did, which meant naked. It would cause a never ending scandal that nobody needed, and I had class with many of the people that were here on a regular basis. It made both Kelli and I laugh about how I would look trying to tell someone that they had failed a midterm after they had seen me dashing around without my clothes on. I would have no credibility whatsoever.
I was not sure why I was having a hard time focusing, other than the incessant prodding that my link to the earth had been doing over the last few weeks. It started small, with only a nudge or two, but over time it became progressively more insistent. It was almost like having a child pester you for candy, but every time you tried to turn and scold them, nobody was there. I tried to run when I could with the students around, which usually meant after one or two in the morning, but the time I spent running was not calming enough. I shook my head once more and then turned to keep track of the ten undergrads that I had with me in the field.
My responsibilities this semester included the practical course work for the second level eco course, and for the next three weeks I was in charge of seven talented young women, one very bright young man, and two guys who I suspect took the class because they wanted to have an excuse to hang around the sexy cat-girl teacher. I was flattered, sure, but I always let anyone who got flirty know that I was taken, and happily so. I also let the persistent ones know that sucking up would not get them a date, nor a better grade in the class. Experience had taught me that after a few days they would finally get the idea and then I could get down to the business of teaching without fending off hopeless attempts to gain my interest.
It was the evening session of the first day of the field practicum, and I was walking between the students who were in groups of two, making sure that any questions they had were answered. The day began earlier with a two hour orientation at the new field house that the McAlister group had built. It allowed students to stay in the area for the class, instead of traveling the three hours every day between the university and the refuge. It was a very nice building with four classrooms, a communal kitchen, and separated sleeping arrangements which could house twenty of each gender, along with space for three instructors and a small lab. I didn't have an office yet, but I had planned on talking my parents into letting me use the other room in the basement until I had secured funding for another building.
"Hey Myka," one of the girls called out, and I headed over to answer her question.
I know that some would say that letting the students call me by my first name was being a bit too familiar, but I would not have my doctorate for another three years at least. That meant that I couldn't use the title of doctor or professor yet, and there was no way in hell that I was going to answer to Miss Carlisle coming from someone who I barely had five years on.
"What do you need Shelly," and I crouched down to get a look at what she was documenting.
"Well, umm," the redhead began, and pushed her glasses back to the top of the bridge of her nose. "Can you explain what you want from us for this assignment a little better? Carrie and I really want to do well in this course, and your instructions seemed a bit broad."
Shelly's partner, Carrie, was nodding in agreement with her, and I realized that I had my first two super-achievers. I made a quick decision that if they wanted a simpler explanation then I would give them one, so I hollered out and called everyone over to us.
"Ok, some of you have expressed some concern that my explanation of what we are doing for this class was too broad. Do most of you feel this way?"
I sighed to myself as several of the other students raised their hands, indicating that I might have truly caused some confusion. This was my first time leading this kind of course, so I knew that it was not going to be completely smooth the first time around.
"Alright, put simply this class has two goals that you are going to be graded on," I explained to them once more. "First, you need to show that you can do basic research on a specific topic. Second, you need to show that you can formulate a well thought out and reasonable hypothesis. Tell me again what the difference is between a hypothesis and a theory."
"A hypothesis is a well educated guess about a future result based on available data, and a theory is an idea or principle that has been found to be correct through repeated testing."
I was surprised that the answer came from one of the guys that had tried to suck up at first, and who had tried to get a look as my ass on numerous occasions when he thought I was not paying attention.
"That's right Brad. I'm glad you were paying attention," I replied, and I managed to keep most of the sarcasm out of my voice. "So, since I want you to form a reasonable hypothesis, you need to pick something to study that you can hypothesize about."
"What do you mean by pick something," one of the other students asked.
"Look," I began, with mild irritation. "Pick something means just that. You're all out here to find an insect, or a leaf, or maybe an interesting patch of dirt. There are trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses out here, along with a bunch of birds. What you need to do is pick one of those things, or any other thing in this forest, and research it. I want you to gather everything you can find out about what you pick, and then make an educated guess as to why it is here in this forest in this climate, or whether it is food for something or not and why, or any other interesting question you can reasonably answer, and then defend that answer with facts and data."
