Starting Astrobiology

I had my last tutorial on the planetary science part of S283 about 12 days ago with a very good tutor who only facilitates tutorials on the planetary science part of the course. I will be sorry to see them go. It was on meteorites and their oxygen isotopes, which is a very difficult topic to understand and although the tutor was not up to their normally high standard, it was still very good. Today I start on the astrobiology part of S283 and I think it will be more to my liking as I have a biology/microbiology background, but it's too early to say at this stage. 

MST124 is still coming along nicely. I had the remainder of the Revise and Refresh tutorials a few days ago and they were all top quality stuff. 

I also had a 'Welcome to the Maths & Stats Department' event which was not module specific but just introduced students to the various teams and workings of OU maths. It was an event of two halves really. The first half was an introduction to studying maths and stats at level 1 with the OU and was quite informative. The course chair of MST124, who also has a responsibility for Maths modules in general, was very relatable. It was mentioned that tutor allocation should take place sometime this week or next week but I received a message from my tutor this afternoon introducing themselves. I, of course, replied more or less straightway.

The second half was concerned with study techniques and stress management, which wandered off into psychobabble nonsense and probably did more harm than good to any students who were still listening. I don't want to be unkind, but I think the speaker liked the sound of their own voice too much and overcooked it a tad.

I've made a good start on MST124-TMA01 and now I have a tutor I can apply the finishing touches and have it on my laptop ready to go. When the module fully opens on 31st January I can also submit iCMA41. This is a computer marked assignment with a multiple choice format. It's not worth many marks (only 0.4% of the total module mark) but it's designed to identify any issues so that both student and tutor target remedial activity.