New Year Planning

After the holiday break, I have had a busy few days organising myself and my studies.  I now have a weekly study planner for the next 6 months or so, which looks pretty scary as I have a lot to keep myself busy.  As ever, my studies are busiest in May-June which is exactly the time when I should be getting out and doing field work - hopefully I will be able to combine both.  I have yet to start my next Open University module, which will be my third year project, but I am hoping to do something great-crested newt related.  This can serve the dual purpose of being a university project and working towards my great-crested newt licence.  I have already started with some research, and have used my Christmas gift money to buy some books and supplies. 

I am attending the ARC UK Herptofauna Workers Meeting in Newcastle in early February, and have also booked onto a Field Studies Council course in April, so should be well set up to start newt surveying in the Spring.

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to continue to improve my plant identification skills.  The first of my MMU modules this year, at the end of May, is on Woodland Plants.  I attended several events in 2014 on woodland plants, so already have quite a good idea about the sorts of plants we will be looking at.  Today I have made a revision list so that each week leading up to the course I will be reviewing a small group of related plants. Hopefully this will prepare me for the course a little better.  I will be doing a lot of newt field work and revising for my OU exam at the same time, so this may take a bit of pressure off.  This week I will be looking at the Violet and Primrose families.

I received some good news today: as I have successfully completed two years of continuing professional development, my membership with the Society of Biology has been upgraded and I am now Kate Wright, AMSB! Another small step in the right direction.