Due to a scheduling mishap, this semester I'll be teaching my Environmental Geology lab in the new Science Learning Center in the Schuler Building on NOVA's Annandale campus.

This past Thursday night was our first session in there. Exploring the new facility, I opened up an old-looking refrigerator back in one corner. "What's in here?" I wondered....



Whoa! A bunch of dead birds! These are, no doubt roadkill (or window-kill) samples that are awaiting preparation as 'study skins.' Under professor Walt Bulmer, NOVA has developed a robust collection of study skins to aid in ornithological studies. (I'll have to shoot some photos of those sometime.)

Though I hadn't expected to see a pile of dead birds in the fridge, I soon recovered from the shock. Before converting to geology, I used to study ornithology, and have spent time prepping study skins in the lab at William & Mary (and once, in my dad's basement, with a Sturnus vulgaris that turned out kind of stinky). Returning to my students working on their lab, passing the anatomical models and the physics references, I thought how refreshing it was to be working in a lab utilized by all the sciences.

I guess in retrospect, I should have suspected the fridge's contents when I saw this cartoon taped to the front of the fridge door:

Labels: birdies, humor, nova, teaching