Davis says that students and professors become close when they spend so much time together. Summer general chemistry becomes a bonding experience for all involved--the class eats lunch together each day in the Greenhouse.

"We are all there all the time," Davis says. "I get to know more students well over the summer than during the academic year."

Also, Davis is able to handpick his teaching fellows from undergraduates and recent graduates. During the academic year, TFs are assigned to Chem 5, also taught by Davis, without his input because spots are reserved for all first year graduate students in chemistry.

"I can take account of what I estimate to be talent and enthusiasm for teaching," he says. "Everyone who teaches for me is someone who really wants to do it."

Class size tends to be smaller in the summer too, allowing for more discussion.

There are 30 students in Damrosch's summer school course, as opposed to 170 students in his comparable academic year course, English 10b: "Major British Writers II."

For the Love of the Sport

Davis began teaching his summer school course in 1988, a year after he arrived at Harvard.