While students returning to campus will bike through snow and slush, one University of Minnesota professor is taking his two wheels across the sands and jungles of Africa while continuing to teach a spring semester class to students back in Minnesota. Paul Porter, an agronomy and plant genetics professor, is participating in the Tour dâÄôAfrique , a bike ride spanning more than 7,000 miles that will take Porter and a group of other riders from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa. During the ride, which began on Jan. 10, Porter will be relaying his experiences and observations to students taking the class âÄúFood & Agri from Cairo to Capetown at 10mph.âÄù Porter, who will turn 53 during the trip, said he came up with the idea to teach a class from Africa as a way to give students a real-time look into African agriculture. âÄúI could have done the ride and come back and held the class,âÄù he said, âÄúbut why not try something a bit unusual?âÄù Porter said heâÄôll be looking at things like soil types, climate, and water supply and then analyzing how those things affect what is being grown.