Wow, I have a lot to say about this, but well, let's just get started on the subject. I first heard about the job I have during an alternative career speaker series at Urban Med Center. I fell in love with the idea, and pointed my training in that direction for the most part, keeping all of my options open. E.G. I took a traditional post-doc, and boy am I glad I did. I probably wasn't ready for teaching right after my Ph.D. Ask, and I'll expound on that in further blogs.
I heard a 747 pilot say once that he was really just a bus driver. Of course we think being a 747 pilot is far more glamorous than being a bus driver, but functionally, they are somewhat the same. I feel the same way about being a teacher. Am I glamorized teacher with a more complicated job that requires more training? If I am in social situations that call for such humility, I do describe myself as a teacher and let them ask further to find out that I am a professor. But I really don't think of myself as a teacher primarily.
I think of myself as a scientist. So why I am I different "breed" of scientist than perhaps FSP, or anyone at an R01? Well, If I fail to get a grant, my technician doesn't lose his or her job (because I don't have a technician). But I still need to apply for grants. I don't sit on study section, so I will really only be on one end of the peer-review process. But I still need to publish peer-reviewed articles. I'm not finding the cure for cancer. Yes, but niether are you, R01ers (lighthearted fun poke. do not make nasty comments here). Yes, my research goes slower becuase my lab members can only spend 10 hours / week in the lab. And they are just learning. And I can't be in there with them all the time. But I still am doing original publishable research. The trick is I have to be even MORE clever to find research that undergrads can do (easy), in things that are interesting enough to publish, but not interesting enough for you R01ers to scoop me on. And it has to be cheap. I'll say that requires a special kind of intellect. Moreover, the time allotted for reading primary literature is seriously curtailed. But I still want to and do read papers.
more soon
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Cool lab
Today I had a teaching lab with three students for My Absolute Favorite Subject. We did the lab in my research lab, since I research, well, My Absolute Favorite Subject (duh). With three bright students, we can teach class in the research lab. We can design several teaching labs to take advantage of the research lab since it is directly relevant for a few weeks.
The students really seemed to be having a good time, and a pair of speakers for one of the student's iPod seems to be a helpful element in the lab (student provided). I could never concentrate with music, but its sure does make undergrads happy, especially during the slow parts of the lab. Perhaps I can attract and keep the best students if I make the lab environs "cool". Discoball, perhaps? :)
The students really seemed to be having a good time, and a pair of speakers for one of the student's iPod seems to be a helpful element in the lab (student provided). I could never concentrate with music, but its sure does make undergrads happy, especially during the slow parts of the lab. Perhaps I can attract and keep the best students if I make the lab environs "cool". Discoball, perhaps? :)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
You can see it early.
Today was a children's fair. I took a cool sciencey thing to show, but sciencey thing is not a toy, even though it may look like one. It costs as much as a very used car.
Ideal situation: child approaches, I introduce sciencey thing and allow child to touch and experience in a controlled manner. Child wonders in amazement and laughs at my jokes. I feel like I'm saving the world through science education.
Frequency of ideal situation: 45%
Frequency of children who approach sciencey thing aggressively and grab without permission, often under the direction of parents: 15%
Children completely uninterested in s.t.: 20%
Children grossed out by or afraid to approach s.t. 10%
Frequency in which child approaches aggressively bringing hand directly out of a food item to touch s.t. under observation of parents: 10%
And here's my favorite. Son approached s.t. with wonder in eyes and begins exploring nicely. Mom yanks son away to next booth saying "Hey! Is that one of them snap bracelets?!!? They're free!!"
I spend many, many synapses wondering/worrying about the importance of early childhood education, the achievement gap, etc. Why do some kids arrive on campus grossly undercurious? Why are some of my students so underprepared intellectually? Is it too late to help them by college? And a heartbreaker: highly motivated that simply can't retain information at a high enough rate to succeed. It seems that I got a glimpse into the "nurture" aspect of the phenomenon today.
Ideal situation: child approaches, I introduce sciencey thing and allow child to touch and experience in a controlled manner. Child wonders in amazement and laughs at my jokes. I feel like I'm saving the world through science education.
Frequency of ideal situation: 45%
Frequency of children who approach sciencey thing aggressively and grab without permission, often under the direction of parents: 15%
Children completely uninterested in s.t.: 20%
Children grossed out by or afraid to approach s.t. 10%
Frequency in which child approaches aggressively bringing hand directly out of a food item to touch s.t. under observation of parents: 10%
And here's my favorite. Son approached s.t. with wonder in eyes and begins exploring nicely. Mom yanks son away to next booth saying "Hey! Is that one of them snap bracelets?!!? They're free!!"
I spend many, many synapses wondering/worrying about the importance of early childhood education, the achievement gap, etc. Why do some kids arrive on campus grossly undercurious? Why are some of my students so underprepared intellectually? Is it too late to help them by college? And a heartbreaker: highly motivated that simply can't retain information at a high enough rate to succeed. It seems that I got a glimpse into the "nurture" aspect of the phenomenon today.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Priorities %^@$#%$!
Very typical day here, yesterday was the same. Very strong conflicts in my time between teaching and research and family.
If you want to teach 12-13 SH, the only way you can do research is to 1) stay all night in the lab 2) rely very heavily on undergraduate researchers to be very competent, dedicated, and to learn stuff the first time you show them and display great judgment in situations that differ from the one time you showed them.
I choose 2, to varying degrees of success.
Here's a great example. The research we do, like everything that relies on living things, requires a schedule and one step depends on timing from the last step. We have a schedule, and unfortunately that involves one student doing surgery on a certain day, collecting data on a different day. There are three students and we set up a schedule so each gets a shot at doing surgery and collecting data through the week.
Student 1 does surgery on Monday and collects data on Thursday.
Student 2 does surgery on Thursday and collects data on Tuesday.
Student 3 gets out of surgery but has to do treatments on Friday afternoon, and collects data on Wednesday afternoon.
On Thursday I teach a lab from 9:30-11:30, have a meeting 12:00-1:00, teach more labs from 1:00- 5:00. Student 1 is flying solo collecting data on Thursdays. Data collection is not trivial, there are a multitude of things that can go wrong. Luckily, student 1 is highly competent, but nonetheless is a rookie in the lab. Student 1 works to his/her limits of knowledge and interrupts my class as necessary for help suggestions. I cannot go to the lab and help student 1. I can only give one sentence suggestions as to what to troubleshoot before returning to my teaching. Though student 1 does not interrupt while I am addressing the class, but only while I am circulating, the interruptions are disruptive to the labs, and most importantly, I feel as though I am doing neither job well.
Student 2 is also a rookie, and is competent, but is quite early in his/ her college career, so student 2 is not completely facile with things such as pH-ing solutions. Thursday night student 2 needed to do his/her first solo surgery, but was not confident enough to do it completely in my absence. So student 2 asked me to stay until 5:30 pm when s/he got out of his/her classes and a mandatory meeting to be present while s/he tried the surgery. S/he was late coming out of the meeting, so I set him on the prep, went to the daycare and picked up da Boy, brought da Boy into the lab while student 2 did surgery. I was blowing up gloves to make balloons to entertain da Boy while student 2 missed his/her target, and needed to start over again. I went home, got a babysitter, and returned to the lab to help student 2 with the second surgery. That was highly unusual. I will NOT do that often, but it seemed like a critical one-time investment.
Today, Student 2 needed me for some simple stuff, but there were students in my office for office hours. Again, the interruptions were quite disruptive and I was frustrated with my inability to do either job completely.
I could write on this at length (note I haven't even mentioned student 3), but will conclude this one for now. Pop in the comments so I know you are reading! :)
If you want to teach 12-13 SH, the only way you can do research is to 1) stay all night in the lab 2) rely very heavily on undergraduate researchers to be very competent, dedicated, and to learn stuff the first time you show them and display great judgment in situations that differ from the one time you showed them.
I choose 2, to varying degrees of success.
Here's a great example. The research we do, like everything that relies on living things, requires a schedule and one step depends on timing from the last step. We have a schedule, and unfortunately that involves one student doing surgery on a certain day, collecting data on a different day. There are three students and we set up a schedule so each gets a shot at doing surgery and collecting data through the week.
Student 1 does surgery on Monday and collects data on Thursday.
Student 2 does surgery on Thursday and collects data on Tuesday.
Student 3 gets out of surgery but has to do treatments on Friday afternoon, and collects data on Wednesday afternoon.
On Thursday I teach a lab from 9:30-11:30, have a meeting 12:00-1:00, teach more labs from 1:00- 5:00. Student 1 is flying solo collecting data on Thursdays. Data collection is not trivial, there are a multitude of things that can go wrong. Luckily, student 1 is highly competent, but nonetheless is a rookie in the lab. Student 1 works to his/her limits of knowledge and interrupts my class as necessary for help suggestions. I cannot go to the lab and help student 1. I can only give one sentence suggestions as to what to troubleshoot before returning to my teaching. Though student 1 does not interrupt while I am addressing the class, but only while I am circulating, the interruptions are disruptive to the labs, and most importantly, I feel as though I am doing neither job well.
Student 2 is also a rookie, and is competent, but is quite early in his/ her college career, so student 2 is not completely facile with things such as pH-ing solutions. Thursday night student 2 needed to do his/her first solo surgery, but was not confident enough to do it completely in my absence. So student 2 asked me to stay until 5:30 pm when s/he got out of his/her classes and a mandatory meeting to be present while s/he tried the surgery. S/he was late coming out of the meeting, so I set him on the prep, went to the daycare and picked up da Boy, brought da Boy into the lab while student 2 did surgery. I was blowing up gloves to make balloons to entertain da Boy while student 2 missed his/her target, and needed to start over again. I went home, got a babysitter, and returned to the lab to help student 2 with the second surgery. That was highly unusual. I will NOT do that often, but it seemed like a critical one-time investment.
Today, Student 2 needed me for some simple stuff, but there were students in my office for office hours. Again, the interruptions were quite disruptive and I was frustrated with my inability to do either job completely.
I could write on this at length (note I haven't even mentioned student 3), but will conclude this one for now. Pop in the comments so I know you are reading! :)
Thursday, September 10, 2009
May I be excused?
Wow, I think I forget year to year about the first few weeks of college for first year students. Today I had several students ask me permission to go to the bathroom. There were others who asked if they could leave if they were finished with the lab.
I typically say, "of course, this is college, man."
Today someone asked if they could leave and I gave the response, "of course". They said we wanted to check if you were going to say anything more before we left. How nice and respectful. I said "Quick, run! before I come up with something to say"
The adjustment from "May I be excused?" to "Oh I guess I'd better show up to class in case I miss something important" to "My friend takes good notes, I'll just stay at home" is very fast, however.
I typically say, "of course, this is college, man."
Today someone asked if they could leave and I gave the response, "of course". They said we wanted to check if you were going to say anything more before we left. How nice and respectful. I said "Quick, run! before I come up with something to say"
The adjustment from "May I be excused?" to "Oh I guess I'd better show up to class in case I miss something important" to "My friend takes good notes, I'll just stay at home" is very fast, however.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Home schooled students
We have a fair number of students that attend Small Religious PUI that are homeschooled either in part or completely until they arrive here. I had a few prejudices about homeschooled kids previous to this job, and those prejudices probably arose from a very low N from which I based my conclusions. I can say now that I cannot tell the homeschooled kids from their peers in either social adjustment or academics, however that is an unscientific observation.
OTOH, I can spot from a mile away students that come from a local private high school. They have a rockstar science teacher, and they are VERY well prepared for our classes.
OTOH, I can spot from a mile away students that come from a local private high school. They have a rockstar science teacher, and they are VERY well prepared for our classes.
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