"what do ducks eat?" . . .and other scientific questions. . .

had my first lab class as TA yesterday. OMG. that was exhausting. it's a 3 hour class for introductory biology for non-majors/people-who-are-not-at-all-interested-in-biology. My students were actually not bad in the sense that they sat there and stared at me like i was crazy but they did not say anything about it. i really don't blame them because i was so disorganized and all over the place. it also probably did not help that even before i tell them who i am i immediately go on to take their pictures with a digital camera (to paste on info cards) because the other class needed the camera too. anyhow, the first lab activity was pretty easy and fun, well as fun as a bio lab activity can be. it included a "field trip" to collect specimens. since it was a little rainy, i opted to not take them to the woods on the far side of the campus but we just ended up going to mirror lake (pond really, with ducks). i knew it was not a good sign when, as i was struggling with the key box that holds the key for the lab room, i turn around and all of my students were gone! so i had to run down 4 flights of stairs and out of the building!

anyway, the object of the activity was to collect as many specimens as possible, bring them back to the lab, and classify them according to what you observe. specimens include both plants and animals. some classifications that stood out were "green stuff" vs "creatures", plants vs animals vs insects, and my favorite, "dead" vs. "alive".

one question they had to answer was whether the specimen they collected was a producer or primay/secondary/tertiary consumer.
someone asked me "what do ducks eat?".
man, was i stumped. "bread?" i said.
"so what does that make them?" said the student
"well, where does bread come from?" was my next question,
"wheat?" piped in another student
"so does that make them primary consumers?" asked the first student
"er, yes?" said the smart TA.

ain't that the most genius scientific repartee' you have ever heard?!? man, am i good or what? "what" would be the right answer to that. . .

also, seeing that i'm very, very, bad with names, someone had the great idea of giving me 6 students named matthew (4 in one class, 2 in another). what are the chances of that happening? at least when in a bind, i could just go ahead and call any guy matthew and there would be close to a 1 in 3 chance that i'm right.

so there. a new chapter in my life. . . as a molder of the minds of this country's future. . . kawawang mga kano =) dito na ba magsisimula ang pagkokolonisa natin? hehehehehehe.

Happy flower day!

apparently, that's what the first day of spring is called. . .

does anyone know what these are?

just curious. paul gave them to me last week. they're pink. and slightly strange. but still sweet.

he's in iowa now . . . =(

after a very long time. . .

i bought shoes online. . . again. . . couldn't resist. . . i'd like to think of it as my end of quarter reward?. . .and i was doing so well with my spending. . .

now i don't know how to put more than one picture in an entry. . . hmmmm. . . anyway here's a picture of the roses i got for coming back here. oddly enough, i didn't get any for valentine's. . . hmmmmm. . . i wonder why?. . . and you'll also see my christmas tree. . . my itty bitty tree that is being dwarfed by roses. . . poor tree. . . 

whoa. new picasa layout. uncharted territory. must tread carefully. how will this look like in my blog i wonder. in preparation for seeing kurt vonnegut tonight, i decided to upload some pics from my camera from after i got back here. all in all there were 8 pics. 3 were of the same thing. anyway, here's one from the cgsa winter retreat. notice how bad i look. i was fighting a cold all that weekend. much fun.

now to try this out. . .