on monday and tuesday of this week i gave my first actual lectures since i got here. for those who don't know, in addition to the freshman physics class for which i run the labs and tutorials, i also signed on to give a series of 4 lectures to a junior level biophysics class. this week i talked about membrane potentials and how neurons communicate with one another. next week i'll have to two remaining lectures, on epilepsy and neural stimulation.
as those of you who are teachers know, preparing for lectures takes a lot more time than you'll actually be spending giving them. it's a bit nerve wracking, because (since i haven't done very much of it) i'm always worried that i'll go through the material i've prepared too fast and not have anything to fill the last 20 minutes of class (although, when i was a student, i would have LOVED for this situation to have befallen some of my professors). all told, though, the classes went well and the students seem to have grasped what i was presenting. i'm also responsible for writing a final exam question and grading it for the six students in the class. in the end i'll receive $800 NZD for my trouble, which, if things continue as they are currently, will be worth about fifty bucks american by the end of semester (when i accepted the job, 1NZD was worth 80 cents american. now it's worth about 65 cents. this sucks).
in other news, as a public service for those of you folks who are (as michelle burgess would say) "all city-fied", i've decided to start including "fun agricultural facts" that i've learned since i've been here. today's fun fact: sometimes when cows eat fresh grass instead of hay, they will get 'the bloat', a condition where their stomach(s) fill up with gas and they cannot, ahem, 'expel' it in the normal fashion. so, to remedy this, you take a special long thin knife and insert (stab?) it into the cow to pierce the stomach to relieve the pressure. apparently this isn't supposed to hurt the cow. however, it is recommended that you take special care of where you are standing in relation to the cow when you do this. or at least be wearing a scuba mask.
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2 comments:
as a former teacher i will give you some advice. don't mumble. kids hate that.are you going to include some of your "famous extra credit questions"?
As a student, I will give you some advice. Ending 20 minutes early ain't the end of the world.
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