Day 9

They fixed the water last night, yay! Then they started closing the hole they made and stamping the ground with a soil compactor - I felt it laying in bed (3rd floor). But well, this morning I could take a (rather cold, because the hot water was not working properly..) shower \o/. 

This afternoon I read an e-mail from a fellow student stating that she reads my blog (hi Christa!), that's really nice to hear! If you also read my blog and would like to comment on something (or have any questions), feel free to do so in the dedicated space below!
On to my day today: 

I had a lesson to prepare today! Because tomorrow I'll teach my first lesson here! Yes, Exciting! 

Synaptic transmission will be the lesson's theme. I haven't taught the nervous system yet, but how hard can it be really. The IB book is _very_ clear, the IB syllabus states what the students need to know. But I wanted to make the lesson a bit more fun than having the students listen to me for 80 minutes and take notes (/read facebook, reddit, tumblr, whatnot). 

Upon reading the chapter, a flip book came to mind. Flip books are books with drawings that change slightly over consecutive pages, with your thumb you can let these pages slide fastly one after another to see an animation. As this topic is about nerve stimuli - impulses - and the students need to understand and know the different steps, I thought it might be fun for them to draw it in their own flip book. But.. how to measure how long it takes for someone to draw a 9 page flipbook.. yeah, just timing it myself seemed to be the most logical option. The answer was: about 40 minutes (but I already understand the process). The lesson will be 80 minutes. Since the students are motivated, I think they can do this task within an hour. To fill up the other 20 minutes, I found a youtube video of a doctor investigating a Parkinson patient and although he uses a lot of jargon, I think it will be interesting to use a medical perspective to make the synapses come to live. What better way to show than with an illustration of what happens when it does not work correctly. Additionally, in their IB books is a task about meds for Parkinson's disease, and how they affect the synaptic impulses. After viewing the video, they can do the task, we will then discuss the task on Thursday and move on. Lena seemed to be pleased with this idea too. 

In the afternoon, I observed Lena teaching her final year IB class (the one that could not get enough bio lessons before their exam). Today, fortunately I must say, they were a bit more talkative. The lesson started at 15.00 and went on till 16.15, I suppose the timing was not helping them concentrate. 

Also I was able to plan my first interview for my research today, we will do that tomorrow (planning that went ever so smoothly again). On Thursday there's a 'pythagoras quest', a kind of math olympiad that fits in with my research rather well. Lena asked the organiser if I would be welcome to have a look, we will see if that works out, should be interesting!