New statistical method

Learning a new statistical method can be grueling even when enrolled in a course that is supposed to teach you how it works. naturally, learning a new technique without the guidance of an expert is, to say the least, a hair pulling frustration. The kaplan-meier statistical technique is easy to run using SPSS although the process of getting to that point is baffling. The method is not frequently used for the work that i do although it is known to be a reliable technique. Given that not many people use it means that there are very few informative examples on the web. This leaves me to figure out exactly how i need to arrange the data in order to get the desired results. As a result I end up spending many hours preparing the data in a manner that is not suitable for SPSS, leaving me to rearrange the data again but this time with a little more knowledge about how not to do it.

its making me fat

Long hours at the office and a ever growing to do list are taking their toll on my eating, exercise, and social habits.  No longer do i crave the endorphins released after a tough workout, rather i crave sweets and coffee. No longer to I feel the need to go for a run and get some fresh air, rather i feel the need to write, read, analyze data and collect data. These feeling, without a doubt, are experienced by many graduate students and professors.
Of course this is no way of living. Somehow i must find the motivation to put away the junk food and work, and go outside and exercise.

Teaching sentimentality

As the semester is wrapping up quickly i find myself cherishing every class period more and more. I realize now how lucky i was when i walked into the class room the first day. The group of kids i have had the pleasure of teach this semester has been stellar. They have been more than good participants, they have helped me become a better teacher and person by maintaining real and constructive conversations with me every class period. Of course there were days were i struggled to keep cool and not go on a rant about this and that. still I feel like i will always remember this 1st class. The mistakes i made will be remembered for a little while until i have to focus on new mistakes. Contrarily, the positive interactions with individuals and the class as a whole will be remembered for many years to come. Thank you

its a power stuggle

For the sake of scientific advancement our lab has given up the space, electrical access and convenience of having incubators located in a well kept room. our new location has its own perks, like a cooler temperature (which will keep the incubators running better), but also has some serious detriments. Currently we are running two extension cords to power outlets because the circuit in the new location can not handle three incubator running simultaneously. (dont tell the fire marshal). It is a temporary solution until new circuits are installed. what that happens is unknown at this time.

Crying undergrads

Maybe one of the toughest parts of being a teacher is having to deal with crying students. We have to deal with the empathetic side but then also have to keep students from getting credit for work they did not do or points they do not deserve. IN the end you are always the bad guy, and if you are too lenient, student will keep asking for more and more. "give them an inch and they will take a mile". So, in the end, you may come across a heart less unsympathetic POS but it is really for the benefit of the student. The students must learn that they have to work for what they want. Before college student are not really challenged or tested, making straight A's while putting in minimal work. College and more importantly "real life" is different. You have to work, and work hard to get anything that is worthwhile getting. Welcome to college freshmen.

Advising undergrads

So as part of my job i have to "recruit" interested and "good" students to take more botany courses. the ultimate goal is to get more students to earn botany minors and majors. This is always a difficult objective for multiple reasons. The primary reason why undergrads do not want to switch is beacuse they are already too far along in their degrees and could not finish a minor or major on time. More than half of my current class is in this position. Others are just not interested in biological sciences and are in the class merely because it is required. So that leaves a hand full of potential targets. Convincing interested students is no art from. they usually know they are interested but typically lack a little bit of guidance and advice. I had the pleasure to talk with one of the brightest studnt in the class about future courses and careers in plant biological science. He was so enthrawled with my enthusiasm and insight that i am very sure he will go on to be a botnay major.

Crop dust "the original"

I would like to introduce the next sequence of blog posts titled "crop dust". Crop dusting refers to the purposeful farting into an area where other people are or will be. The trick is for the crop-duster to never come into contact with his or her own "dust".
The original crop dust has been committed by nearly all people. It usually occurs in a hallway, be it at home, in school or at the office. You may be purposefully crop dusting of just trying to relieve some pressure, but as you do so and walking down the hall you are in fact crop-dusting the people walking behind you or those walking down the hallway in the opposite direction. The thought full crop duster can execute more complex versions of the "original crop dust". timing is everything
More next week.

Stuff on My desk 2

There are 5 books laying on top of another in the far right corner of my desk. The top book reads "Statistic&experimental design". immediately to the left of this stack of books there is an external hard dive. 

The hard drive  no longer functions for my mac, which has forced me to back my shit up on memory sticks. In the end using memory sticks is cheaper plus they are more portable. The downside is that you may have three or four memory sticks laying around. keeping track of this many can be a hassle since these suckers easily hide under papers, books whatever else might find its way onto your desk. 

stuff on MY desk

When looking at my desk the first thing you may notice are numerous manilla folders. I use manilla folders to hold loose papers and specifically organize them by subject. for instance, underneath my right hand there is a manila folder with the words "biowriting" written on it. In it you will find handouts, drafts and papers that i have brought to Biowriting class or received during biowriting class. There is another folder laying right underneath the biowiring folder. when i lift the biowiring folder i see that this folder hs "Stats" written on it. If you were to open this folder you would find print outs of SPSS statistical outputs. The second thing you might notice are a number of different books spread all over my desk. One reads "Botany work book" which is laying of "Principles of botany" (a textbook). Under neath both of these you will see a statistics book.
thats it for now, more later.

Dont believe everything you read

I taught male and female gametogenesis of flowering plants today. The topic is a not difficult to understand although students do struggle with the number of steps involved and with the idea edible fruits are plant embryos, endosperm, and ovaries. some students were ready to swear off popcorn after they say the endosperm and embryo under the microscope. I was kind of funny. I digress to when i was teaching them about the embryo sac. I had mentioned the class before and the students were going through their notes to recall what i had said when one student points out that i had taught them something wrong. I asked what that was and the student pointed to the book to an image of an ovule showing the 7 megasporangia inside. The two polar nuclei were surrounded by a cell membrane labelled as the embryo sac. I had taught that the embryo sac contained all megaspores not just the polar nuclei. My feet started sweating a little when another student pointed out that another image in the same textbook indicated that the embryo sac did in fact include all megaspores not just the polar nuclei. I was relieved but aggravated that this mistake had found its way into the text book. No matter, I needed to know which one was correct. I was certain that the way i had taught them was correct but i needed a second opinion. I briefly stepped out of class and found an expert. It turns out I had been teaching the correct definition of the embryo sac. This lesson applies to all books, articles and blogs. Dont believe everything just because it is written somewhere.

I was reading a description of flora (asteraceae only) in New Mexico. I ran across the description of a plant in the genus that i study. I though found it amusing that this plant was the only one that the author decided to describe as " although very ugly, it ...." !?!? wtf since when does you opinion find itself into a descriptive published document. 

The author wrote this under "supplemental information" where a bit of history about the plant is outlined. It seems that the author did not talk to much time to investigate the history of this genus/species and decides to throw some opinions in. Shame shame. Maybe he thought no one would read it, maybe he though it was funny, either way the fact that he decided to publish this indicates amateurism and ignorance. 

The aim of assessment (tests) is for me the instructor to see how much and how well the student have learned the a subject or concept. All concepts taught are important but some are weighed more heavily. for instance the process of Photosynthesis is is tested more thoroughly than basic plant morphology. This is not to take away from plant morphology which can be a course on its own.
There is a fundamental problem when we (instructors) favor these difficult subjects and often explain them in much more detail. Students start to see the components and processes as memorization tasks rather than a concept. Thus come test time, many students can regurgitate fine details but fail to explain the broader concept. When the broad principle is no longer in the minds of students then these minute details that they have memorized are worthless.
How then do we teach kids the principles and the details? given that almost all instructors are limited by time, one must choose to focus on the details or the concepts.

A good day in the field

Although rain showers were forecasted for the entire day, our time spend in the field we mostly rain free. That is not to say it was not wet. We spent about 6 hours kayaking up and down the "upper part" of the blue river. This river is one of the only  naturally un-dammed rivers in oklahoma. WHat this means is that the river has several "rapids", water moving from a higher elevation to a lower elevation in a relatively short distance. The blue river could never be a place for adrenaline junkies to seek the thrill of the white water. These "mini rapids" turned into an energy drenching barrier, requiring us to portage frequently and sometime over 100m. At least we were out of that dang poisoned ivey.

Going to the blue river tomorrow. I am pretty excited to get out of the house and away from the computer. We will be kayaking for a change which will keep us from rummaging through poison ivey and dodging cottenmouths. Hurra! I feel pretty guilty through. I should be writing my proposal. I have invested nearly every free hour into this but still feel like i have not accomplished much. I learned how bad my writing is and how shallow my scientific understanding is. It seems like no matter how much i read i can never bring myself to the cutting edge. It funny how hard i have worked to get to where i am, and yet I am so far from where i want to be. It feel like im on a never ending journey without a railing to lead me to where i need to go.

fishing

I never understood the fun in fishing. I have numerous friends that live by the phrase " a bad day fishing is better than any good day working". we can spend time arguing about this statement but to what end. its just a saying. anyway, i discovered the joy of fishing on my own. I found a fishing hook attached to some fishing line in a creek ( that my companion was sampling, see prior posts). I quickly assembled a fishing pole and got after some minnows in a shallow pool. I eventually got bored of watching them scurry around and moved to a bigger fishing hole. unfortunately the big fish were not interested in what i had to offer. so i attached a bit of my protein bar (my lunch) to the hook in hopes of getting a bigger fish to nibble on it. alas, they came out of their hiding spots, but none every took a bite. After a while i was bored, but had discovered a new hobbie. now i just have to make it legal. (im getting a license for next time) ;)

second snake encounter

About half an hour later, i had another encounter with another member of the same species. this time it was less dramatic but just as scary. I had stopped for a minute to talk with by companion who was on the other side of the river. we were shouting about this and that. when we finished saying what we had to say, i took a nice and slow step forward. at this time i watched how a fat cottemouth slithered into the water just 2 feet from my foot. It had been waiting there all along. That sucker was nearly invisible until he/she started moving. I even had been using a stick to whack the vegetation in front of me hoping that it would scare any slithery friends. Needless to say, i picked up my effort of whacking the shit out of the vegetation.

death X2

this weekend, I spent my time counting rare trees along the blue river in Oklahoma. The activity seems wquite easy when you are stiign at your desk or even when you are driving to the site. when you get to the site, i realized that it was going to be alot more difficult than imagined. these trees grow at the very edge of the river, sometimes 98% of the tree aboveground biomass is located above water. Additionally, there is dense undergrowth all along the rivers edge, a heaven for all things nasty and deadly. So, it was just a matter  of time unitl i stumbled across a fat ass cottenmouth. we were both startled by the sight of another and simultaneously jumped in the air. Unfortunately the snake jumped across the front of my body while showing me her?his wonderfully cotton colored inner mouth. I got away with a minor heart attach but thankfully unbitten. I watched the snake scurry off into its hole at the base of a rock. FUN

whatever

I am lucky to have such a good and helpful group of student in my course. They are by far the best group i have ever had. By best i mean that they interact very well with me and with other students. I find myself explaining less and less as the course progresses because they are explaining things to each other. Some students even volunteer to share their understanding of concepts in front of the entire class! It shows me that the environment is comfortable for the students and that they do not feel intimidated by me or other students. This is an experience i never had as an undergraduate. I admit that their participation is not completely altruistic fore they are looking at me to make sure that they themselves understand the concepts correctly. Either way, the student support each other and support me what i misspeak or just have a bad day. I am truly amazed of the positive attitude in my class room.

Hail to the chief

I am green. i am not talking about living green or eating green or anything related to "sustainable"  or low carbon emission. What i am talking about is inexperience. I have a four semesters of TA experience which in retrospect has given me limited wisdom. I learned how to deal with students in terms of answering questions about similar material. however, I was not responsible for teaching them the objectives. THis is proving to be one of the most difficult parts of teaching the inquiry course. Thankfully i have a mentor who is making footsteps for me to follow. I feel comfortable following these footsteps because i have a lot of the same teaching qualities. among the important ones is enthusiasm and engagement. I have learned how to engage students in a real and intense manner which i see keep students engaged and interested. I am not sure if he realizes that i see him as my mentor but given that i attend almost all of his classes, he most likely understands his role.

teaching = learning

Teaching has lead to a severe reduction of doing research because it consumes the entire morning four days a week. I did not expect to be spending so much time each day grading homework, exams and preparing for lecture. preparing lecture requires coordinating reading objectives with lab demonstrations and exercises. In addition, this is in Inquiry course so the learning is supposed to be student centered and discussions are based on their participation. My job, is to direct their participation so that they can use what they learned in their reading with the lab demonstrations to arrive at major objectives. This is easier said than done. For the most part, i have done what i think to be an adequate job at keeping this course inquiry based. At times i have accidentally undermined the inquiry process by dropping hints or jumping to the "punch line". Doing this reveals the lessons "secret" or "suspense"and the students are liable to trun their brains off after this happens. It is nearly impossible to keep the class engaged after you drop the punch line prematurely. Knowing how to prevent this from happening takes practice and preparation.

First exam for my kitties

I finally had the opportunity to assess my students and i thoroughly enjoyed it. The whole process was enjoyable even though i am short on time. I spent quite a bit of time going through my lecture notes and assigned readings to create the test questions. I had a general guideline for the type and number of questions that would compose the test in order to make sure that the students had enough time to complete the exam. unfortunately, it only took 16 mins for the first student to complete the exam. Most students finished before the end of the class period, which was part of the reason why i was surprised about the outcome. I already had an idea about how a few specific student would do given their background and class participation. However, the high grade of 91 was unexpected. In addition only two students scored in the A range. Never the less, the class average was acceptable at 78.

big mistake

When given the task of providing a study guide for your students do not cut corners and use a old study guide just to save time. More than likely the material covered during the previous class is different than what you have covered. Even worse you may emphasize different things that another teacher. Still, one thing i have going is that the course has not been revised in over 25 years. Really! the students are learning from the same setups as some of your parents have. So the content of the course has not changed much, leading me to believe that a generic study guide will be suitable. obviously this is crap. Now i am running the risk of pissing off my students  to a point where their attitudes towards me will be permanently negative. I guess the only thing to do is to send out a revised review sheet. cheers

Sea side alder 2

The seaside is facing a very difficult problem. Seedlings are unable to establish themselves, and no seedling have been seen in many many years. The alder is capable of sprouting new branches from "clumps". Theoretically, these clumps may be hundreds and even thousands of years old. Periodically stems will break or be burnt in a fire, resulting new clones re sprouting from the base.
It would be interesting to examine why no new seedlings are able to establish themselves. Previous investigations have found out that viable seeds are produced by individuals, and that germination does occur. It seems that seedlings are incapable of finding suitable micro sites.

Seaside alder 1

Last weekend i accompanied my major prof. and an undergraduate student on a filed trip to the blue river located near Tishomingo, OK. the aim was to become acquainted with the study area and study species so that the undergraduate could do research without supervision.
The study species is a very rare alder tree commonly called the seaside alder. There are three small areas in the world where this species grow. In rhode island, georgia and in oklahoma. If you are terrible with geography, these states do not share state lines, thus making the populations highly disjunct.
most scientists believe that these populations are relics and that this species range spanned most of north america before the last ice age.
We visited four populations located along the blue river and natural springs. The area is easy on the eyes and is a popular trout fisher attraction.

untitled

in recent weeks i have been watching my physical health slowly deteriorate. I used to exercise everyday, sometimes twice a day. If i am not mistaken i have exercised once in the last three weeks. I am starting to notice changes in myself like a decreased energy level, motivation and a dwindling joy in everyday life.
These days there is just too much work to be done which make fine excuses not to go for a swim or run. Unfortunately my work performance is going down the longer i do not exercise. It seems that there is a healthy balance (no shit right!) of doing "fun things" and work. The sweet spot seems to be a balance between time spent working out and time spent working. performance is jeopardized when the balance is tipped toward either end.
If you are reading this and are thinking "i hate working out" substitute working out for "playing video games" or "playing music" or whatever you like to do.
Seems like common sense right? Where exactly is this balance? I guess i need to figure that out myself.
in retrospect, this more of a motivational speech for myself than anything else.
cheers

Is there a point where a teacher can say "i have done all i can to teach XZY to you. You ability of understanding XYZ now rests in you and no longer in me" ? 

I feel like there is nothing worse for a teacher than when students are incapable of understanding a simple idea/concept or procedure that has been discussed/taught for at least one week. 

For example, think about the use of a microscope. For the last two weeks we have used a microscope every single day. I have spent an entire class period introducing the parts and the use of the microscope. We have looked at dozens of slides and discussed them in class. I expect that at this point each student can make their own slides and bring it into focus under the microscope. This is important because we have reached a point where i can no longer invest time in talking about operating the microscope because the course needs to move forward. Still this seemingly simple task has escaped more than one student. Since my job is to teach i would never utter the sentences in the first two lines of this post and I will keep explaining the principle each time it is needed. I guess this where testing comes in to play. test=my revenge

legalize my chickens

Norman just like many other cities have a strict policy about the keeping of animals other than dogs and cats. Mainly, these restrictions keep home owners from raising farm animals such as chicken or rabbits by demanding a large distance between your home and the chickens home. In norman that distance is currently 100ft. This distance requirement allows 10% of the norman population to legally raise chickens. The other 90% may not. it seems that this distance was established because of some sort of health risk that may arise f chickens are in too close of contact with humans. Strangely, large cities like Seattle, San francisco and even Oklahoma city have a smaller distance requirement. So, in areas which higher human densities the raising of chickens is allowed in a smaller proximity. does this seem counterintuitive to you? So here in Norman, 90% of the population is barred from raising chickens for what reason?  

its time that this silly city ordinance is changed and the people are returned their freedom to raise their own food. 

A forced post

I find it very difficult to write a post when i feel as though i dont have anything to share. I guess I can bore WHoever is reading this with some things that I have learned about teaching. The first thing i would like to share is that if you truly care about teaching you will find new ways of teaching the same material no matter if youve taught the same class many times. For those of you that have taught the same course for over 20 semesters, this may not apply. Just like everything in life (it seems), being good at something means learning from your own mistakes. This is a very difficult task for teachers, because there are many factors that are out of your control that influencing student learning. This may be one of the first things you need to accept about teaching.
How then, do you learn that the way you teach is useful or rubbish? The easiest method is to do a little research. you can learn from other peoples mistakes and successes in the comfort of your own home or office. Another way would be to seek advice from your mentors/ supervisors. This might be the most valuable resource since these people most likely have taught the same course you are teaching before. You can go as far  as inviting someone to sit in during a lab or lecture and "evaluate" your performance. just be sure you are open to all criticism that may come up.

4th

So as i was saying the students have gotten to know me and the way i teach at an extremely fast pace. The epiphany i had was, you have to teach using your own style, no matter how uncomfortable you are with a subject. if you don't, the student notice almost immediately and seems to make them question you even more. I am not trying to downplay the importance of listening to the advice or methods of your peers and mentors. That behavior is crucial in its own way. when it comes down to it, you have to be confident in yourself and students will react positively to it.

On a side note. If you are reading this you are probably in the same course and know why I am posting these messages. If not, you should know that as part of a writing class we are required to post 4 posts a week for credit. It point is to increase the amount of writing we do.  At first i was hesitant to post (read 1st post) but now i realize it is a great exercise.

3rd

I had an interesting epiphany today. It happened after teaching my intro to botany course this morning. I had been a TA for intro to botany for 4 semesters, so when i was asked to be an instructor for my own intro to botany course i felt confident that i would do well. As usual, things are never the way the seem at first. I have had my ups and downs, beating myself up about my teaching style and basking in the glory of a successful lesson. I am always trying to improve the way i teach and maybe more importantly the way i prepare to teach. 

This semester I am fortunate to have two veteran colleges teaching other sections of the same course right before i teach my own section. For certain subjects, I found it helpful to sit in and listen to how they run their class and go about teaching the information. Being a bit green, I try to take what i can and apply it to my own style. I have had mixed results doing this. It seems that the students understand how i am trying to teach them and they notice when i am using the teaching style of another rather than my own. for the sake of the homework i will continue in another post.....

2nd

A little information about myself.

These days I am a professional plant ecologist in training. I do not wish to talk about work at this point, rather i would like to share my other passions in life. I am recently engaged to a wonderful woman with whom i love to spend my time with. We share many similar passions, of which nature, sports and food are some big ones. 

We enjoy growing our own food and are having success even during such a year of extreme heat and drought. We also raise chickens. We have 4 chickens, two rhode island red hens (big red) and two bantam old english hens (little black). We have experienced ups and downs since we got them. 

This weekend we are finally rewarded for our hard work and monetary input through the laying of the first eggs. We have been expecting them to lay for about a week, and the chickens were getting very uneasy about what inevitably was a painful experience. more later... 

1st entry

Welcome,
This is the first of many posts about whatever. Blogging is a new experience for me. I do not necessarily enjoy putting personal thoughts or ideas into a public view. The reason is that my thoughts and ideas are almost constantly changing. A blog seems like too much of a permanent record of your ideas and thoughts. Even if you delete them from the blog, your ideas may permanently be kept by someone else.
Being fairly young, I like to think that the way i view and understand the world is naive. Therefore I certainly do not view my ideas and thoughts as permanent view points or some sort of truth. Thus blogging makes me a bit uncomfortable because, in my opinion, putting ideas and thoughts on paper adds a touch of permanency to them. So, this post may serve the purpose of a disclaimer or advice. Keep your mind open and your thoughts fluid.