Subliminal messages

Received feedback from last semester's teaching. I dragged my feet getting around this as I wasn't looking forward to it. Not that I'm expecting bad news or low scores (FYI BioD TAs get some of the best teaching scores amongst faculty staff!), it's not something I want to think about at this point in time. Same for letters from the Registrar's Office. There's a pile sitting on my dresser, unopened. I know what's in it anyway... blah blah.. your candidature expires on this day of this month...I know its contents.. I just don't want to see it all the time.

I finally got around to seeing my feedback because Reena had printed them all out and it seemed like a shame if I didn't go up to get it from her. A new level of slackness. Its all there! All you have to do is go up one floor into her office. So I did.

What a bunch of nice Year 1s I have! Apart from a couple of negative comments (Too serious [Whaaa?], be more approachable and friendly [I suppose that's a comment about my dao face] the rest were all good.

Knowledgeable, well read, nice to be around with, able to make connections to real life examples, interactive, frank and the last one, gives cross disciplinary examples to illustrate her points. I was baffled by that last one "What have I been babbling to my students??!?!"

I thought about it for a while and I think it could be on our field trip to the zoo. You see, I had prepared myself prior by watching the Life of Mammals. It wasn't homework per se. I was rather enjoying it (David Attenborough Documentary Extravaganza! - my idea of a good time when you're broke and need to be in the lab anyway) and when we were at the zoo, my head was chockful of little nuggets of trivia.

I got them thinking about why ungulate young are ready to prance about within hours of birth whilst those from other mammal orders are born blind, hairless and helpless.

I made them stand in front of the zebra and impala exhibit to tell them how the entire form of these mammals are made for life on the run. I described to them big cat hunting strategies (taking prey by surprise because they are sprinters while their prey are better at sustaining a run), power vs agility, how even eye position matters, and pros and cons of having spindly legs (less weight to lift with each stride, but more prone to buckling under and losing balance).

I talked about correlation of testicle size with body mass in primates and its correlation with different mating systems. And why would it matter, I asked my class. Of course they didn't know, but they were enthralled. After all.. it is a *cough* sexy topic. Sperm competition hypothesis, folks.

Placentals and marsupials, which is the 'better' mammal? Why? It was great introducing them to the basics of biogeography and convergent evolution.

I didn't think I was doing anything. I learnt from the Life of Mammals little bits of interesting facts that I simply wanted to share with them, because I don't think the majority of my students know who David Attenborough is, much less watch his documentaries. It was lots of extra bits of information which didn't seem necessary and I was afraid my class would think I was being a first rate bore because at times it did appear as if I was talking to myself, but judging from these comments, perhaps it did pay off.. some of them were listening to my incessant chattering about this and that (not in the notes) and actually enjoyed it.

Perhaps I will suggest to the Biodiversity coordinators to open up the lab once a week during lunch time for an episode from the Life series (I have the DVDs after all) for 1103 students. Even if a handful showed up and benefited, I'm sure it will be well worth the effort. Got to get 'em before they succumb to the dark force of proteomics or Arabidopsis/Yeast/Zebrafish research!