It has been a few days since my last post but I have been really busy with school, finishing out the end of the term!  My parents are currently on the flight to Sydney and will be traveling for the next few hours!  I'm extremely excited to see them on Friday when they arrive in Bairnsdale.

Yesterday was a busy day with two dissections in the last two classes of the day.  They year-7s were busy during their class dissecting squid and the "Animal Inside" group were dissecting mice!  I would much have preferred the mice the entire day; they didn't smell as bad as the squid and they certainly weren't as messy.  I had ink all over myself at the end of the lesson with the youngins.  Calamari certainly didn't sound great for dinner; good thing we had steak instead!

The "Animal Inside" crew really enjoyed the mice, well, at least most of them did.  A few of the students had to leave the room because they couldn't handle the dissection.  They spend the lesson on the computers doing some research on a task I gave them as an alternative to the dissection.  The rest of the students, working on the mice, did a fantastic job!  I was really impressed with their keenness to preform the task.  I dissected a rat, along with the students, to help them with the procedure.  Before making any cuts in the mice, I gave the students a demo of how to preform each of the necessary cuts.  I probably should have worn gloves looking back; my hands still smell of feral animal.

Today, the students in "Bones" finished up their projects on the computer.  Unfortunately, a few of them were having computer issues and weren't able to finish on time.  At least they have the next two weeks until they see me next in class, so they have plenty of time to complete the assignment.  Students were told that they could make any additions to their site over break if they wanted to make them look better.  If you would like to see some of their progress, you can go to www.bscbones.weebly.com

One of the students put together the home page today after he finished his project.  He put together all of the hyperlinks to the rest of the students' sites; I was quite impressed!  

I arrived home today and started the laundry so I have fresh clothes when I leave for Melbourne on Sunday with my parents.  I also submitted my project to Miami; I'm so relieved that it's done! 

Tomorrow I only have one class and then will be swamped with grading and then parent-teacher conferences after school until 8 or so.  I'm excited to meet students' parents but am a little nervous since they are my first ones.  I'm sure they'll go well and there will be a lot to take from the experience!

And back to the grind after a nice weekend!  I was delighted to see the Australian sun again this morning when I woke up!  It’s nice to wake up to the sunlight coming through the windows rather than the rain clinking on the roof. 

Last night, I decided at the last minute to do my laundry banking on the forecast of good weather to come!  I chose the perfect time to do it since it is supposed to rain later this week.  By the time the laundry was done, it was dark out, and I was ready for bed.  I wasn’t able to take it down from the line until this afternoon; I’m glad the weather held up during the day.  What am I saying?  The weather should always hold up in Australia!  I’ve noticed just the opposite; in fact, much a lot of Victoria and New South Whales has received wet weather over the past few weeks.  There are a lot of people in these areas who have had to evacuate due to flooding.  Apparently, Sydney had to open the dam to let the water through, a first since in the 21st century (according the news on television, the last time was in the 90s)!

I certainly felt the bike ride this morning when I woke up.  My legs were sore and the ride to school was somewhat of a struggle.  I’m hoping to get over this by biking a 30 km ride once a week.  Next time I will take my camera; hopefully I will see some more wildlife.  I think I’ve become addicted to the bike…certainly not a bad thing.

The first few periods were used to plan the week.  I spent much of it working on the assignment that I am distributing to the students while they are at the zoo.  The first task asks that they each bring a camera with them (a phone will suffice) on the rip.  I am asking that each of them take at least 20 pictures of various animals.  I will have the students use the pictures that they take next week and will ask that they construct a dichotomous key using a concept map software on the school computers.  They will be asked to organize the organisms based on their prior knowledge and on the knowledge that they learned while at the zoo.  I’m really excited to see the products of this task because each of the students will have a different representation. 

The next task will ask the students to find examples of homologous structures in a few of the animals at the zoo.  This won’t be a hard task but it will allow them to think in an evolutionary perspective when they are observing the various animals; kind of like Chuck!  This is certainly a skill zoologists use in their field studies, and one that I use all the time when I’m outside and see something new!  I especially like to use this evolutionary perspective when fishing.  The other day when I caught the Australian Salmon, I could right off the bat tell that it wasn’t a true salmon based on a few of the characteristics that I knew of true salmonids that you would find in the Northern Hemisphere.  Like many animals in Australia, Arripis trutta was named the by early European settlers because of a few similar characteristics it had with fish belonging to the Salmonidae family.  Truly, the Australian Salmon is a marine perch. 

The next task that I will ask of the students is that they observe the zoo characteristics very closely.  I want them to see how the animals are enclosed and the considerations that the zoo makes to ensure the safety of the animals and the people who visit the zoo.  I am more concerned with the safety of the animals than the people.  I am curious to find if the students see the zoo as a benefit to the community.  In my opinion, the true value of a zoo depends on a few things.  For one: the location.  A zoo in a developed country like Australia will certainly be better sustained, and will have facilities to humanely sustain the animals, than one is say Romania.  I have been to a Romanian zoo and will never go back again.  And two: the space that the animals are given.  I would expect that a zoo would allow each animal enough room to do what it needs to do to live comfortably.  On the opposite end of the spectrum from zoos, the safari reserves in Africa allow the animals to roam their native ecosystem and allow them to fill their natural niches without too much disturbance.  I do see the benefits of a zoo but it just isn’t like the real thing (see the pictures from South Africa and Namibia)…I’m curious to find out what the students think.

The final task will ask the students to reflect on their trip.  I’m curious to see what the students find to be interesting and exciting.  I’m hoping that the students will get back from the zoo with hundreds of questions about what they saw and what they learned!  This will indicate to me that the trip was a success!  I can’t wait until Friday!

The rest of the planning period time was used to plan some of the other classes.  I had “Bones” in the afternoon.  The students were still struggling with the maths associated with the levers but I’m getting the impression that more and more are starting to understand.  The next class period will be devoted to tying the maths with skeletal system with a model.  Eventually, I will ask the students to build a model lever based on one that can be found on the human body.  Should be interesting!

Tomorrow is another busy day at school!  I have 3 periods on and will be teaching all of my classes besides “Bones.”  The year-11s will be working on finishing up the practical that they left last week.  I will also ask them to discuss why cells are small.  This, of course, will lead into a discussion about surface area to volume ratios and the importance of having a large ratio as opposed to a small one.  Cells with a small ratio will not be able to get substances quickly from their environment needed for reactions inside the cell.  Also, they won’t be able to get rid of wastes quickly (as volume increase, surface area doesn’t increase to the same proportion therefore larger cells have smaller SA:V).  I’m hoping the students come to the conclusions on their own with a few prompting questions and models.

The “Animal Inside” class will be working on differentiating a hindgut from a foregut and the importance of each.  They will also be able to discuss which types of animals have each.  It is a great comparative digestion lesson.  I want the students to leave class knowing that “hindgut fermenters” have symbiotic bacteria in the caecum and proximal colon, which ferments some of the herbaceous material into absorbable fatty acids that the animal uses as energy.  They will know that “foregut fermenters” have a similar process except that the fermentation happens prior to the ingested material going through the stomach and are much more efficient than the “hindgut fermenters.”  This is why you may observe elephants, horses, or guinea pigs (all “hindgut fermenters” practicing coprophagy (http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/coprophagy).  This allows the animals to reuptake the bacteria that may have been lost from the colon, and allows them an attempt to digest the undigested material that passed right through…now you know…I’m sure the students will find this interesting!

I’m exhausted and am off to bed, big day tomorrow!

Happy Monday America!  Happy Tuesday Australia!

Last night was a lot of fun!  We started the night at The Main Hotel Bistro in town.  I ordered the chicken parmesan and a pint of James Boag's, a Tasmanian beer that I have become fond of.  The chicken was great but the beer was better, especially after the long week!  The conversation between the 20 of us at the table ranged from politics to education to sport, three things I feel strongly about!  

After dinner, we moved to the pub side of the bistro and played a few games of pool!  I managed to squeeze a drink out of one of the locals!  It was pretty funny.

After a drink or two at the pub, we walked over to the mexican restaurant to finish our night with a Corona, a little taste of home.  By the end of the night, there were only about 8 of us left!  

I slept in this morning and took a bike ride after breakfast.  I took the road down to the river and followed the bike/walking trail along the river for a few kilometers and headed home.  It was by far the best bike ride I've taken since I've been here.  In the next few weeks, I plan to take my camera with me to take pictures of the area around where I am staying.  

I came home to a nice lunch consisting of turkish bread and various lunch meats and cheeses.  After lunch, I remembered that I was out of underwear and needed to do my laundry...I'm glad I remembered.  After finishing two loads and hanging up my clothes, I was asked if I wanted to go for a drive.  

Domenic, my host, and I walked out to the garage where he asked if I wanted to drive.  Who me? On the wrong side of the road?  Sure, why not!  At first, it was as if I had never driven before.  What the hell am I supposed to do.  The thought of learning how to drive again was racing through my head.  STAY ON THE LEFT, STAY ON THE LEFT, STAY ON THE LEFT.  It really wasn't that hard, but I had to think about making turns, especially going right crossing over traffic.  

I started off driving to the Bairnsdale Oval to watch some of the local cricket competition but unfortunately they were in the middle of tea break.  We then left to go to the other oval in town to kick around the Aussie Rules football.  It wasn't as easy at it looked and there was definitely a technique involved.  After a while I got the hang of it.  We then got out the boomerang.  We weren't so successful with this.  In fact we never even succeeded.

It was time to head back to the Bairnsdale Oval to watch cricket.  I parked the car along the fence, facing the field and watched from the comfort of the car.  Only in Australia!  We were happy to see a few wickets and a couple of fours but we weren't able to see any sixes.

I'm home now for the rest of the day.  I think I'm going to start some work to get up to speed for next week.  

While some of my week's worth of laundry is in the wash, I will reflect on my day.  It's really hard to believe that I've been in Oz for a week now.  The longer I'm here, the more I love it.  There is so much to do and I'm worried that I won't be able to do it all while I'm here!  

Today was the first day of school for the students at BSC.  After arriving, they congregated in various areas of the school for assemblies to welcome them back minus a few seventh graders had a hard time coping within the first few hours.  They could be seen throughout the day crying outside of the administration office due to the difficult transition.  I'm sure they'll find their niche within the next few days.

The assembly ended and students were asked to go to their first class.  It was the first and only class for me today, across campus at the science center, where all of my classes will be held.  "Animal Inside" is designated as a big picture physiology class focusing on the differing systems of animals.  It should be a fun class; I'm going to enjoy coming up with lessons!  I will be taking over the class relatively soon and will be responsible for teaching the digestive system.  Logically, I will start with the mouth.  It wouldn't make much sense to start at the other end.  

A couple of the students were interested if I knew or had met Zac Efron.  Who the hell is that?  I hope he's not the only American that they know of!  Maybe if they knew that the population of the USA is a little over three hundred million (Google), they may reason that the chances of knowing some guy is slim to none; even though I met Bill Clinton one time. Regardless.  One of the students asked if Ohio was in Texas.  Nope.  All were very kind and were very interested in where I came from.

After class, I made it over to the junior campus to start working on lesson planning and organizing my week ahead.  Its going to be busy but I have the new staff initiation at the local pub to look forward to next friday evening!  It sounds a little like grown-up hazing to me, but what the heck.  I was also invited to go camping next weekend with my cooperating teacher and her husband; Mom, Dad, aren't you proud!  My parents aren't into camping, but I'm more than open to the idea and would love to spend a night among snakes, spiders, and mozzies.  For us Americans, a mozzie is a mosquito in Australian.  Yes, I'm aware they speak English, but it feels like another language sometimes.  It was extremely nice to be invited to such occasions!

With a few lessons figured out for the next few weeks, I headed back over to the science center to observe another class after being invited by my other cooperating teacher.  This one, "The Origin of Species," was definitely right down my alley.  If I was a scientist in the 19th century, you could bet that Chuck Darwin and I would be great friends.  I am going to do my best to take over this class too, only if the workload of my other classes doesn't get too cumbersome.  I know I could handle it.

If you haven't noticed my Little Survey and Quiz to the right of this blog, I ask that you take part.  I also ask that you don't look up the answer to the quiz.  The answer will be given whenever you click "Submit".  (IF YOU ARE LOOKING AT THIS WONDERING WHAT THE HELL IS HE TALKING ABOUT, ITS BECAUSE I'M ALREADY HOME AND WROTE THIS POST MONTHS AGO AND MORE THAN LIKELY TOOK IT DOWN)

Laundry is done so I'm off to hang it up to dry overnight.  Primitive, huh?  I prefer it this way, you don't have to iron! It also saves energy, a prized commodity in Oz.