This time it's the Feather 'n' Fur Animal Hospital of 9125 Manchaca Rd. I got into a conversation with them last December when I realized how much microscopy they do - - counting white cells, examining tissue samples, etc. One of these weeks I'm going to get around to buying a good batch of stains so we can prepare really vivid slides for class, but in the meantime they volunteered to give me some nicely stained genuine veterinary slides for the class. So I brought in a blood smear and a little ear cytology slide.
One of the K students brought in a splendid gastropod fossil, but somehow immediately segued to arthropods, and so we learned a little bit of greek (arthros, pod, gastros) and somehow ended up talking about scorpions. They do love to tell personal stories in these classes, and last time I checked my Official Theory Of Learning, I think it said that when the lesson becomes personal then the learning becomes permanent. Not only were we regaled with everyone's tales of Scorpion Encounters, but one of us claimed to have a house and yard practically chock full of the little critters. Now if that is you, please do send one in for class (feel free to kill it first if you like), because I have a UV light and it is really quite neat seeing how scorpions fluoresce in UV light.
So there you have it - - once again the K ran out of time without even getting to the Question Box. We'll have to start the class next week with the Q B.
The EE class is divided into two sections - - half the class has Science Guy while the other half has Gardening Gal, then they swap - - and it's funny sometimes how the two sections will take off in different directions from the same starting point. After sharing today's news (Possible Breakthrough Malaria Vaccine), and the first couple questions, one group got onto Black Holes and - - that was it - - you get somebody excited about Black Holes (and light and perception and gravity and density) and they don't want to talk about anything else for the rest of the day.
The second group marched cheerfully through their questions and moved on to the microscopy instead. Of course they all want More Power in the microscope, so if you find an opportunity on a nice 1000x oil-immersion scope (stereo, with the nice wheel-driven platform), or a cheap used electron microscope, don't let it get away. (While you're at it, we could really use a particle accelerator around here).
By the way, I heard a glimmer of interest last fall about First Robotics competition. At the time things were too hurried and maybe most of our group too young. But I wonder if now is the time to start thinking about it for next fall?
