Last week of externship

July 19, 2010

This is my last week in the yeast fermentation lab. I spent most of the day dismantling the fermenters, cleaning them and getting them ready for the next round. I have really enjoyed the time I spent here but realize that I was meant to be in the classroom dealing with students. Many students ask me how I can teach the same thing over and over again all day. My response is always that each class is different with different personalities and that makes each class unique. I thought that what the researchers were doing here might get monotonous, doing the same thing every day. But in conversing with them I realized that each fermentation they run is unique because yeast do not always grow the same. So they have to make adjustments to their protocol, just as I make adjustments to my lessons each period and each year. I guess teaching really is not that different because as we progress in our careers and the years add up, we become experts in our field, just as the researchers become experts at what they do. And to put this into a students perspective, as teachers we need to make our expectations known at the start of the year and allow students to grow and get better at mastering the 21st Century Skills that are so vital to their success. Having content that is focused and efficient will allow students the opportunity to master those core ideas. More later....................

Week 4

Last week was one of light bulbs going on. I had several opportunites to use many of the tools that I have been learning and using with my project. I started to feel confident in what I was doing and had to ask questions less. This was encouraging and made me think how it relates to the classroom. Students at the beginning of the year are extremely receptive to how our classroom operates and want to do things the way we ask them. This lasts several weeks until they begin to feel comfortable with us and with their surroundings. The 21st Century Skill, "Demonstrate productivity and accountability by meeting high expectations", should be at the top of my list for the first month of school. I have certain expectations as to how the classroom should operate and in order to provide a learning environment for a large number of students everyone must master this skill. Employers expect a new employee to meet their expectations and when they do this it frees the employee to become more creative in their work. Once students are at the level of meeting my expectations they can become better able to free up their creative talents and use that energy to propel them further in their education. It is difficult to advance from the basic knowledge if you don't have a firm grasp of that knowledge. Some students may require extra time and, just like I needed time to feel comfortable in the lab, those students need extra time to feel comfortable in the classroom.
The rest of this week I will be testing the yeast I grew and analyzing the results. Hopefully my results will be better than the first trial. I have learned that knowledge, time and patience are the keys to my success. In the lab we can redo experiments to improve and allow us to be more successful. How about the classroom? More later.

Week 3

I began this week working with my mentor in ironing out all the details for the week, and were there details. I didn't realize how everything that you did had to be documented extremely thoroughly. There are so many tiny details to remember that my brain is going on overload. What a great 21st Century Skill: "Demonstrate productivity and accountability by meeting high expectations." Everything I do must be documented and I am accountable for the results of my decisions and my work and I need that documentation to back up what I did because there is no way that I can remember everything. I guess one way to develop this in students is to allow them the chance to make revisions to their projects and give them the time necessary to do quality work, which I know they are capable of doing. I can already sense within myself that I am getting better performing various lab procedures. The scientists here are extremely patient with me and understanding, sometimes I need things repeated more than once. I guess students are no different and if they know what we expect they will rise to those expectations.

June 25, 2010 First 2 weeks

I have completed the first week of a 5-6 week journey that will transform me from a classroom teacher to a lab researcher. I will be working at Kemin Industries in Des Moines, IA as part of the enzyme fermentation team. As with most new ventures, I am nervous and excited at the same time. I am sort of familiar with being in a lab, but a little rusty and in need of some retraining. My first stop is HR to complete all the necessary paperwork and safety videos. After this I am provided a tour of the campus here at Kemin Industries and become familiar with the many projects that are going on here. (I had no idea what this place acomplishes and the lives they touch each day!) Finally, the lab where I will spend a majority of my vacation and the project I will be working on (I hope I don't mess up...everything looks so confusing and complicated!)

I have been busy learning new techniques and seeing what others are doing here. I shadowed one of the other researchers while he collected data on his project. There is alot of equipment that I haven't seen or used before that can be kind of intimidating. I have to put myself into the shoes of a new student who is nervous and remember that I must be patient as they learn the ropes. Everyone here has been great in explaining things to me as I take on the role of learner instead of teacher.

I have been familiarizing myself with the lab and the many procedures by making media for the other researchers as well as my own project, which I began working on this past Monday.

I see many applications of the 21st Century Skills in action here. The meeting yesterday allowed each researcher to present their project, where they were at and then the group voted on whether to keep funding it or not. It gave them a chance to collaboratively discuss issues and bring up new ideas to follow.