Well, I'm trying one of the goofier things I've tried in my general biology class today.

You know how Skittles' tagline is "Taste the Rainbow"?

Well, today the class is going to "Taste the Kingdoms!" (or, more correctly, the Domains, we use a three-domain system now, rather than the five-kingdom system I learned).

I went to the grocery last night and found something from (I hope) each domain, and for each kingdom within Eukarya.

For bacteria, it's fairly easy: yogurt.

For archeans, I'm hoping that the halophytic organisms used to produce sauerkraut are members of that domain - I'm going to do a little quick research this morning to find out for sure. (If not, well, I can tell them that the methanogens in their guts that help them digest the food are Archeans.) I'm a little worried about the 'kraut; the only kind I could find was canned (and I was NOT paying $4 for a jar of kimchee which is similarly processed) I fear it won't be very good, but then, I also suspect that many of the students will be unwilling to try it if they don't eat it already.

Within Eukarya, there are protistans, fungi, plants, and animals.

Protistans, at least according to the textbook we use, includes algae. So I have nori seaweed (sushi wrappers) but also commercially made chocolate milk (which contains carrageenan).

For fungi, I have mushrooms and also bread, which is made with yeast. I also have a little thing of rind-y cheese that I am pretty sure is inoculated with fungi.

Plants are easy - trail mix made out of nuts and raisins. (I didn't want to go too exotic or too expensive.)

For animals, I had to think a little - while it's true that both the milk and the cheese are animal PRODUCTS, they are not actually animal TISSUE. I looked at the packages of jerky and kind of recoiled at the amount of added chemicals, and likewise for the cured meats (and besides, I just got done not too long ago with my scaremongering lecture about hot dogs and ham being potential carcinogens if you eat too many of them). So in the end, I bit the bullet, and bought a little can of the salad shrimp - which will be interesting any way, I can point out that although if you asked 100 people to "name an animal" probably at least 95 of them would name a vertebrate, most of the animals in the world are actually invertebrates. And I can also bring up the Arthropoda issue, and the idea that in some cultures, insects are eaten as we eat shrimp.

The bad news is it's the coldest day so far here, and there's a trace of snow on the ground. No schools anywhere are closed but I know the cold weather will present a convenient excuse to people who don't want to be in class anyway. So I'm fearing that attendance will be a little thin, which annoys me, after I went to a fair amount of trouble (and a little expense) to try to make the concept a little more exciting.

I don't know how the goofiness goes over - I don't know if the students are engaged by it, or oblivious to it, or annoyed by it. Some of them wear the same expression regardless of whether they've just got 20/20 or 5/20 on a quiz, or whether it's a day full 'o' lecture vs. a day where they get to do something 'fun,' so it's hard to tell.

I just remember when I was a student, my attention was caught by the profs who were willing to be a little goofy. (I had one chemistry prof, who after setting a hydrogen-filled ballon aloft in the 14-foot ceilinged classroom, then poking it with a lit splint on a long stick, grinned at the class and said, "any day I can blow something up in the name of science is a good day."). I figured that they cared so much about their subject that either they were willing to put aside their natural inhibitions, or they were so excited about it that they couldn't keep from being goofily enthusiastic about it, and that meant I should pay attention, because it's probably an exciting subject. So I'm hoping that some of that comes across to my students. (Because besides the time and the expense? I have to really work to set aside my natural reserve and shyness - and yes, in person I am actually quite quiet and shy - and free myself from my inhibitions for a few minutes in order to, say, allow myself to demonstrate a bird mating dance up at the front of the class).

Gah. Everything is moving slowly this morning - at least everything involving the Internets. My web-mail e-mail is all funked up. I'm guessing that somehow the ISP has decided to take the day off, to be lazy, because it's cold and snowy and you know, don't we deserve a day off when it's in the 30s in March?

Anyway, here are pictures:



This is the bunny made from the Wee Wonderfuls "Wee Bunny" pattern.. The fabric is "vintage" - 70s, or possibly a piece from the 60s that was saved and used (the colors look more 60s to me). These are scraps from a "top" I had as a child (I envision it as being one of those pinafore-type tops that little girls sometimes wore. I don't actually remember the garment but that was how it was described to me). I did have to lighten the photo a little; I thought it looked okay on the camera screen without flash but it was too dark when I looked at it on the computer screen.

And, I also started a new project last night:


Anyone care to guess what it will be?