I just can't handle seeing my face like that first thing on our blog. I had a paper due tonight at midnight and finished early (its 11:25 pm) so I thought I would change things up a little on our blog. I'm a TA for a freshmen biology class at BYU and have a hard time getting the students excited about biology. So I thought up the perfect way to motivate anyone to get into biology. Bright and early one Saturday morning I drove down to southern Utah with my kid brother Wayne, did a really cool hike on an 11'000 foot plateau looking down into Capital Reef National Park, and collected a bucket full of lichens to give to these kids. Not just any lichen, but Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa (the Navajos use it as a cure for impetigo and to dye wool). Anyway, I professionally curated these things and prepared to give them out to my students. I made a huge deal out of it before handing these things out to the students. I told them I had a very special gift for them. I explained the sacrifice I had made, the joy this gift would bring them, and even explained that the gift contained a certain amount of luck. Needless to say as I began distributing packets of lichens to these kids most were less than thrilled. I explained if they didn't want it they could send it home and at least let their families get a good view of a tumbleweed lichen, they could take it to church and pass it around in Elder's quorum of Relief Society when things got a little dull, or in worst case scenario(or best case) they could use it to ask out someone they've had their eye on by given this lichen to that someone with a note include saying 'I'm lichen you'. By now they were getting really excited. I told those who were married that they could give it to their spouse with a little note saying 'I'm really lichen you'. By now the married students began to blush and I offered the class a final challenge before ending the entire issue. Whoever shows there lichen to the most people, explaining that a lichen is a fungi and an algae teamed up in a symbiotic relationship (the inside of the envelope must be initialed by all viewers), wins a copy of "Common Lichens of the Rocky Mountains" signed by the author himself. The whole thing was actually really funny. I don't know why I wrote this all, but I think that I'm just glad to have my assignment off my back (remember the paper due at midnight that I mentioned at the beginning of the blog?) Sorry to have wasted your time.
10 comments:
I would so have won the lichen challenge. I can very much relate to you trying to get students to get excited about biology! I really really miss teaching and I am jealous of your job. your little rugrat is the cutest thing ever. I am so so excited to see him. I say you skip going to washington for christmas! you can stay and hang out with us.
i vote on skipping washington too. who needs washington when you have leisy and laney?
and Kent and Taylor too!!! Bah Humbug to Washington!
I think that if I had it my way no one who be happy. I would spend Christmas in a cabin (with a huge jetted tub) in some small souther Utah town spend the day hiking, come back and eat like a glutton, relax in the cozy cabin and do it all again until there wasn't any more vacation. And yes, Spokane is far from my cozy cabin in the desert.
...and far from baby Z, Kent, Leisy, Laney, and T-bones.
but hey - it's close to us!! and we are thrilled you're coming up our way.
I won't weigh in on the WA debate other than to say that Saturday they barely made it up to 20 degrees. Why not leave all the fighting and escape to the balmy weather(still hitting 60)of sunny South Carolina? Our house has a fireplace, that's kinda like a cabin! We have lichen here too!(what's it like to be fought over?)
Hey stevinsky, I gotta say you are the best TA HANDS DOWN that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing! Kudos to you!(I like your christmas idea too. Let's convince the family to do that next year!)I'll bring the spiral honey glazed ham!
I have an idea. I think that everyone is moving out of Colorado City, Arizona (the whole Warren Jeffs thing messed everything up for them). I bet we could by the entire city for what a single home costs in the Seatlle area and start a community of family and close friends. We'll never have to worry about meeting up for holidays, hiking trips, or missing each others' kids grow up. What do yu think?
(This is Derek, don't as about the account name.)I'm in on the Colorado City thing as long as you're certain the fundamentalists are in fact "fleeing." It's not only close to your cozy cabin in the desert, it's close to Gooseberry. Will Wayne be there?
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