This is an interesting (and from my view very inaccurate) viewpoint on many issues.
1) Yes I want the demonstrators to talk in English where possible (the students need to practice), but I have also said to the Finnish demonstrators (there are usually 2 Finns at least) that where issues cannot be explained in English then switch to Finnish to make sure the students understand.
The "admonishment" in front of students was along the lines of "In english, please". I am sorry if you found this offensive.
2) Students do not know how to use pippettes when they come to the course - it is the 1st practical course they do and the nano-drop is the 1st piece of equipment they need to use them! One of the things the demonstrators are supposed to do is show them how.
3) I agree too many people for 5 assistants, see previous comments. Even more too many for the 4 demonstrators we actually had most of the time when one of the demonstrators was not there.
4) Feedbacks went past people in the normal way as organised by Tuula. I know Feras, Dat and Francois saw at least some of them. I also know that some Biomolecules feedbacks did not go to any member of staff (at least not if there were 39 of them in total) which is another issue.
5) I am stunned by the final comment. I take safety very seriously. I do a safety session beforehand. I tell students to find out where all the safety equipment is and warn them they will be asked to leave the lab if they cannot tell me where the safety equipment is. I tell students (and demonstrators) when they are not following safe practice.
To be honest I am not even sure which incident you are refering to. The most dangerous incident last year was a mistake by the demonstrators at the end of one session that nearly caused a fire. This was discovered by somebody else and reported to Kalervo as Head of Department and Kalervo wanted to deal with it so I kept out. There were also a couple of incidents of broken glass and one dropped toxic reagent which the students were asked to keep clear of while demonstrators (myself included) tided it up. I have just asked two of the other demonstrators and they are not aware of any other incidents.
There are other issues connected with all of this, but they are best dealt with outside the list emails.
-----Original Message----- From: bklist-bounces@lists.oulu.fi [mailto:bklist-bounces@lists.oulu.fi] On Behalf Of Sanna Partanen Sent: 14. toukokuuta 2008 13:48 To: histoni@lists.oulu.fi Cc: bklist@lists.oulu.fi Subject: RE: [Bklist] more about feedback
Some feedback about biomolecules course, which I assisted first time this year.
1) language
I was only native Finn assisting these practicals... and I was NOT allowed to speak any Finnish during the course. This I did not like and I found necessary to help students in Finnish at their first lab course.. where they did not know words for equipment and glassware etc. BUT If I get caught Lloyd admonished me about it INFRONT of students. (I did not like that either).
- result. I did it anyway but "secret" and students knew it. After Lloyd or English speaking assistants advices some students still came to me to ask same question! They did not understand!
-I think it was wrong to tell me not to speak any Finnish for the first place!
2) pipetting
Students did not know how to use pipets. And we did not have time to check how many needed help in this matter. I notice this when they came to measure nanodrops...
3) too many people for 5 assistants
Days were long and we were all the time just pushing they to be quicker... So not much fun to be in lab.
4) Feedback?
At least I did not see any feedbacks after this course.. shouldn't they go past all assistants?
5) Accidents?
What is the normal behavior after something happens in student labs? I think matters should be discussed afterwards not silence. When I wanted to talk to Lloyd about the accident in labs, He behaved like there is nothing to talk! At least not with ME.
Sanna
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