Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Term is almost over!

Yay, In two weeks, I'll be flying to South East Asia for a break. I can't wait.

Today is the last day of lab practical teaching of second year undergrads. Wow, with my condition, it was quite exhausting. I had to sit down at intervals... but great that all the practicals when well, better than last year anyway. It is funny how some of the students asks such bizarre, and some just down right silly, questions. Here are some examples:

In a microbiological testing practical:
1. "How to I spread the bacteria on a petri dish with this swab?" - by swabbing the plate, maybe?
2. "How do you describe bacteria morphology?" - that's like giving you the answer to the practical question, dude.
3. "How do I get the bubbles out of the API strip?" - arrgh!
4. "I put the wrong reagent in the API strip, will it affect my test?" - what do you think?
5. "The bacteria looks round. is it?" - ...

In a molecular testing practical:
1. "Is 020 on the display mean 20 µl?" - on the P20 pipette? no!
2. "I don't have enough reagents, I think you didn't give me the right amount, is it?" - no, you were using the wrong pipette at the wrong volume.
3. "So the ethidium bromide is used for tagging the nucleotide in the sequencing reaction?" - no! did you read the practical book?
4. "why won't my sample load into the gel well?" - that's because you are stabbing the gel and so the nozzle for your sample is block.
5. "My water is frozen, what do I do?" - ... that's just the best question to ask...