Kind Nature

Wumpfh..!!.  

Me: Hey Mdm Y, why you not happy ah? I said jokingly.  
Mdm Y: No lah, just swatting a fly.
Me: (on closer inspecting of the injured insect).  Eh, its one of those wasp that parasitises on cockroaches lah…. Mdm Y, its on OUR side.  Its not dead yet… I think I will rehab it.
Mdm Y:  (now feeling quite bad)  Hiyah, it should have worn a jersey saying its on our side
Another teacher: Yah, like HOME TEAM

Raucous laughter..

An hour later after the wasp goes through rehab in a vial on my desk, I decided it should partake in the education of some fine students.  It got to stay in the upper part of a test-tube and on the lower end is bicarbonate indicator with a wire gauze separating the solution and the wasp.  A few hours later the indicator turns yellow from the carbon dioxide that has dissolved in it, suggesting respiration has occurred.  This is all recorded on film.  Problem is, I didn’t have a vial without a wasp as control… so the damn indicator could have turned colour even without the wasp as a matter of time.  The wasp is then let go and flies away, recuperated from the hard whack.  Thank you wasp.

Childhood Fish tank trick does the job

Had to teach the cohesion-tension theory of how water travels up the xylem.  So I used the old fish tank trick of using a tube to suck in water from a higher container and letting it flow into a lower one.  The continuous flow of water caused by the cohesion of water molecules and the tension of the water pulling on to the lower container amused the students as the container was subsequently emptied (some had predicted that it wouldn’t be emptied).  I was quite surprised that a majority of them had not seen this done.  Where is the childhood pastime of keeping fish gone… Either that or they now use pumps or have neopets.  Of course there is a humbling experience in all this as usual, praise the Lord.  One student ask why if he sucked on a straw from a cup, the water wouldn’t flow out like a fountain….  Gravity pulls one down to earth.