Exploring the Boundary of Bad

Teaching is kind of fun. Well in some ways it is really stressful and serious and important, but in other ways it is like the gag reel of an intellectual comedy. I am getting used to having a million people asking me questions at once, and then long periods of boredom. I am also getting real comfortable with helping other people deal with their scientific problems. I like these problems, because they aren't mine.

Today's lab had a fairly simple task- a diagnostic and a real procedure to do in parallel. By half way, it became apparent that there were several failures, from some of my better students. So I starting thinking, "what could I have messed up for these guys that caused everyone to fail?" But when we noticed that there were all different manners of failure, I was real excited to figure out how they messed up (because I didn't mess up).

My students found some really inventive ways to botch today's procedure. This sort of stressed out Dr. Teacher, but for some reason doesn't bother me at all. I thought it would. I have no doubt that we are getting something through to them, and that making some of these weird but easy mistakes will mean they never mess it up again. Like, how 10X buffer has to be diluted before you can add enzymes to it, or you need a whole gel for electrophoresis. Maybe it is because I have learned a lot from the variety of mistakes I've made over the years, and that none of the mistakes I say today were expensive. It makes it really easy for me to be super level-headed in the face of chaos. That, and I am too tired to get to worked up about things that aren't REALLY worth the energy.