mikes web log

I can remember a book by Clive Sutton “Words Science and Learning” where he emphasised that, in science, word are the ‘reflection of ideas’. And they are. I read this almost 14 years ago just after the book was published and here I am again tackling these statements. 

I refer back to my thoughts on ’subtractive bilingualism’. I am now beginning the process of experimenting on it, and of course started with a science example (You silly bugger). I constructed a one minute sequence on materials which described their properties. Simple things, I thought. Who would quibble about words like ‘material’,’ hard’, ‘concrete’, ‘metal’ and ‘transparent’? 

I asked a Bengali speaker to translate my 60 second speech on materials. She tried and then very soon gave up. This was done in the most polite of ways. The problem was the meanings associated with the words. You can say ‘material’ in Bengali but what does it mean? In reality it’s a bit like English. ‘Material’ in English would normally mean a fabric of some kind, in science it’s meaning is a lot broader.  How do you describe transparency when, in Bengali, there is no word for through?. You suddenly realise the power of language in science. 

I am now going to tackle the same text in Urdu. The translator in this subject has a lot more skill and I suspect I will learn a lot in the process. There is always this temptation to suggest certain courses of action which might seem easy, however in reality the solution can be immensely complex. Great. It is the recognition that is important. 

At Easter we holidayed in the Oman. It was a great holiday with a couple of interesting features. Firstly the Emirates flight from Birmingham to the Oman was 9 hours late because of technical difficulties. It didn’t really affect us as we discovered the delay before we left home so we spent the day gardening and finishing other small jobs. It did mean that we arrived at Dubai with only 15 minutes to get to the Muscat connection. We made it but our luggage didn’t so we were without luggage for 24hrs. Then there was the hotel. We were staying at a Shangri La complex which consisted of three hotels, family, luxury, super luxury. Luckily the super luxury hotel was not finished when we booked (the wife has a fixation with good hotels). But what is this… we arrive at the hotel and find that we have a free upgrade to the now finished super luxury hotel. The pile on the carpets was so deep you could have comfortably slept on them. A brilliant week, great beaches where turtles were laying their eggs, great food from a choice of eight restaurants and Muscat is a very unspoilt city. When we get home the wife discovers that our upgrade room was smaller than the original booking. The view was also not quite the same as was promised in the other hotel. The complaints went in. Result 4 free days at the hotel in the next half term holiday and free upgrades from economy to business class or business to first class on any four Emirates stages for anywhere in the world. Wow. Maybe we will be going to Australia earlier than we thought (its a four stage flight there and back). 

The Grandma of my children sent me a book recently. I am now reading in it. It’s by Oliver Sacks and his immersion in chemistry. What I cannot understand is how he lived to write it. There cannot be many chemistry teachers who do not bemoan the health and safety regulations that now control what happens in the classroom. I can still remember my chemistry teacher dropping a great chunk of sodium into a trough of water and shouting ‘duck’ and thenwatching in amazement as the small fiery pellets dropped around me and the other pupils. 

As a teacher myself I can recall the delighted screams as the chlorine + hydrogen = hydrogen chloride plastic bottle propelled itself across the classroom after glimpsing some burning magnesium. How bland the subject is now. 

Back to Sacks. Here he is at the age of 13 investigating the thermite reaction in his own home laboratory. His parents insisted that he use a downstairs room adjacent to the garden  so that any harmful experiments could easily be ejected. He can wander along to a local supplier who will sell him hydrofluoric acid and any other wonderful substance. How on earth did he survive? 

He relates his visits to his uncle who made tungsten lamps.  He played with heavy metals. They both experimented with the thermite reaction on a grand scale. This is the very reaction that helped me burn a laboratory. Wow. It’s a great read – for somebody who loves chemistry. I look forward to relating to you a little bit more about it. 

The Computers in the home project continues to develop but one can sense problems ahead. We are at last beginning to put the computers into homes however the success of this is linked to the capability of communicating effectively with the families. This is sometimes not that easy. Most of the communication has to be through the family member who is at home and there are many cases where he or she doesn’t speak English. We even have one household where the mother is deaf. We also have the second name problem where in some cases every member of the family has a different second name (surname).One way of overcoming this problem is to ‘borrow’ the child from school as I did last week. Not only did I have to borrow the child we also had to supply a table for the computer to rest on. This saw me walking down the street with table, child and mother in tandem. What did I find in the house, wireless attached but no Internet access – apparently there are teething problems!

My most worrying thing at the moment is to get the families to sign up for direct debits for the £10 a month that we will be charging them. Unless I can get about 60% of the families to sign up by the 15th August the schools lose £62,000 in elearning grants. I dont think they would be very pleased with me if that happens. At the moment I have 0% of parents signed up. Why? Firstly the arrangements with the bank have not been finalised and secondly there would not be much incentive to sign if the computers are not seen to being delivered. We do not expect them to start paying until September.

Sorry for the title but in my situation it sometimes happens. Each day is an interesting experiment with your stomach and digestive system. When you have a stomach that is in the wrong position and half its normal size it sometimes misbehaves. Today has been misbehaviour in its most interesting form. 

Before relating the day let me put forward a hypothesis: In most cases it will not happen. 

There have been many instances in my life when I have, for example double booked a meeting and then forgot to correct it. Wow, what a mess. Not to worry, 10 hours before the double booked meeting one of the participants makes their excuses. Other instances include documents that have to be in by a particular day and the target is difficult to meet. Do you admit it? No. Then the date for submission is changed. 

Today may have been a little like that. I am in a situation where I am owed about £6000 by a local authority. I have been pursuing this for about 3 months and things were getting progressively strained. Result. I decided to take them to the UK small claims court and told them this. There was then a phone call this morning saying that they were really pursuing my claim. Not sure where the invoice is, they will phone me back. No phone call. I decide to go ahead. I can do this online. Start filling in the form. Need credit card details. Suddenly find that my wallet has been stolen. When was the last time it was used? In a Subway branch in Erdington , Birmingham. So I cannot complete the form. 

Result, at 5.00 an email from the local authority saying that the money has been paid …today, and should be in my account by Monday. 

What do I end up with? An upset stomach linked to the Italian BMT and two pints of coke which cause … well you guess. 

This is a revised link to meet the needs of those who need to click on the rocks first. Perfectly admirable …I’m learning. http://www.btir.bham.org.uk/rocks/main.htm

The wife is report writing. Always a whitsun chore so we never plan to go away at this time. Maybe just visit a few garden centres. So how shall I spend my time on this cold whitsun week? I’ve just discovered this software called Mediator so that has been my plaything. It has reminded me of a past plaything called Toolbook.

One of my objectives last year (when undergoing chemo) was to master Flash. No chance, your brain is so muddled by the chemicals it is difficult enough to operate a CD Player. So I tried later (after op) and still found in mind boggling. Couldn’t cope with the timeline tool and lots of the other logic involved. I suppose I am not a logical thinker, I’m a trial and error thinker. Are they different? Need to think about that.

Anyway in the past I discovered Toolbook which allowed me to think I am a logical thinker and now i have discovered Mediator which seems to induce the same type of thinking. So see my effort at a little bit of rocks education at http://www.btir.bham.org.uk/rocks/main.htm When you realise the effort that went into it you begin to believe why you pay software companies £200 per hour.