Thursday, May 04, 2006

limited shelf life

We got a huge biotech grant for this year and were able to get a just plain silly amout of equipment. The crowning glory for this being a brand new incubator, 4 gel electrophesis kits and 20 micropipettes of varying sizes. To have all this equipment in an urban public high school is pretty much unheard of (especially because it's expenisve and needs to be handled with care).

That is basically the talk I give my first period honors bio class as I am literally unwrapping the equipment in front of them. But what I bet some of them heard was this:

Blah Blah Blah biowhat? this year and were able to get a just plain silly amout of equipment. Blah Blah new incubator, 4 something? huh? and 20 microscopes of varying sizes. To have all this stuff in the ghetto is pretty much unheard of. The shit's expenisve, ya better not break it.

In part one of the lab the kids practice pipetting, some kids are OK, some are terrible and some look like they've been doing it for years. There's the usual chatter and then I hear "dumbass!" followed by a punching sound. The group of four boys that the "dumbass" comes from becomes suspiciously silent. My limited experience has taught me that anytime high school boys yell loudly and then become mute, life is about to change.

Needless to say, we burried a brand new pipette that afternoon. It had a good life, all 25 minutes of it.

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