Today the weather is terrific (it was all weekend, actually) - you can tell that spring is on it way. It will reach nearly 80 degrees and is beautifully sunny. I have seen students ranging from small sundresses to winter sweaters and scarves - some who have the mentality it is winter and others that are ready to celebrate the summer sun.
Fashion on campus is always interesting to see. We have everything from very rustic practical dress (similar to the countryside in france when I lived there, corduroy pants and a wool sweater, nice quality, but worn and bland), to high fashion, to hippy. I enjoy seeing the people who have touches of high fashion with their rustic practical clothes, for instance a gauzy/lacy blouse peaking out from a warm winter sweater.
Last week was fashion week in Cape Town. I tried to get tickets but it was all sold out. I thought it would have been fun, as well as a great statement of my broad interests to go to Kruger and a fashion show in the same week :) I could spend some serious money at some of the shops here getting totally sheik things, but I need to restrain - I still have to pay off the safari!!!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Nice weekend
I'm TRYING to keep up the hard work I did the first week I was here... However, there was just too much fun to be had this weekend!
Saturday, my host, his cousin (a psych prof) and I went hiking at Silvermine. We did an awesome hike that I remembered well from last year. It was nearly a 5 hour hike with some stops for views, photos, picnic lunch, and dessert. This hike is south of the city center, toward cape point, so when you go up the mountain you can see ocean (and false bay) in nearly every direction. There were a few flowers coming up, and the sun was wonderful. When we were at the top, though, big cloud blew in and it suddenly got cold! Good thing we were scrambling up and down a ravine and getting good exercise because it kept us warm :)
Sunday, my friend took me to Hermanus, which is a breeding ground for whales. He has seen as many as 20-30 in the harbor there at one time. There were 4-5 that we could see, and one did some nice jumps out of the water for us. I could easily see them spewing water out their blow holes, and we could hear them making noises which was super cool!! We stayed there several hours enjoying the sun and view - I could have stayed until sunset! (By the way, whales are hard to photograph!! I did get some video...)
I had to get home though, for the Sunday night dinner and scrabble game with my host's cousin (a different one from the hike). I lost again, but not quite as horribly as I did the last game two weeks ago. I started the game off with a bingo (all 7 tiles laid at once) and 82 points. I quickly lost my lead though, and the final scores were ~188, 250, 290! My host kicked our butts again... Apparently when I'm not around his cousin usually wins - so there is a conspiracy theory that I am helping him :) Not true! I am just still not that good at the game... I may have done a better job of keeping my lead last night if I had any tiles all night worth more than 4 points, but alas, no :(
Saturday, my host, his cousin (a psych prof) and I went hiking at Silvermine. We did an awesome hike that I remembered well from last year. It was nearly a 5 hour hike with some stops for views, photos, picnic lunch, and dessert. This hike is south of the city center, toward cape point, so when you go up the mountain you can see ocean (and false bay) in nearly every direction. There were a few flowers coming up, and the sun was wonderful. When we were at the top, though, big cloud blew in and it suddenly got cold! Good thing we were scrambling up and down a ravine and getting good exercise because it kept us warm :)
Sunday, my friend took me to Hermanus, which is a breeding ground for whales. He has seen as many as 20-30 in the harbor there at one time. There were 4-5 that we could see, and one did some nice jumps out of the water for us. I could easily see them spewing water out their blow holes, and we could hear them making noises which was super cool!! We stayed there several hours enjoying the sun and view - I could have stayed until sunset! (By the way, whales are hard to photograph!! I did get some video...)
I had to get home though, for the Sunday night dinner and scrabble game with my host's cousin (a different one from the hike). I lost again, but not quite as horribly as I did the last game two weeks ago. I started the game off with a bingo (all 7 tiles laid at once) and 82 points. I quickly lost my lead though, and the final scores were ~188, 250, 290! My host kicked our butts again... Apparently when I'm not around his cousin usually wins - so there is a conspiracy theory that I am helping him :) Not true! I am just still not that good at the game... I may have done a better job of keeping my lead last night if I had any tiles all night worth more than 4 points, but alas, no :(
Observations on observations...
While I was in Kruger, I had a lot of time to think and learn about observing and learning new things. There were a few specific experiences I had that prompted these thoughts. First, I was trying to learn new birds and to identify trees. I found that I had been trying to look at characteristics that were not defining in order to tell them apart, rather than characteristics that are more appropriate. The color of a bird's wings is less telling than the length of their legs, and the shape of their beak. Those things tell about their habitat and feeding habits. The color is pretty, but not necessarily defining - what if the bird is female or adolescent? They won't have the same color as the male shown in the birding book's artist rendition! Once I knew what to look for, it started to make more sense and I was able to learn more. With trees, the shape of the bark and the color of it is more important than the shape of the branches, which had previously held most of my attention. It's also hard to say something about "pointy leaf shape" if you don't have other leaf shapes to compare to, so being able to identify requires familiarity with a range of similar things. The other thing that really got me thinking about this was when we saw a dwarf mongoose run across the road quickly. If you had asked me what it was, I would have said it was a squirrel, because they are similar sized and scurry in a similar manor and are both brown. Because I am not familiar enough with the mongoose characteristics, my brain saw "small, scurrying, brown" and filled in the details that I am familiar with.
This is really interesting for me as an education researcher. It is well known that students will sometimes say they saw something different happen in a physics demonstration from what actually happened. This is known as "confirmation bias" - students will think what they thought would happen did actually happen. My favorite physics education person also says that when showing students a new phenomenon to observe, it is important to point out to them what to pay attention to. They won't know what details to focus on. I always thought it was kind of cheating to point out what to look for - but now I see it's important. If I wasn't pointed out what aspects of birds and trees to look for I would not have been able to start learning about them. (It's also funny how this ties into Ontology - how we characterize what is fundamental - which I've been discussing in detail with my host's masters student...)
Those are my thoughts on this, anyway. I always find that pushing myself to learn something new that I find difficult helps me learn about my students and is really beneficial.
I hope I have typed this clearly... All year they have been doing renovations to the physics building at UCT, and currently they are hammering right outside my window... The first day I was here there were 4 guys on scaffolding looking in the window at me - kind of creepy!
This is really interesting for me as an education researcher. It is well known that students will sometimes say they saw something different happen in a physics demonstration from what actually happened. This is known as "confirmation bias" - students will think what they thought would happen did actually happen. My favorite physics education person also says that when showing students a new phenomenon to observe, it is important to point out to them what to pay attention to. They won't know what details to focus on. I always thought it was kind of cheating to point out what to look for - but now I see it's important. If I wasn't pointed out what aspects of birds and trees to look for I would not have been able to start learning about them. (It's also funny how this ties into Ontology - how we characterize what is fundamental - which I've been discussing in detail with my host's masters student...)
Those are my thoughts on this, anyway. I always find that pushing myself to learn something new that I find difficult helps me learn about my students and is really beneficial.
I hope I have typed this clearly... All year they have been doing renovations to the physics building at UCT, and currently they are hammering right outside my window... The first day I was here there were 4 guys on scaffolding looking in the window at me - kind of creepy!
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