Rest of the week [teaching]
Apr. 24th, 2021 03:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterTo call this a hectic week wouldn't do it justice.
On Monday, packages arrived containing a whole bunch of takeaway containers, and four of those under-bed plastic storage bins.
A good thing, too, because we needed the takeaway containers for lab on Tuesday: it was the week for starting our project on nutrition and exercise in crickets, and the takeaway containers are housing for the crickets, as previously illustrated.
I had a set of takeaway containers from 2 years ago, but then made the mistake of loaning them to myself in another course, and so now I have a bunch of lids for takeaway containers that I'm never going to get back.
Oh well.
On Thursday morning, I somewhat frantically biked over to the Home Despot in the desperate hope that they would have an ample supply of terra cotta pots. Thankfully, they did, because later that day, another package arrived, containing two dozen live crayfish as well as a dozen live frogs.
Here's what it looks like when you get live crayfish shipped to you:
(well, after you've opened the box inside of the box)
I'm grateful for my time as a ceramicist, because that means that I know a lot about how to cut ceramics and I also own the appropriate diamond-bit tools for the job. Sometime later in the day on Thursday, I had a set of hiding spots for crayfish:
but avoided giving myself silicosis or other troubles related to cutting terra cotta:
Crayfish in one of their bins:
(I think I need to create some bin dividers, though, so they don't attack each other nonstop)
Crayfish bins in front, frog bins in back:
Opening up a box of a dozen frogs is...an experience. None of them escaped too far, at least.
On Friday I learned that crayfish can sometimes climb the "Hang on back" styles of filters:
I learned this because a colleague who teaches another class in the Animal Phys lab came up to me at the end of her lab on Friday with a crayfish in a makeshift container. It had apparently escaped overnight and was wandering around the lab where her students noticed it in the morning. They collected it up and named it "Nephron" because they were in the midst of learning about kidney function.
I still need to figure out the best kind of pump/filtration system for the crayfish in the bins. There were a bunch of sponge pump/filter things in the lab, but as best as I can tell they aren't really doing much for the crayfish. I am probably going to get rid of them soon because I think they're mostly just taking up space at this point.
Somewhat related: my Bicycling class this past Tuesday was a bicycling rodeo to have students check their bike handling skills. So the Thursday trip to the Home Despot was actually the second trip in a week - on Sunday I went searching for sidewalk chalk and struck out, so I decided to at least purchase a couple of traffic cones.
The traffic cones amuse me greatly, for a long list of reasons. My research lab space is pretty junky and full, but it makes me so happy to have traffic cones, a big roll of brown kraft paper, a GOOD Dremel, and the drill press in there, among no small number of other things.
There are three bicycles back there right now, and my good bike stand plus a cheapo crappy bike stand out of frame.
Eventually I'll probably move out more of the plant ecology supplies that I don't plan on using, at least.
On Monday, packages arrived containing a whole bunch of takeaway containers, and four of those under-bed plastic storage bins.
A good thing, too, because we needed the takeaway containers for lab on Tuesday: it was the week for starting our project on nutrition and exercise in crickets, and the takeaway containers are housing for the crickets, as previously illustrated.
I had a set of takeaway containers from 2 years ago, but then made the mistake of loaning them to myself in another course, and so now I have a bunch of lids for takeaway containers that I'm never going to get back.
Oh well.
On Thursday morning, I somewhat frantically biked over to the Home Despot in the desperate hope that they would have an ample supply of terra cotta pots. Thankfully, they did, because later that day, another package arrived, containing two dozen live crayfish as well as a dozen live frogs.
Here's what it looks like when you get live crayfish shipped to you:
(well, after you've opened the box inside of the box)
I'm grateful for my time as a ceramicist, because that means that I know a lot about how to cut ceramics and I also own the appropriate diamond-bit tools for the job. Sometime later in the day on Thursday, I had a set of hiding spots for crayfish:
but avoided giving myself silicosis or other troubles related to cutting terra cotta:
Crayfish in one of their bins:
(I think I need to create some bin dividers, though, so they don't attack each other nonstop)
Crayfish bins in front, frog bins in back:
Opening up a box of a dozen frogs is...an experience. None of them escaped too far, at least.
On Friday I learned that crayfish can sometimes climb the "Hang on back" styles of filters:
I learned this because a colleague who teaches another class in the Animal Phys lab came up to me at the end of her lab on Friday with a crayfish in a makeshift container. It had apparently escaped overnight and was wandering around the lab where her students noticed it in the morning. They collected it up and named it "Nephron" because they were in the midst of learning about kidney function.
I still need to figure out the best kind of pump/filtration system for the crayfish in the bins. There were a bunch of sponge pump/filter things in the lab, but as best as I can tell they aren't really doing much for the crayfish. I am probably going to get rid of them soon because I think they're mostly just taking up space at this point.
Somewhat related: my Bicycling class this past Tuesday was a bicycling rodeo to have students check their bike handling skills. So the Thursday trip to the Home Despot was actually the second trip in a week - on Sunday I went searching for sidewalk chalk and struck out, so I decided to at least purchase a couple of traffic cones.
The traffic cones amuse me greatly, for a long list of reasons. My research lab space is pretty junky and full, but it makes me so happy to have traffic cones, a big roll of brown kraft paper, a GOOD Dremel, and the drill press in there, among no small number of other things.
There are three bicycles back there right now, and my good bike stand plus a cheapo crappy bike stand out of frame.
Eventually I'll probably move out more of the plant ecology supplies that I don't plan on using, at least.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 08:07 pm (UTC)Gotta say that's way more busy than I'd want to be!
Also, that last crayfish picture is somehow remarkably communicative.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 10:21 pm (UTC)It does! (My reference is livestock and the well-pump, but much of a muchness from this angle.)
Not sure if in unplagued times you'd have help, but unboxing frogs and crickets in the same space has to be a challenge. Having to do it by yourself seems excessive.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 10:55 pm (UTC)Thankfully it wasn't a completely simultaneous unboxing - more of a serial unboxing!
no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 10:57 pm (UTC)Sadly these ones will soon become food. It is just too much to care for them on top of all the other critters. But we will enjoy their presence and personalities while we can, and thank them for their contributions to science and education.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 01:35 am (UTC)Thank you for your help. I yelled at Roz to do the push up too since I wasn't hauling the kayak alone!
no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 01:18 pm (UTC)I have NEVER been good at pushups. I think it's one of those things where they don't really get easier, but you do get stronger from doing them.
Do it, Roz, do itttttttt!!!!
:^)
no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 09:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-25 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-26 01:02 am (UTC)If in the future you are in need of plastic takeout containers, let me know. I save them and have several year's worth (dishwasher sanitized) and don't need them all.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-27 01:40 am (UTC)Crayfish is a cutie!