PBL Tutor Training - Playing Med-Student

Today I had my first of two PBL Tutor Training workshops. What are PBL tutor training workshops you might ask? Well, the Med school at UBC teaches their undergraduate med students using PBL (problem based learning). The students are put into PBL groups (around 7 students), and they are given a tutor whose job is to facilitate the learning process of the students in the PBL group. The tutor's role is not to teach, but to give direction - to aid the student's own learning. These PBL tutors may be physicians, instructors, or researchers, and they need to be trained on how to tutor the PBL tutorial. In order to train these tutors, they need mock med-school students. That's where I came in. They asked students in the pre-med/pre-dental club to come and help the Faculty of Medicine train their PBL tutors. It involes 1 hr of training, 6 hrs of tutorial (split over two sessions), and approximately 1-2hrs of independent study between tutorial one and two. For all this I get $100. Not too shabby, if I can say so myself.
So, as I mentioned, today I had my first session. The problem we were given was about a man in the ER who had just been in a motor vehicle accident. He was having trouble breathing, and the problem seemed to be focused on his left chest. All we did was work through the problem, taking the information we were given, trying to figure out what the learning issues were (things which we needed to go and learn/research), formulating a hypothesis, and asking what further information could we use. We made it half way through the case (page 2 of 3). So now we've been sent off to study up for the Thursday session. I really like this PBL system of learning: whenever I take responsibility for my own learning, I find that I actually learn and understand material, as opposed to passive listening in lectures or passive reading. This is also a nice taste of what preclerkship at most med schools will be like; as far as I know all the major Canadian medical schools have gone to the problem-based learning method. All in all, well worth it. And did I say a hundred bucks=]

Oh, and my money is down on pneumothorax - collapsed lung. However, as the training told us, the point of these PBL sessions is to lead students to study the physiology and anatomy of the system(s) involved. The clinical aspect is nice, but not the real focus. But still, my money is down.

Cheers for now,
Afra

Argg! GPA Insanity

I need to maintain a 3.8 GPA to be competitive for med school admission.

A THREE POINT F'IN EIGHT!!!

Shoot me now.

Year one and two are over. Those marks are set in stone: I'm squeaking by (barely, depending on weighting policies of different med schools). The up side is that really, my third year is the last year med school admissions will look at. By the time fourth year rolls around, I'll already have submitted my transcript and application to med schools (like September/October is the deadline). So this year I really need to shine in school. Yarg!!

Shoot me now.

Welcome to 20 - Thanks to all!

Officially no longer a teenager. I don't think anyone has called me a teen since I left high school, but hey, at least now you can't call me one.

I had a great time last night. Thanks Eug for setting up the restaurant and reservations and stuff, I really appreciated that bro. And thank you all who joined us; I hope you guys had a good time with some great food and wonderful wine. Hopefully your bank accounts can recover from last night.

Anyways I'm off to UBC for a seminar on admission to Medical Schools.

See ya'll around,
Kev

It Has Begun

I finally went and picked up an MCAT preparation book. The thing is a monster, over a thousand really, really, big pages. And my, is there a lot of material to be covered. Most of it seems familiar: stuff from high school and lower division sciences. I think most of my studying for the MCAT will consist of re-lighting memory pathways in my brain which have fallen into disuse.

I have even prepared a plan of attack. I'm going to spend time each weekday (Mon-Fri) studying a portion of the material. I hope to go through everything once every four weeks. That means, come exam time in April, I will know this stuff cold. Of course, that is the ideal. My first four week trial will let me know how well it works in reality. I think after Christmas I'll start with practice full length exams. That will take up a few of my Saturdays, but what better way to prep for the real thing than doing copies. By the way, the exam itself takes about 8 hrs (including break time), so it's a test of endurance if anything.

So it has begun.

On a side note, you won't be able to call me a teenager in an hour and 15 mins. Yay!

Cheers,
Kev

Premonition

Ever have that feeling that everything is going to just fall apart: that foreboding feeling that everything good in your life will unravel itself, and that nothing in the future will ever go well for you. Like this whole dream-world you call your life will vanish before your eyes and leave nothing but bleak darkness. As if Fate itself has conspired against you, and is only waiting for the most opportune moment to make its opening strike.

What an aweful feeling.

...I'm sure some famous psychologist is rolling in his/her grave right now.

Cheers.

Goodbye Oh-So-Full Weekend

A busy weekend has come to an end. As most of you know, our church had its annual Transit Rally on Saturday. This year was a bit different from the previous years as we did it in an 'Amazing Race' style. So, there were a number of stations set up, and the teams had to proceed linearly through each station. Ren and I were given Stadium/Chinatown station to do. Friday was spent on making up questions...and my were there a lot of em. But I rather like the story we came up with (of utter embarrassment to me). And we did get some rather creative endings to the tale from the groups. This was all followed by a nice BBQ at the park, with free food might I add. And after this, Vince and I finally saw a movie we've been meaning to see for a while: Downfall. As the title hints, the movie is about the downfall of Hitler. It was well done, and I quite enjoyed it. Political genius - yes; military stategist: definitely not!

Sunday brought with it communion Sunday, always the best of our services. Why we don't do communion every week, I don't know. After that, I had the joy of giving an introduction to the book of Judges. I think we're gonna have a great time discussing Judges. As common to many narratives in the Hebrew Bible, it is full of unsettling things: things which make us squirm with uneasiness. Good fun...that is, if they don't shut me down for teaching like this. Heh.

I closed off my Sunday by heading to the mall to indulge a bit. My chequing account has had an unnaturally high balance as of late, and I felt like feeding even more money to the great multinational corporations of this world. The up side is, I have some new clothes. My poor wardrobe has been asking for an upgrade for some time now. This should shut it up for a while.

Anyways, everyone have a great week.

As the old liturgy says: the Lord be with you all.
Kev

Religious Pluralism and John Hick

I picked up a thought provoking book from the library yesterday entitled A Christian Theology of Religions by John Hick. Hick is a very well known liberal Christian theologian and philosopher of religion. I have heard of him, but this is my first time actually reading his material. I haven't had a book captivate me this much for a long time. I started reading the book on the bus ride home; by 10 o'clock I read clear through its 150 pages. I approached this book knowing that its author had a very similar history to myself: he converted to Christianity in his mid/late teens, was involved in a more conservative/fundamentalist stream of Christianity, then gradually became weary of the narrowness and lack of sympathy towards questioning thought (as he puts it in another of his books, God Has Many Names). I picked up this book to explore the path which he took. Before I give a brief summary, I should note that I would not have been able to read this book properly back in first year university. Then I was still a foundationalist (an epistemological position), conservative Christian. But at this point in time, I have learned to read others empathetically, and try to really understand what they are saying. But I digress, onto the book.

His basic argument is this:
1. Christians are in general no better than people of other great world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism). Virtues and vices are evenly exhibited by people of all religions.
2. All the great world religions call us to transcend a self-centeredness to become re-centered on God/the Real.
3. Salvation is the transformation of individuals from self-centeredness to Real-centeredness.
4. Salvation, understood this way, is actually occuring to an equal extent in many world faiths.
5. There is thus one universal source of salvific transformation at work among many of the world religions.
6. God/the Real can be authentically experienced in terms of various different human concepts: Yahweh, Holy Trinity, Allah, Brahman, Tao, Shiva, Vishnu, etc... Culture and society in a way confine the way in which we experience God/the Real.
7. God/the Real is ineffable - unable to be adequately described using human language and concepts. This explains why there is such a diversity in human experiences of God/the Real (as personal, as impersonal).
8. Thus, Christianity is one among many authentic and valid responses to God/the Real.

This is Hick's basic argument. Of course, being a summary, it does not do it proper justice. I don't present this because I myself believe it - in fact, there are a number of places in his argument which I can't quite bring myself to agree with him. But regardless, I think it is a thoughtful, honest attempt to respond to the place of Christianity among a religiously diverse world.

If your first reaction isn't to throw him (or God forbid, me) into the fires of hell as a heretic, check out the book. It isn't long and it isn't written with technical jargon. It's stimulating and well worth the read.

Cheers for now.
Kev

Experiencing and Encountering

What is the difference between 'experiencing something' and 'encountering something'?

It seems to me that experiencing involves a greater impact on the emotions than does encountering. Furthermore, encounter is a word which in my mind brings about an image of a journey or path, along which you 'encounter' something. An experience does not necessarily have a surrounding journey - it is ateleological (without goal or purpose).

Many of us who have gone through a set a material called 'Experiencing God' have been led to understand the Christian life as that of experiencing the divine. Is it any different to say that we encounter the divine. (Just to make it clear, of all the *stuff* our church has thrown at us, the 'Experiencing God' material has had the greatest impact on me, and is the only one that really has any impact on me now).

I feel like I'm on the verge of another paradigm shift, this question being merely the tip of the iceberg.

More to come I'm sure.
Kev

Some More Schedule Fiddling

Nothing major, I just swapped sections for my BIOL 200 tutorial. I originally wanted the 10-11am on Tuesday in order to force myself to wake up early and come to school. I've realized that I have enough open time at school, and I didn't want a 3 hr break that I could easily avoid. So I swapped into a 4-5pm section on Tuesday. I can still catch the express bus home, but coming to school means transferring on the 44. I might still come to school around 11 or 12, but I'll see.

So my schedule as it is now:



See ya'll around,
Kev

Serving, Sustaining

Some call it 'serving God', others call it 'the road to burnout'.

I feel for my friends. Some of them are 'serving' so much that it just plain isn't right.

I have learned how (and when) to say no. It's tough, but I like to call it 'sustainability'. That's all I learned from my 1 year of Engineering. Sustainability - in it for the long haul.

Don't be afraid to say 'no' sometimes. It's worse to burnout and say 'f*ck it' to the church and walk off than it is to annoy a few leaders in the church. Those of us who have approached that threshold (or have even come within eyesight of it) know just how perilous it is. Watch yourselves friends, know when enough is enough.

Please.

Goodbye Animal Locomotion

The title says it all: I went ahead and dropped BIOL 325. It really wasn't the course I expected. So, why spend 400 bucks, eh? I'll take much better 4th year physiology courses (crossing my fingers hoping that I don't have any course conflicts next year, nor filled courses before my reg day).

So, with that, here is my updated Term 1 schedule:

Bubye for now.

To Drop, or not to Drop

Yarg!

What ever shall I do. I've been mulling over whether I want to stay in BIOL 325 (Animal Locomotion) since last night. The professor doesn't seem very friendly towards, or caring for, his students. And, after all, this is upper division now; I have the freedom to take the courses I want to take so long as they cover my requirements. I've been looking at other courses I can take to satisify my 12 credits of 300+ Biology courses and have realized that next year I have a lot of options. Since I now plan to take my Animal Physiology courses this summer (BIOL 361, 363, 364), going into fourth year there will be a whole load of courses I can take. Even better, most of these fourth year comparative physiology courses (the ones I have my eye on) are only 3 hrs of lecture a week - no lab, no tutorial. Plus, the course descriptions seem pretty interesting.

I'm going to keep trying with RELG 414 (The Gospels and the Historical Jesus), if a spot doesn't open by January, I'll just ask the prof very, very nicely. This will keep me at 31 credits total this year. (I want to make sure I am still a full time student this year in the eyes of med schools).

I'll know by tonight if I'm going to drop or not. Decisions, decisions. Wonderful.
Kev

Internetified, and a Review of Third Year

At last, I have internet access at home again. Both the Shaw dude and the security guy (he does all the network/cable/telephone wires and plugs inside the house) actually showed up today. What a pleasant surprise to come home and see that I have TV and internet yet again. Excellent. It really is hard to go without the net for a week, especially when so much of what you do relies on it. Makes one wonder...

Anyways it sounds like everyone is adjusting nicely to a new school year. I've had all my classes once now except for a tutorial and a lab. I'm pleased:

RELG 370: Seminar style, only 20 or so kids in the class. The prof seems great. The course looks at methods, theses, and theories of religious studies. It seems like it's a look at different methodological approaches to religious studies. Good stuff. Our class focus is 'sacred space', and that is what our 2nd term research project is going to be about. Oh, and NO FINAL!

RELG 335: Ok, what can I say, Dr. Daum again. I had this guy for 6 credits of Biblical Hebrew. Amazing. One of my favourite profs. It's our first class and I already got into a 15 min conversation with him after class. He always teaches stuff that I find really interesting, the guy knows tons of stuff, and he is always willing to discuss stuff with students. Once again, NO FINAL (man I love religious studies).

GREK 325: Carl (our prof) is way different from most profs. He doesn't want to be called 'Dr.' or 'Professor', the most formal he is willing to hear is 'Mr. Johnson'. He isn't the kind of prof that wants to put him/herself over above the students as an authority/power figure. Also, GREK 325 is organized in a much different fashion than GREK 100 was. We are going to proceed in a 3 day rotation. Day 1 we read from a book on New Testament Greek Idioms. The stuff in this book is highly controversial. The point is to get us exposed to different approaches to Greek, as well as provide for conversation. Day 2 we work on our textbook (Athenaze II, same series as GREK 100). Here we learn Greek constructs and grammar. This is the standard stuff which GREK 100 focused heavily on. Day 3 is our New Testament reading. We are to prepare a translation of the assigned passage from the Greek New Testament. This is what it's all about, this is the whole reason I'm taking the course - to be able to actually *read* real ancient Greek documents. So that is how this class is going to proceed; 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, etc...

BIOL 200: This course looks daunting. Lots of reading, lots of material. This is the standard second year cellular biology course. But the focus isn't on memorization (we can take a double sided piece of paper into our exams as a cue sheet). The focus of the course is on applying our knowledge to solve questions and problems which required integration and understanding of concepts over a number of different units. I've done classes like this before, and I know I can do well. But I also know that in order to do well I have to stay on top of the material, class by class. And I know that the course is going to take a large amount of my time. The up side is that the material actually looks interesting.

BIOL 325: The prof is a hoot. He seems mean--someone you don't want to mess with--but he is hilarious. The class covers methods of locomotion, mostly of swimming and flying. I was hoping that land animals would also be covered, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm taking this course as part of my 12 credits of 300/400 level biology elective requirements. It's only 3 hrs of lecture a week (no lab or tutorial). I'll see how the material is, but for now it looks like I'm going to stay.

Anywho, the best part of this year is the fact that my breaks coincide with the breaks of a bunch of friends. We're gonna have some good fun in the sub.

See ya'll around (most of you probably on friday, haha)

Feeling First-day-ish

First day back to school. UBC is awash in colours because of Imagine for first years - Reds (woot...I was once one), Purples (me in 2nd year), Blues (me now), and the list goes on. I came early just to double check that my BIOL 200 tutorial was cancelled for first week (it was), and so I could spend some time on the net (since I'm net-less at home for the time being).

Now comes the fun of finding out who has what breaks and when. Back to the wonderful 'Canadian Room'. No more stupid SUB basement chinatown, I hate it down there.

In other news, 'Random Acts of Reality' is one of my favourite blogs. The guy is an Emergency Medical Technician based in London, and his stories from work are amazing. This recent one will bring a tear to your eye. Check it out.

Time to eat.

Good luck to all for the new school year.
Peace and grace,
Kev

At Last...Moved!

Finally, we moved!

Moving..sucks.

I am without telephone, cable, internet, and heat. I will finally have carpet in about an hour or so, which means I can actually set up my bedroom. Stupid Telus strike, I have no idea when we will get our land line set up; if you need me, call my cell. Internet and cable need the network dude to first set up all our wall outlets, and after that Shaw always takes like 5 days to show up after you make a request. So no ETA there. And the heat is jacked cuz our wonderful electricians messed with the wiring, so it keeps shorting out. Not good.

Anyways, three cheers for IKEA.

Till the next time,
Kevin

My Schedule - Term 1

Here is my term 1 schedule for this coming winter session: