Tuesday in the Lab

We left at our usual time (6:00 AM) for MAN 4, and once we arrived we went to the principal’s office where we were served tea (this was our morning ritual).  I was then escorted to the chemistry lab, where I spent the next hour preparing the red cabbage indicator solution.  Jeanne was taken to a math classroom, where she taught a lesson on logarithmic functions (I’m not sure in which class this occurred, but during one of her presentations, the students were a little frustrated because they didn’t have a formula.  But that was the point of the lesson; they were to develop it themselves.  Their teachers commented more than once, “I think they need the formula to solve the problem.”  I think the teachers were concerned that their students might not appear to be as bright as they really were and were pleasantly surprised that the students, in fact, did NOT need the formula).

While I was preparing the cabbage, Wiharti (she was the chemistry lab teacher) helped me assemble the other chemicals I needed.  I finished about 15 minutes before students arrived, so Wiharti took this opportunity to show me the tins of sodium they had (and they had several).  She didn’t speak English, but because she understood what I was trying to do with the lesson, she thought I might want to do a whiz-bang sodium-exploding-in-water demonstration.  She must have understood that I thought that wasn’t a good idea, but she got out some sodium any way and I recorded the reaction.

Once the students arrived (and they were sophomores), I went through the lesson about indicators and pH.  The boys were a bit talkative and sat in a small group on one of the rows of lab benches.  The girls were answering my questions about background knowledge of the subject but the boys weren’t, so I started a small competition by keeping score of which gender correctly answered the questions.  This seemed to get the boys more engaged and arouse their competitive spirit.

After the demonstration, the students got an opportunity to try a neutralization reaction (they had indicator in the acid, so it was hot pink and they tried to adjust the pH by adding sodium hydroxide until they achieved a purple color).  The first group to do this seemed quite happy.  The students had told me earlier that they had never been to the lab; since this is the beginning of their school year, I wasn’t sure if they meant just this year or ever.  But maybe it was the latter since they didn’t seem to be very sure of handling the equipment.  Students in the lab.

When the lesson was over, we (by this time, Jeanne had finished her lesson and sat in on mine) asked how much time we had left and were told 10 minutes.  It actually turned out to be 45 minutes, and this turned out to be a fortunate event as it gave us a chance to talk with the students.  Jeanne asked them what they wanted to do later in life and what made them happy.  Some students responded with, “I want to be an engineer” or “I want to be a scientist.”  One very bright girl (she spoke English well and had been answering most of the questions) said that religion was the most important thing; it took precedence over all other interests. 

Jeanne also asked the students about a song we had heard the night before at the Ministry of Religious Affairs.  The students told us it was the national anthem and sang it for us.  At first reluctant, the boys finally joined in with gusto and it was very impressive to hear the combined voices of the students.

Novi came back to escort us to the principal’s office, and after a brief collecting of our belongings and thoughts, we headed out to our next lesson.  This time, I wasn’t in the lab, so I just did our new PowerPoint presentation.  When I was finished, I still had time, so I showed the students some recordings of MY students in the lab.  They laughed, because my students were dressed so differently.  So, I asked if I could record them and they laughed even more and seemed very eager to be recorded.  Once I had recorded them, I played back the video and they were really giggling.  Some even stayed after the bell rang becausethey wanted to see themselves.  Kids are kids no matter where they’re from!

After this lesson, Novi took us out for lunch at the same mall where we had eaten Monday, but today we ate at a Chinese restaurant.  There were curtained barriers between the food court and the rest of the mall so that people who were eating wouldn’t be seen by the people who were fasting.  But Novi sat and watched us eat; I felt bad but at least she bought some food to take home for dinner.

After stopping by the grocery part of the Carrefour store, we spied a durian ice cream vendor.  Novi asked if we wanted to taste a little, so we did.  It kind of tasted like vanilla custard but as it hit the back of the tongue, the sewer gas aroma of the fruit itself made itself known.  Novi took pictures of our faces and laughed at the contortions we made when we got the full effect of the durian. 

After this, we headed back to the hotel and crashed.  Delayed effects of jet lag?  Staying up too late the night before?  It had been a long and interesting day.