Well, the exchange-in students were invited for a lunch with the chemistry head yesterday afternoon at around 12pm and it was a pretty decent meal. Due to the fact that 11 out of the 12 exchange-in students are from the Mainland, he has to speak in mandarin and the conversation were revolving around why HK university education is only 3 years, how HKUST stands in the world and how the Chemistry department stands in the world. Basically, HK has 7 years of secondary education - 3 years of lower secondary, 2 years of upper secondary and 2 years of pre-university. It was mentioned that the final year of pre-university is equivalent to freshmen courses in many university. Actually, I don't really think so as their freshmen course here is about the same as those in NUS and everywhere. Anyway he mentioned that the education system in HK will change and by 2012, it will become 6 years of secondary education and 4 years of college which will be similar to most colleges in the world.
Anyway I realized that some of the Profs whom I knew in Singapore knew the head as well; they include Prof. Xu Guo Qin who was in the same graduate class in Princeton as him, Prof. Lee Soo Ying and Prof. Andy Hor. In the middle of the conversation, he was asking whether the audience knew why most bright Mainland students didn't shine very well in top American colleges. He said that the main reason is because they took chemistry not because of passion. If one take a subject out of passion, one will do very well in the area because he/she will be self-motivated. I agree with him as that's the way I felt and also the things that I'm trying to tell some of my friends in Singapore. I finally understood what Angeline meant when she said about me have the "spark" in the eyes; now I witnessed how the "spark" was like because I sawe it in Alice. It is the first time when I mentioned things like "Sharpless epoxidation", "Felkin Ann model", "Corey macrolactonization", "Olefin Metathesis", "Ritter reaction" etc that someone actually know what I am talking about and is able to continue the conversation. It's not about being smart, but rather how much one reads in the subject and most importantly, the spirit to learn and appreciates it. That is why when I teach, my main aim is not to teach my students textbook knowledge but rather to inculcate this deep passion in learning in them; with this passion in learning, they will be able to achieve success in their life as they'll become active learners and will pick up and criticize knowledge from various sources.
Following lunch, I had a short chat with him with regards to the Teaching Assistant issue (or tutor as he out it) and he said that the professor (Prof. Haynes) taking fundamentals of organic chemistry may need help and he asked me to drop him an email. Prof. Haynes replied my email saying that he'll like to meet me on Friday to discuss the details. Hmm I wonder whether it's my email or is it the authority of the head that cause the issue to be resolve so fast. Anyway another prof from another freshmen organic courses replied as well and he rejected my offer, saying that all Teaching Assistant are postgraduates and have undergone training to teach. Well, I respected his decision and won't be probing further (afterall Prof. Haynes agreed to my request) but if I were to reply, I would have said something along the line that teaching cannot be taught and it comes from the heart. In a way, it's the flair that counts.
In the late afternoon, I met up with Alice, Frankie and their friends for a short badminton session. I was kinda recruited into the Chemistry badminton team as they said that they need players to play for Chemistry. Honestly, I am not very good and I don't know why they wanted me; I may be able to play a pretty decent game socially but when it comes to competition, it's a totally different world.
Rushed for Advanced Organic Chemistry after that. The lecturer continued to talk about MOT and this time round, he taught us HMO and some calculation on getting the energy levels of the orbitals in acyclic and cyclic polyenes. It's still some form of revision to me but some concepts are reinforced. Prof. Wu was a pretty good lecturer and he taught with passion. I kinda enjoyed his lecture and I hope as time goes by, the module will get more and more challenging.
Anyway I realized that some of the Profs whom I knew in Singapore knew the head as well; they include Prof. Xu Guo Qin who was in the same graduate class in Princeton as him, Prof. Lee Soo Ying and Prof. Andy Hor. In the middle of the conversation, he was asking whether the audience knew why most bright Mainland students didn't shine very well in top American colleges. He said that the main reason is because they took chemistry not because of passion. If one take a subject out of passion, one will do very well in the area because he/she will be self-motivated. I agree with him as that's the way I felt and also the things that I'm trying to tell some of my friends in Singapore. I finally understood what Angeline meant when she said about me have the "spark" in the eyes; now I witnessed how the "spark" was like because I sawe it in Alice. It is the first time when I mentioned things like "Sharpless epoxidation", "Felkin Ann model", "Corey macrolactonization", "Olefin Metathesis", "Ritter reaction" etc that someone actually know what I am talking about and is able to continue the conversation. It's not about being smart, but rather how much one reads in the subject and most importantly, the spirit to learn and appreciates it. That is why when I teach, my main aim is not to teach my students textbook knowledge but rather to inculcate this deep passion in learning in them; with this passion in learning, they will be able to achieve success in their life as they'll become active learners and will pick up and criticize knowledge from various sources.
Following lunch, I had a short chat with him with regards to the Teaching Assistant issue (or tutor as he out it) and he said that the professor (Prof. Haynes) taking fundamentals of organic chemistry may need help and he asked me to drop him an email. Prof. Haynes replied my email saying that he'll like to meet me on Friday to discuss the details. Hmm I wonder whether it's my email or is it the authority of the head that cause the issue to be resolve so fast. Anyway another prof from another freshmen organic courses replied as well and he rejected my offer, saying that all Teaching Assistant are postgraduates and have undergone training to teach. Well, I respected his decision and won't be probing further (afterall Prof. Haynes agreed to my request) but if I were to reply, I would have said something along the line that teaching cannot be taught and it comes from the heart. In a way, it's the flair that counts.
In the late afternoon, I met up with Alice, Frankie and their friends for a short badminton session. I was kinda recruited into the Chemistry badminton team as they said that they need players to play for Chemistry. Honestly, I am not very good and I don't know why they wanted me; I may be able to play a pretty decent game socially but when it comes to competition, it's a totally different world.
Rushed for Advanced Organic Chemistry after that. The lecturer continued to talk about MOT and this time round, he taught us HMO and some calculation on getting the energy levels of the orbitals in acyclic and cyclic polyenes. It's still some form of revision to me but some concepts are reinforced. Prof. Wu was a pretty good lecturer and he taught with passion. I kinda enjoyed his lecture and I hope as time goes by, the module will get more and more challenging.
posted by CS at
9:05 AM
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