Critical Self-Assessment 1

In 23 Aug 2006, I left my hometown Nanjing, where I lived for almost 22 years, and arrived in Toronto to begin a new life. I rented a room in a house near University of Toronto. I joined the Prof. Ozin's research group, and involved in several research projects. I take chemistry courses as well as English Skill courses. I do laundry, shopping, and cooking regularly. Now, I have lived on my own for almost 2 months. How good am I in the past 2 months? Did I perform good in coursework? Did I do a good job in research project? Did I spend my spare time meaningfully? Did I recover from the health breakdown last year and keep a good health? What mistakes did I make? What are the silly things I have done? In a word, I need to evaluate myself.

First of all, health. In general, I have kept a healthy life for the last 2 months. I eat as much vegetables and organic food as possible. I eat 2 apples a day, exercise a hour, and rest as frequent as I can during the day. My new goal of a day, in terms of health, is how tired I am not at the end of the day. But still, I eat unhealthy things like artificial flavor added candies and biscuits; I do not eat my meals at the same time each day; I feel dizzy sometimes after lunch or dinner. So I am still in the process of recovery, and I believe there is still a long way to go before I reach my optimum health state.

To be continued.

Image from: http://www-old.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~ipg/sarah/MovieStills1/mirror.jpg

What kind of scientist you want to be?

On the nanochemistry course this week, my prof. raised a fairly interesting statement. He said that there are scientist that are (destructively) creative, and scientists that are deeply analytical, and scientists that are both. He said that one of the main question out of one's Ph.D is what kind of scientist one wants to be?

Given all kinds of creative experiment and ideas presented in the nanochemistry course and admiring them, I should say becoming a creative inventor is almost an irresistible choice.

Image is from wikipedia.

Learning Pyramid - Active learning

That's what impressed me the most in the TA training session. It reminds me how boring lectures are. Learning actually should involve conversation, should involve direct communication. That's how I find knowledge is alive in person, not dead in book.