2 posts tagged “i am bored”

Bailey just got her first mp3 player.  I decided to try for one in that Pepsi Stuff promotion that's going on right now.  I had to save up 175 bottle caps, and thanks to a couple of coworkers, we made it there in record time.  It just came today.  Right now it's charging so she can't use it quite yet, but she's already chosen a CD to download.  I think - I think - I've figured out how to also get it on my iPod.  It takes a bit of doing, though.

I have a friend who homeschools - well, actually, I have a lot of friends who homeschool - but this one particular mom has a son who's super smart and wants to be a doctor.  He knows I work in the blood bank and one day about a year ago was asking me about blood types & stuff.  I explained a little bit but ran out of time.  A few months ago, this friend told me that her son wants to learn more about it. 

Oh joy!

I really mean that!  In my opinion blood banking is one of the coolest things on the planet, and it just makes me excited that I can actually take the time and teach someone about it.  That someone actually wants to learn it.  And since this child is about 10 years old but is super-smart, I plan on teaching on maybe a 6th-grade level.  So I won't have to go into lots of scientific detail but I can cover the basics.  I told his mom last weekend that this spring should be a lighter semester for me and I'd love to set something up for her son and anyone else who wanted to come.  (I think I'll offer it to some of my other homeschooling friends too - we could have a class - it'd be fun!)  I'd even take a day off of work to do this, that's how excited I am.

So I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do.  I have a bag of red blood cells colored water at my desk that I made for a demonstration a while back.  I think I'll use that, and also make a yellow one to represent plasma.  I'm going to talk about the different parts of blood and how they work and why you need them.  Maybe I can borrow a microscope from work here and actually let them look at a slide.  (Note to self: call Hematology.)  And I'd like to let them type their own blood.  Maybe I can plant a bug in one of these kids' brain about laboratory medicine/pathology and how awesome it is.

So I'm going to make a plan and present it to our medical director to get his permission to use reagents, slides, etc.  I plan to use only stuff from the student lab, which is mostly outdated anyway, so I'm sure he won't care.  He's a pretty easygoing guy; I just think it would be best if he knows about it ahead of time. You never know in what strange way something like that might come up and then he'd be wondering why I'm using work's stuff for something that's not work-related.

One of the things that I think I'll share with them is this blood typing game from the Nobel website.  I'm also sharing it with you to play if you're bored.  I think it's great (if not a bit oversimplified).  If you play it, there's a quick intro that explains it all.  You first have to type the patient's blood and then choose a compatible type of blood for them.  If you play it, let me know how you do!

Yes, I am a nerd.  I revel in my nerdiness.  :)