星薬科大学薬学英語Ｉ ・7月9日・more first round Term 1 final presentations

Hello again to all my Pharm Eng I students,

How are you? Today, I'll post some more pictures of your great final presentations. Please look at your hard work and enjoy what you've done. You all gave a great effort and I'm still proud of all of you for it.

Take a look at some pictures from this presentation about the effects of Alzheimer's on an artist:

      

Good job! I'm looking forward to seeing the next groups of presenters next week!





星薬科大学薬学英語Ｉ ・7月9日 ・first round Term 1 final presentations

Hello to all my Pharm Eng 1 students,

Otsukaresamadeshita! Today, I'm proud to post a selection of some of your first round of final presentations for Term 1. I'm very happy with your effort and your hard work is shown in these pictures of your Power Point and OHP slides, and posters.

Take a look at your work. It's great, and congratulations for your great effort. I am impressed! Here's the first set of pictures. This is only the first set; I will post more tomorrow or the day after. Check for more then!





 





星薬科大学薬学英語Ｉ・6月26日lesson plan & board notes ・Greek/Latin word parts with kanji connections

Hello to all my Pharm Eng I students,

I was glad to see all of you today! Here's the lesson plan for 6/26:

Here are the board notes:

Greek and Latin word parts with a kanji connection to help you remember or guess meanings of words is another way to help you gather more words for your vocabulary. Try this out next semester!

I'll be happy to see all of you and work with you in final presentation practice next week. Take a look at this video again - as many times as you like -  to refresh yourselves on how to organize your ideas when speaking in your presentations.

Take care!

星薬科大学薬学英語Ｉ・6月19日lesson plan & board notes ・re-post about how to post blog comments

Hello to all my Pharm Eng I students,

I hope you didn't have any trouble with the typhoon on Tuesday! I hope all of you could get home safely.

Here is the lesson plan from 6/19:

Here are the board notes:

I would like to hear from all the groups about your projects! I have heard from one group so far. So look at the following - how to post comments on this blog (re-posted from May 21):
If you have a Gmail or other Google account (like a Google Doc, for example), you can post comments to this blog very easily. Here's how:

1. On any post you want to comment to, click on the comments link at the bottom of the post.
2. Write your comment in English or Japanese.
3. Where it says Comment as, scroll down in the small window to Google (Accounts).
4. Click the Publish button - you will be sent back to your Google login page.
5. Log in to your Google account - you will be sent back to the blog, and your comment will be posted.

Try this - tell me how it works for you! If this does not work - email me - washizoraATgmailDOTcom!

星薬科大学 6月12日・more about final presentation topics & video about presenting

Hello to all of you again,

Here is another short post about final presentations.

Here are some topic ideas for your groups. Take a look at them. Which one is your group interested in?

Kanpo medicines (or other herbal-based medicines)
History of a selected drug (for example, penicillin or morphine)
History of a selected disease
Diet and health (for example, healthy eating habits)
Chemical compounds and/or drug properties
Pharmacist-patient interactions and relations
How to get a job in the pharmaceutical industry (such as at a pharmaceutical company)
Japanese folk medicines and remedies (for example, such as your grandmother's medicines)
Folk medicines and remedies from other cultures
Allergies
Cell genetics
Research on new drugs
Cosmetics and chemicals in them
Food and chemicals in them

I will think of some more ideas for all of you when I can. You can also write to me by posting a comment to this topic and telling me your ideas too!

Finally, take a look at this video about presentations. Watch it as many times as you like. It has a lot of good hints about preparing good presentations.

See you next week! Thank you for your hard work, and for being such good students in the classes!

星薬科大学 6月12日lesson plan & more cause-effect notes

Hello to all my Pharm Eng I students,

Hope your test this afternoon went well!

I'm very sorry! I had a problem with the lesson plan picture, so I will make this post short.

Here are the board notes for 6/12:

I will say more about final presentations in a separate post.  See you then!

星薬科大学・another special posting for Hoshi ESS & Tuesday Pharm Eng I students

Hello to all my Tuesday Pharm Eng I students and the Hoshi ESS,

How are you? Hope you've all had a good weekend.

As you all can see, here's a video above - it's about English castles. Tomohiro Onuki is interested in buildings in England, so I thought he might find this video interesting. Tomohiro - watch it and tell me what you think. For anybody in the ESS - have any of you ever been to England? Have you ever seen a real English castle? Talk about it with each other!

Here's something for Yuki Nakajima and the Hoshi ESS: Yuki - you have said that you enjoy snowboarding and are the president of the snowboarding club, and that you would like to write more in English.

So here's something to cool you down on our warm days - for you, Yuki, and anyone else in the Hoshi ESS who loves snowboarding - here's a video of Shaun White, the great American snowboarder!

Yuki - I know you are busy but sometime, when you have a chance - write something short about what snowboarding means to you, and share with me - ask me for my email address and you can send it to me. 

Here's something else for Mika Takahashi and the ESS: Mika - you've said you're in the Hoshi dance club. What do you think of this? It's a video of the Brazilian fighting dance, the capoeira:

Tell me what you think of it! For those of you in the ESS - do you dance? And do you know about capoeira? If you like dancing, this might be really interesting to you. Tell your dancing friends about it.

For Aya Oguchi and the ESS, here's something different. Look at this picture: 

They're all happy! Aya - you've said that your two favorite words are "happy" and "smile." So tell me - or tell your friends - what are three (3) things that make you happy? Think, say and finish this sentence:

Three things that make me happy are ____________________, ____________________ and  ____________________.

Aya - do this and tell me next class! And for all of you in the ESS - next time you meet each other for an ESS get-together, pass this idea around and say and share your ideas about what make you happy with each other!

Finally - for Yuki Yamazaki - you have said you teach chemistry to junior high school students. So I have a question:

What's the biggest challenge to you about teaching chemistry to young students? Tell me what you  think sometime. (And by the way - what's this famous drug in the picture above?)

FOR ALL OF YOU IN MY TUESDAY CLASSES - DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE FINAL PRESENTATION GROUPS! I'LL ASK YOU ABOUT THEM NEXT CLASS!

See you next class!

星薬科大学 6月5日lesson plan, cause-effect homework download & reminder about final presentation groups & topics

Hello again to my Pharm Eng I students,

Thank you for all your hard work last week in the mid-term review, and this week in class. Here's the lesson plan for 6/5 & 6/12 (next week):

Here are the board notes for 6/5:

Here is the homework for June 5th. You can download the worksheeet here fill it out, and bring it to class next week (6/12) as your homework.

*SPECIAL NOTE: If you have trouble downloading the worksheet, you can copy and paste the same sentences into a Word document and print it out as your own worksheet. Write the sentences and bring your sheet to class next week (6/12) as your homework.

A. Look at these sentences. Write the effect (what happens) and the cause (why it happened).

1. Shun went to the convenience store because he needed some food.
Effect: (What happened?) _________________________________________________
Cause: (Why did it happen?) _______________________________________________

2. Yukiko ate a little soup because she was feeling sick.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

3. Maiko was very quiet because the baby was sleeping.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

4. Yutaka got a vacuum cleaner because he wanted to clean the house.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

5. Saori stopped the car because the traffic signal turned red.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

6. Daiki raised his hand because he had a question.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

B. Now look at these sentences. What is the effect, and what is the cause?

1. Metal corrodes because of contact with air.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

2. Alzheimer's patients often don't take pills because they don't generate much saliva.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

3. He was vomiting this morning because he got drunk last night.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

4. Yellow chromate ion solution becomes red because of change in the acid-base composition.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

5. She suffered from insomnia because she had taken in too much caffeine earlier in the evening.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

TO ALL STUDENTS: DON'T FORGET ABOUT FINAL PRESENTATION GROUPS AND TOPICS YOU WANT TO PRESENT ABOUT! REMEMBER - GROUPS OF 3 for the 1st PERIOD and GROUPS OF 3, WITH ONE (1) PAIR OK IN THE 2nd PERIOD!

See you next week!

星薬科大学・special message for Tuesday students about final presentations & Hoshi ESS post

Hello all Pharm Eng I students & ESS members,

Here's a special posting for all of you. It's a little late, but I have been busy - and I have a slow computer! I'm very sorry about that. I hate my computer right now!

A TUESDAY PHARM ENG I MESSAGE:
Don't forget about your final presentations! Next Tuesday (June 5th), I'll be asking all of you about who you would like to be with in your groups for your final presentation projects. Think about your themes as well - what topics would you present about? Let me know next class. 

NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT:
This is for Yuna Shimakawa and the ESS. Yuna - you have said you love grandmothers. Here's a very simple but interesting video about a grandmother's smile. For all of you in the ESS with a grandmother - this one's for all of you too!

Yuna - and anyone else - here's a little piece of homework for you: watch it and tell me what you think of it. Post a comment to this blog or tell me in class.

For Masashi Uchida and the ESS - do you like basketball? I know you do Masashi - so here's a video for  you and anyone else in the ESS who likes basketball, especially the NBA in the U.S.! Here's a video about the history of one of the greatest NBA teams, the Los Angeles Lakers. Masashi - watch it and tell me what you think. Post of comment to the blog or tell me in class!

How hungry are all of you? Here's a recipe I hope all of you would like - I know I like it! Wakana Matsumoto said she liked shoronpo when she went to Taiwan. How about all of you in the ESS? Wakana - I couldn't find a shoronpo recipe, but I found this. If you like to cook, maybe you can try it. Take a look at it - and post a comment to the blog or tell me what you think in class. Hope you and other Chinese food lovers like it!

SPECIAL NOTE:
Anyone in the ESS can post to this blog - you don't have to be in my class! I would be very happy to hear from you! But for all of you in my Tuesday classes - see you next week!

星薬科大学薬学英語I・SQ3Rについて

Hello all Pharm Eng I students,

Thank you for your hard work today on the mid-term review. Many of you did excellently on the test. Congratulations!

Let's review the SQ3R reading technique I showed you in class after the test today:

SQ3R - Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Write

1. Survey what you will read. Don't read it in detail! Check over it and get an idea about it.

 2. Question each section of what you will read. This means making questions out of each part. Look at the titles of each section and make a question out of the title of each section.

FOR EXAMPLE: In Unit 4, there is a section on acids and bases - so: What are acids and bases?

3. Read, recite, and write (the "3 Rs") about each section. THIS IS IMPORTANT!

 * Read each section! As you go along, make more questions about important points you find.

 ** Then - recite each section! This means saying it out loud to yourself.

                                      (picture courtesy of Shutterstock)

***After that - write what you said, and remember, from each section in a notebook.

Try this! See how it works for you. See you next week!



星薬科大学薬学英語I・5月22日lesson plan & review for mid-term on 5/29

Hello to all my Pharm Eng I students,

Here's the lesson plan for 5/22:

 And here are the board notes:

Here are the Unit 3 questions for you to review:



FOR OUR MID-TERM REVIEW NEXT WEEK:

Click here for the Unit 2 review questions. For Unit 1 review questions, click on here.

Good luck on any exams you have for other classes. And don't forget your Unit 2 homework next week - selecting 2 of the 3 idea questions and writing your own responses to them! See you next Tuesday!

星薬科大学薬学英語Ｉ・5月15日・lesson plan & helpful hints

Hello to all my Pharm Eng I students,

Here is the lesson plan for 5/15:

Here are the board notes for the comprehension (understanding questions):

Here also are the board notes for the idea questions:

As you see in the lesson plan and the idea questions notes, I am asking you all to do a lot of homework over the next two weeks. Let's review the homework:

For next week (5/21): textbook page 12 (parts of the brain picture), and scanning Unit 3 vocabulary: choose 6-8 nouns (名詞) from the unit and try your own semantic network with them (if you were not in class on 5/15 - find out what a semantic network is - click here)

For 5/28 - choose 2 out of 3 of the idea questions and write thinking responses to the questions showing your ideas to questions #1 or #2. Question #3 is a little different question: It's in the textbook - but you have to read well to find it!

I think all of you are good students and because of this, I am challenging all of you! Try your best - I will support your effort!

Today, I would like to post something extra for two students - two helpful hints for ASUKA TAKANOHASHI and HARUKA TSUCHIYA - and share with the Hoshi ESS (English Speaking Society) too!

I don't have any video for the both of you today, but I have advice for you I hope will help you.

ASUKA - on your pre-teaching survey, you said you enjoy reading novels, and that you want to read them in English. Here's what you can do:

If you like famous Japanese writers such as, for example, Haruki Murakami, find an English translation of one of their novels that you like, and that you can get easily. It's best to start out with a book you already know. Read it in English the same way you would in Japanese - don't look up any words in the dictionary (though you could make a semantic network if you like, or a word list, as you go along). Don't try to translate - read for pleasure. Since you will know the story already, the meaning will be the same - the only difference is the language. Take your time to read - don't struggle with it. You don't have to understand every word - so long as you get the main ideas, you're okay.

For a book you like that you can't get an English translation for - try to find a similar kind of story in English. Don't try a difficult book - try for something that you believe you can read at a level that is a little lower than what you can read easily in Japanese. The most important thing is also to get a book that you don't struggle with, and that you can read for pleasure. And when you read, do the same thing as I said above - don't try to translate - read only for pleasure. If you struggle with it, it will not be fun.

HARUKA - on your survey, one thing you said is that you like to learn more medical terms in English. Here's what you can do:

This is something I will show the class as another word-learning technique - but I'll share it with you first.

Many English medical terms come from Greek and Latin root words. So take a prefix (the 1st part of a word) that you can make as many words you can from. Make a word list or semantic network with them. If you know the prefix, you will know the basic meaning already.

In your textbook, go to the back of the book - pages 156-161. In them, there is a long list of these root words, with examples and Japanese meanings. Take a look at them. Some of them match in meaning with the Japanese words - especially with the kanji. If you can also connect the kanji with the root meanings, you will be able to guess the meanings of many medical terms.

Hope this helps you.

See all of you next week!

星薬科大学薬学英語・意味ネットワークの紹介

Hello to all my Pharm Eng I students,

This is a special posting about semantic networking (意味ネットワーク). This is a very useful method for you to gather up the meaning of words. In the pictures below, I will show you a very simple example.

Here are five words that are indirectly related. Some of the words have more direct connections than others.

Now I found one connection, and labeled it with a simple sentence - cats like fish.

Now I found two more connections - cats make good pets, and fish make good pets.

Now I found two more connections to that - people like fish, and people keep pets. 

So we can see the meaning pattern here with these words. Now try this one for yourself:

What connections, and what sentences, can you think of that would help you to remember the meanings of these words? Try it!

星薬科大学薬学英語Ｉ・Unit 2 intro lesson plan ・ヴィデオ・ウエブサイトのリンク

Hello Pharm Eng I students,

Here is today's lesson plan (5/8):

We had no time to do the word networking activity today. So we will do this as our warmer next week (5/15). I will show all of you what word networking means. It is another useful technique you can use when gathering and learning new words.

For today, here is a video for CHIAKI UEHARA (1st period). You said you work in an ice cream shop. Have you ever wanted to make your own ice cream? Here is a video recipe for you: Indian mango ice cream. Watch this and tell me what you think.

For RYUZO ARAI (2nd period): You said in your pre-teaching survey that you feel it is important to read English every day. So let me show you a website I have a link to on the side of my blog. It's called Breaking News English. You can access it here.

It's free and on it, you can find many short articles on many topics in English. It has vocabulary and sentence-making activities, and an interactive feature you can use on a computer. Check it out and tell me what you think!

星薬科大学薬学英語 I 火曜日１時限・２時限・Unit 4 homework

Hello again to my Pharm Eng students,

Here is the homework for June 7th. Copy and paste it into a Word document, or print it out as your own worksheet. Write the sentences and bring your sheet to class next week.

A. Look at these sentences. Write the effect (what happens) and the cause (why it happened).

1. Hiroshi went to the convenience store because he needed some food.
Effect: (What happened?) _________________________________________________
Cause: (Why did it happen?)_______________________________________________

2. Keiko ate some soup because she was feeling sick.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

3. Lee was very quiet because the baby was sleeping.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

4. Erika got a vacuum cleaner because she wanted to clean the house.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

5. Jun stopped the car because the traffic signal turned red.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

6. Daisuke raised his hand because he had a question.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

B. Now look at these sentences. What is the effect, and what is the cause?

1. Metal corrodes (turns brown) because of contact with air.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

2. Alzheimer's patients often don't take pills because they don't generate much saliva.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

3. He was vomiting this morning because he drank too much alcohol last night.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

4. Yellow chromate ion solution becomes red because of change in the acid-base composition.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

5. She suffered from insomnia because of an intake of too much caffeine at night.
Effect:________________________________________________________________
Cause:________________________________________________________________

星薬科大学薬学英語 I 火曜日１時限・２時限・Unit 2 lesson plan (5/17)

Hello all Pharm Eng students,

My apologies to all of you for posting this late. Here's the lesson plan from our class last Tuesday (5/17):

1. Warmer - parts of the brain description matching
2. Unit 2
a. second half of article - group reading, note-taking and listening
b. group key word search & Q&A handout (shared among group members)
3. Homework
a. add Unit 2 words from handout to your word charts as you did with Unit 1
b. think of 3-5 of your own sentences using any 3-5 words from Unit 2

*REMINDER - short mid-term test on 5/31!

See you in class on Tuesday!

星薬科大学薬学英語 I 火曜日１時限・２時限・special Q&A post about me (Part 1)

Hello to all my Pharm Eng students,

I'm posting a special message here for you. So far, I have been very happy and glad to have you as my students. You've been trying hard in the classes and you've been making great effort. I'm proud of all of you! I hope I am doing as good a job being your teacher.

But I've done a bad job learning and remembering your names. I'm sorry! I've been going through your pre-teaching surveys trying to remember your names and faces. So, to help me try to start learning your names, I'll answer the questions many of you asked me on the surveys here. To start...

YUKARI YAKAWA (2nd period) - you asked me the meaning of my name. While I talked about this in our first class, I'll repeat it here:

Lee (is an English name) - it means a natural place in a forest where there are no trees, but a flat area with grass that's a comfortable place for animals or travelers to rest.

Arnold (English & German) - comes from the base meaning of "eagle" (in German, Adler), "flight" and "sky," so it means something like "to fly like an eagle."

SUMIRE KOBAYASHI (1st period) & SAORI MOCHIZUKI (2nd period) - you both asked about what I did over the spring holiday.

Well, over the spring holiday, nothing much. I was very nervous as the holiday was finishing because I was starting at Hoshi and was hoping to make a good impression! And over Golden Week, my wife had to work, so I stayed home and cleaned our house, and organized my desk, files, and teaching materials. It was kind of boring, but it also felt good afterwards to have a clean house and organized things! (How about the both of you? What did you do over GW?)

CHISATO SAKAIDA (1st period) & MARIE MORI, HITOMI NISHINO & HIRONORI HIRAOKA (2nd period) - you asked questions about sports I have played, or like.

Chisato, Marie & Hironori - sports I've played and liked: of course, I'm from the U.S. As a child, however, I grew up in Australia, and I loved Australian rules football (オジボール). But I also like baseball sometimes, and the Winter Olympics, especially ice hockey. (Hironori - you say you like basketball. Do you have a favorite NBA or bj-league team?)

Hitomi - you're the manager of the Hoshi kendo club, and you asked me if I have played kendo.

Well, no I haven't. But it looks very interesting. I have a friend at the Tokyo Yakkadaigaku, an American who is a 5-dan in kendo (本当に!).

NANASE SHITARA (1st period) - you asked me where I was during the March 11th earthquake.

My wife was home, but I was on my way to a dental appointment. I was on the Yurakucho line, but I didn't make it to the clinic. I had to walk home to Nerima, and it took me almost four hours. (How about you? Were you and your mum hurt or was anything damaged in your house?)

NORIKO KAMIKAWA (2nd period) - you asked me how old I was, and you guessed I was 42.

Well, thank you! But I'm 49.

RINA KYOGOKU, SHUHEI ARAI, YUKI SAKANISHI & ARISA SUZUKI (1st period) & DAISUKE TAKAYAMA (2nd period) - you all asked about my favorite foods, and if I prefer Japanese or American.

Well, I love Japanese dishes! My favorite is unagi. I also really like nikujaga, koroke, tempura and sukiyaki, plus good sushi and sashimi. (How about all of you? What are your favorite dishes?).

Daisuke - you asked a unique question about ramen shops in Kashiwa, in Chiba. You remembered that I used to live there.

Well, I haven't been to any of the places you said. Sorry! But I think you know ramen well, and know the difference between good ramen and bad!

This is Part 1. More Q&A in a Part 2 post will follow soon. Thank you!

星薬科大学薬学英語 I 火曜日１時限・２時限・Unit 1 vocab Q&A review board game questions and answers

Hello again,

As promised - QUESTIONS & ANSWERS TO UNIT 1 VOCAB Q&A REVIEW BOARD GAME:

Q: What do you call a reaction to something you are allergic to, like a drug or pollen?
A: Anaphylaxy (-or- anaphylactic shock)

Q: What's a research protocol?
A: An ethical statement and description of a research project, including information about the funding, sponsorship, institutional affiliations, and levels of risk involved in the project.

Q: What is the duty of a physician in a medical research project?
A: To safeguard the health of human and/or animal subjects.

Q: What does it mean to be under "coercion?"
A: It means to do something when you are forced to, under great pressure.

Q: What does 優先 mean in English?
A: Precedence.

Q: What do you call a living thing that lives in or on another living thing, causing damage to it?
A: A parasite.

Q: What's a research population?
A: A group of people chosen as subjects for a research project.

Q: How do you spell テトラサイクリン in English?
A: T-E-T-R-A-C-Y-C-L-I-N-E (tetracycline).

Q: What do you call the persons who are having drugs tested on them in a research experiment?
A: Subjects.

Q: What is "intervention" in Japanese, and can you explain it in English?
A: Intervention is 冶療, and it means a test agent (like a new medication) that is used in a certain research population group to test the effects of the agent on the subjects, to see if it works.

Hope you can use these to help with your review for the tests in this class. See you next Tuesday!

星薬科大学薬学英語 I 火曜日１時限・２時限・Unit 1とUnit 2のスタート

Hello Tuesday morning PharmEng students,

Here's our lesson plan from today (5/10):

1.Warmup - Unit 1 vocab Q&A review board game
2.Unit 2 - Growing Alzheimer's Drugs in Rice
a. What patients do with medicine or medications:
*Patients can take medicine
drink (a) medication
inject
inhale
b. Reading first half of Unit 2
*Group reading,listening & note-taking
3.Homework - blog check
read whole of Unit 2 at home

In my next post right after this one, I will show you the questions and answers to the Unit 1 vocab Q&A review.

星薬科大学薬学英語 I 火曜日１時限・２時限

Hello to all my new Hoshi students in 1st and 2nd periods on Tuesdays!

Here is the lesson plan for both classes for Tuesday, April 26th:

1. Warmup - identifying katakana-English words, word combinations and pronunciations: テトラサイクリン(tetracycline); ペニシリン(penicillin);　アレルギー(allergy); アナフィラキシー(anaphylaxy); ショック(shock)

2. Homework check - 5 sentences using words from reading vocabulary list

3. Declaration of Helsinki
a. reading-listening-note-taking
b. Q&A with questions on board
c. Q&A with open class

I said I would post the questions I wrote on the board in class, but so many of you wrote the questions, so I will not repeat them here.

You all did a good job with the reading, and while it wasn't easy for some of you, you tried hard. Your reading ability and speed will get better over the year, so don't worry.

Let's go over the questions more when we come back after Golden Week, and then go on to Unit 2.

Good job to all of you!

Take care,

Lee