英語表現演習3 (金 2限): Describing materials ・ 材質の描写

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look at how to describe materials (材質を描写して). 

Take a look at the tires above. How would you describe their material? First, they are made of rubber (ゴム「護謨」). You could say that the rubber in these tires are hard and strong, but also flexible. 

You could also add more to your description - you could say they are durable and robust - this means they can be used for a long time, and they're tough. 

Finally, you could also think of some examples of how the material is used. 

So maybe you could say - The rubber in these tires are hard and strong, but also flexible. Its qualities make it durable and robust. Rubber is ideal for all kinds of industrial use, and in everything from household goods to industrial production.

Activity

Look at the pictures of these things below. How would you describe the materials? What uses are they good for? 

Plastics

Steel

Wood

Glass

Have fun with these! 

NEW! Here are the board notes from the class for 4/19 about materials types: 

See you next time!

Images: Top - by TUBS - Picture taken by myself using a Canon Powershot S500, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5399070/Plastic products - by ImGz - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3781690/Steel tubes - by Cjp24 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28837085/Wooden floor - by Lars Lentz - Photo by Lars Lentz, source. Cropped version (compliant with CC-BY-SA) by 5ko, CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14392/Glass jar - by Zaereth - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56076853

Welcome to the class! このクラスにようこそ！

Hello!

How are you? Welcome to this class! Here's a little self-introduction about myself, and about how I view my classes. 

First, a little about myself.

See you then!

Images: Unattributed images taken from the internet. I do not own the rights to these images. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for educational and illustrative purposes only. 

英語表現演習4 (金・土): Final presentation final post・期末発表最後のポスト

Hello!

How are you? Here is the final post for all of you on some extra final guidelines for your final presentations next week. 

The picture above is an example of a summary in engineering (工学). Look at each part of it. 

The first part gives you a background to the topic. The next part shows a little more focus why the topic is important and worth presenting about. The last sentence shows exactly what the presenter will show in your presentation. 

Final guidelines
These guidelines are very important and will not change. Please read and check these carefully! 

1. Please come with your group members at your group's correct time schedule on time! Do not be late!

If you are more than 10 minutes late for your group - you cannot do the presentation, and you will get a zero for the presentation assignment. There will be no makeup (補講), so you really have to be here. 

2. Please be 100% ready with your finished summary, finished outline, and presentation display! 

Bring your own laptop computer or tablet with you if you're doing a digital display like Power Point or Key Note. Make sure your battery is charged up to 100% or close to it. Back your display up on a USB.

3. When you are checking your group members' presentations, check them honestly! I will take up to 20 points off your own presentation score if you are a lazy checker!

*New note - here is a screenshot of the evaluation form that all of you will use to evaluate each others' presentations (look at this on a computer or make the screenshot larger on your smartphones to see the details more clearly):

Here is an example of how one student would mark her evaluation form for the other three members of her group on the day of the presentations (again - look at this on a computer or make the shot larger on your smartphone to see it more clearly) :

So the others would mark her presentation when it is her time to present in the same way, and so on.  

I will make an average (平均) of your presentation scores by your group members' checking to show a final spoken presentation score average for you.

About final presentation assignment grading
These final presentations are 40% of your whole final grade for the class. You can get a maximum of:

20% - for your spoken presentation score average (平均)
20% - for your summary and outline

So all together, this complete assignment is the spoken presentation, the summary and the outline, and is worth a maximum of 40%. 

That is why next week is very important! 

*New extra special note for the Saturday 2nd period English Expression 4 class: I will give every one of you an additional, free 5% bonus towards your final grade because I had to inconveniently cancel the classes I did and re-arrange the syllabus this semester. 

Once again, I'm very sorry about these cancellations!

Special recommendation 
Now that you have selected your groups, I recommend that you get together outside of class and practice your presentations with each other using only your outlines. 

Remember that each person is presenting for around 5-6 minutes on the presentation day, so you should prepare something that could take you to that time - but Q&A during your presentation from your group members is okay and will help you!  

Check the paper handouts I have given you about outlines again. Remember - keywords and phrases only! In addition - do not use your summaries as notes to read from! 

The topic itself is more important than the words. The words will come to you if you have a good summary that makes it clear to you what your topic is and what you will present about it, and an outline with keywords and phrases that are organized hints for the ideas and details on what you talk about. 

I have to be strict about how the presentations will go because I want to see all of you do the best work you can do, and pass the class!

Good luck! See you at your time schedule with your group members next week!

Image: Personal photograph. All rights reserved.

英語表現演習2 (金): Final review game board exam instructions・期末テスト「ボードゲーム」の説明

Happy New Year!

 

How are you? I hope you had a great New Year's break! 

Today I will post here the instructions (説明) about our final review exam. As I've said in class, it will be in the form of a board game. 

I hope this will be an interesting way to take a test for all of you! 

Instructions

I wasn't sure what the best way was to show you how to play this game - so I wrote out the instructions by hand and scanned them, then uploaded them here. This is (I hope!) a way to save time and paper, and something you could look at anytime on your Smartphone.

First - this is what the board will look like. It will be on A3-sized paper:

You will notice 14 playing squares - seven (7) black squares, and seven (7) white squares, with the start square and the goal in gray. This board will be for the two (2) game pieces that two (2) players will play on. 

The 14 squares will be for the questions that both players will ask each other. The arrows show the directions the players will move their game pieces around on when they answer the questions correctly.

Now let's take a look at the steps in the board game!

Here is what the score sheet looks like: 

(It's small on the scan shot, but you'll see it more clearly on paper next week!)

I hope this is okay for all of you! Take a look at these steps - look at them as many times as you want or need. We'll play this next week (1/18) in our last class for the review exam!

New! Here is a shot from today of some important board notes. Please look at these! 

So good luck! See you next week!

Images: By David Lapetina - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11164358. Other images - personal scans. All rights reserved. 

英語表現演習2 (金): Tenerife airliner disaster・テネリフェ空港ジャンボ機衝突事故

Hello!

How are you? Today, let's look at the Tenerife airport disaster (テネリフェ空港ジャンボ機衝突事故) in 1977. Have you ever heard about it? If you haven't - then today you'll find out!

The map above shows where it happened - on the island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. The Canary Islands are controlled by Spain. 

Below are two (2) maps of where the Canary Islands are in the Atlantic Ocean: 

Activity

Watch the video below. It is a re-creation of the accident. 

If you go to YouTube at this link, you can turn on Japanese subtitles (字幕) if you need them. 

As you watch, make notes about each step of events that led to the accident. 

Watch the video as many times as you want or need. What do you see that happened? How do you think it could have been prevented? 

When you are finished, explain what happened to your classmates, based on what you watched plus your notes. 

Have a Happy New Year! See you in 2019!

Images: Top – screenshot taken from http://www.world-guides.com/europe/spain/canary-islands/lanzarote/lanzarote_maps.html/Maps of Canary Islands in Atlantic & near Morocco – screenshots taken from http://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/canary-islands-continue-quest-for-geothermal-energy-utilisation

Video uploaded from YouTube. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). I do not own the rights to this video. Uploaded for classroom purposes only.

英語表現演習2 (金): Photosynthesis・光合成

Hello!

How are you? Today I have a video for you about photosynthesis (光合成). 

Activity
Watch this video about photosynthesis. It explains what the process of this is about. 

If you go to YouTube at this link, you can turn on Japanese subtitles (字幕) if you need them. 

As you watch, make notes about each step in the process of photosynthesis. 

Watch the video as many times as you want or need. What do you see that happens? What chemical processes are at work? 

When you are finished, explain this process to your classmates based on what you watched plus your notes. 

Have a Happy New Year! See you in 2019!

Image: By At09kg - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17219609

英語表現演習4 (土): Fall semester final presentation assignment・期末発表

Hello!

  

Here is our fall semester final presentation assignment.  

Topics & task

Here are your choice of topics. They're based on what we've done so far in class from the textbook since the mid-term (中間). You can choose one (1) of these: 

     •    Genetic modification in food and plants or traits in humans

     •    Ethical and legal issues of DNA application

     •    Genetic facts, traits, and behaviors of certain animals  

     •    Medical possibilities and/or ethical issues in cloning

Guidelines

1. Prepare rough drafts of a summary (要約) and a basic outline (あらすじ), following the guidelines from the handouts I will give you about outlining, about the topic you want to present on. The rough summary and outline will be due next week (来週).

2. On the presentation day, you will hand in final drafts of both the summary and the outline about your presentation topic.

NEW - Some starting resources
Instead of a separate supporting post, I have decided to include some links to TED Talks here as some starting sources of information and research. 

You should do your own research, so please search around for more resources of your own - TED Talks you have searched out on your own, YouTube videos, Japanese or English websites on biological science or biotechnology, and such. But these links could help you get started on your research.

Each one of these talks come with Japanese subtitles (字幕) and both English and Japanese transcripts of the talks if you need them. 

Important note: 
Do not copy anything word-for-word from the transcripts! You can point to things a speaker says in a talk, but please do not plagiarize (盗作して) any of the content. 

Genetic modification in food and plants or traits in humans:

Nina Tandon – Could tissue engineering mean personalized medicine? 
Click on this link here for this TED Talk.

Dean Ornish – Your genes are not your fate 
Click on this link here.

Ethical and legal issues of DNA research:

Ellen Jorgensen – What you need to know about CRISPR 
Click on this link here.    

Keolu Fox – Why genetic research must be more diverse 
Click on this link here.

Genetic facts, traits, and behaviors of certain animals:

Tony Buffington – Why do cats act so weird?
Click on this link here. 

Prosanta Chakrabarty – Clues to prehistoric times, found in blind cavefish 
Click on this link here.

Medical possibilities and/or ethical issues in cloning:

Richard Resnick – Welcome to the genomic revolution 
Click on this link here. 

A note about this last link: It is not directly about cloning, but the possibilities Resnick discusses in his talk may have an impact on cloning research.

NEW - Presentation tips and hints

Here is a short and funny, but important video on good and bad presentation tips and hints. Watch this one! 


Deadline (締め切り) 

We will do the presentations on January 19th, 2019 (1/19/2019), so you have over one (1) month to prepare these. 

Special note:

In your speaking and writing, use some of the vocabulary that you have seen and learned from the textbook, though you are not limited to only vocabulary from those units. 

But – you cannot use your written composition as a script for your presentation!

Good luck! I look forward to seeing, and reading about, your choices of topics. 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock. All rights reserved.