Today we made it to PAHS at 8am to sit in with the medical students for two of their lectures. The first lecture was a general overview of the pharmacology of antimicrobials and the second lecture covered the applications of antigen-antibody interactions. The lectures gave us an opportunity to meet some of the students who did not join us at the zoo yesterday. The lectures were well taught and clear and, for the most part, the students did not seem to have any trouble understanding the material. One of the students asserted that the most difficult part of medical school for him and the other students was the self-study related with the PBL cases, not the lectures or the practical sessions (labs). From what we heard from the students, we have started to get an idea about how we can be most helpful to them in their studies. When we offer tutoring sessions our focus will be on sharing our experiences with them to improve their efficiency in research. This will include skills in the use of online research resources, note taking and time management.

Tomorrow, we will continue to reach out to the students in their lectures and practical sessions. Over time, we hope that we will be able to engage the shyer students. Moving towards this, we will spread out through the classroom, so that we sit next to different students in each lecture and introduce ourselves to them.