Worm Learn: Who's Responsible ?

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http://home.austarnet.com.au/wormman/wormman.htm

 

 

Worm Learn

 

Who's Responsible ?

 

 

Hard at Work WormLearn is (for the time being) the sole responsibility

of Dr Peter Darben (aka wormman). Wormman is an online identity I

created to serve as an email address and IRC alias, because I was

bored with the same old p.darben. The name has been

around for a little while, but it stuck after a colleague created a

comic strip in my honour.

 

I'm currently a secondary school teacher living in Queensland,

Australia. For the last three years I have been teaching at Mount Isa

State High School in the state's far northwest. My areas are senior

biology and junior science, plus a little multistrand science and any

maths that crawls my way. I completed my undergraduate degree (a

Bachelor of Applied Science - Medical Laboratory Science) in 1989 at

the Queensland University of Technology and then hung around there to

do a PhD on the chemical nature of the shell wall of nematode eggs

(graduating 1996). During that time I was appointed as a laboratory

demonstrator in Clinical Parasitology, Clinical Biochemistry, and

various other odds and sods (eventually making it to a brief term as

an associate lecturer), and kept myself busy tutoring 3rd year Med Lab

Science students, maintaining the QUT Parasitology Collection,

creating the original QUT Parasitology Pages (from which WormLearn

evolved), and getting involved in communtiy health and education projects.

 

Look ! No Gloves ! The election of the conservative government

hereabouts (and their subsequent slashing of tertiary education

budgets) put paid to my ever hoping to continue my career in academia,

so in 1997 I enrolled (and completed) the Graduate Diploma in

Secondary Education at QUT (hell, why learn a new beaurocracy ?). I'm

afraid I've always enjoyed the teaching side of things to the research

side, so I'm more suited to be a teacher than an academic.

 

In addition to all of this, I've also worked in the food testing

laboratory of a company which exports wild boar meat to various

countries in the EU and elsewhere (we're the only country that doesn't

have pork tapeworm or Trichinella endemic). The lab does basic

microbiology (E. coli, preliminary Salmonella, basic hygiene and total

aerobic mesophiles) as well as checking for Trichinosis (just in

case). Fairly mindless, but interesting enough with plenty of little

side treks (hydatids popping up occasionally, spargana and the

omnipresent mystery of the seasonal yellow pigs).

 

My interests other than parasitology include Forteana (more of a

personal philosophy than a hobby), progressive politics, science

fiction (including an unfortunate interest in Babylon 5 - shoot me

now) and fantasy, and fighting the dark forces of fundamentalism in

all its forms.

 

Some more information on these and other things can be found at

Wormman's Worm Pages, or in my (frequently out of date) curriculum vitae.

Hey - if you're bored, remember : you followed the link.

 

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This page Copyright 1997 Dr Peter Darben.

Last Updated 19.9.2000