Professor Taransay
August 21, 2016 11:09 AM
A tricky eggs-ercise [Years VI & VII] by Professor Taransay
Rory was quite pleased with the lesson he had planned out for the advanced students. Usually he liked to have very hands-on classes, as he thought that the most interesting part of the subject was getting to see and handle lots of different creatures, but with the advanced class that wasn’t always so easy to do. Creatures such as a manticore were hard to incorporate into a class, and also with the older students he had to think about preparing them for their exams. Still, he wanted to make sure that the lessons were both fun and informative, and he thought today’s lesson fitted in with that aim quite well.Sitting before Rory on a table were six lumps of differing sizes, all covered with black cloths so that the students wouldn’t get a head start on his plans for the lesson. He waited until a few minutes after the lesson was meant to start, in case there were any stragglers, before commencing. “Good afternoon all,” he said, his Scottish accent obvious but not so strong that he was hard to understand. “Today’s lesson is aimed to help with revision, so I guess we’ll find out how much studying you’ve done outside of class.”
Pulling the cloths off the six different lumps, Rory revealed six different eggs, some blown out and some still with the contents inside. From left to right, they appeared as follows: small and bright red, in a jar that was cold to the touch; small and black; large, slightly squashed-looking, and light blue, with brown markings; fairly large, of a glossy blue hue and of a similar shape to the previous one; smooth and shining silver; and small and the colour of a chicken’s egg.
“Here I have six eggs, each from a different species of magical creature,” announced Rory. “Your task is to correctly identify the species to which each egg belongs to, out of all the species you have covered over the last six or seven years. Feel free to touch them and pick them up, but do be careful with them. You’ll get bonus points if you can give me extra information relevant to the egg. Please try and do this without referring to your textbooks and notes, as you won’t have them in the exam, but you can look things up if absolutely necessary. You can work with each other, but make sure you don’t let a partner do all the work or you’ll be the one suffering in the not-too-distant future.” Rory hoped that his RATS students were mature enough to put effort into this and attempt the task from what they remembered about all the creatures, as it was their future that a bad exam mark would affect. He liked to think he had a fairly relaxed classroom atmosphere, not really worrying about whether or not chatter was relevant to the task at hand so long as the students completed their work on time and to a reasonable standard.
“For homework, I’ve made up these useful worksheets, which you can start in class if you have time,” he continued, waving his hand towards a pile of worksheets, each made up of multiple pieces of paper. He wasn’t going to use a levitation spell to hand them out. The students were all mobile enough to stagger up to the front of the class to get them. “They’ve got a table for each creature you’ll be tested on, containing spaces for you to write down all the necessary information.” Rory had spent a few hours on these sheets, wanting his students to have a clear list of everything they’d be expected to know. Under the name of each animal was a table that, on the left hand side, listed all the different characteristics (colour, location, uses, etc.), and on the right hand side had blank spaces for the answers to be written. “Sixth years, you’ve got until the last lesson of term to fill these in. I won’t be collecting them, but I will be checking you’ve done it and providing you with a copy I filled in. Seventh years, it’s up to you as to whether or not you fill the worksheets in. If you think it won’t be helpful for your revision, then spend the time on other things. If you want my completed version, come and show me that you’ve done at least some of yours and I’ll be happy to give it to you.” He didn’t want to dictate how the seventh years revised, and wanted them to spend their time as they thought best, but he’d always found this sort of thing helpful for testing himself and working out what he had to learn.
Having hopefully explained everything clearly, Rory left his students to get to work. He didn’t think they’d have too much trouble with the task if they’d been doing their revision (although the two blue eggs were quite similar and could lead to confusion), but eggs were fascinating and it wasn’t often you got the chance to see them up close, let alone touch them. Whilst they were working, he was going to get on with some marking, but was also there to answer any questions they may have.
OOC: Normal class rules apply. Feel free to call Professor Taransay over or to approach his desk if help is required, but also feel free to assume he gave your student good advice and answered their question.
Answers are, in order from left to right: ashwinder, doxy, dragon (Peruvian Vipertooth), phoenix, occamy, and basilisk (actually just a chicken’s egg).
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A tricky eggs-ercise [Years VI & VII]
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