settling into the Institute

I now have a desk in the "specialstudien" room at the Institue for Naturfagenes Didaktik....aka, in the Master's student room at the Institute of Science Education.  As I am the only Master's student currently working with the Institute, the room has become my office.  There are 8 desks, and I have taken over 2 of them.  (More on the how/why of this later).  The Institute has recently moved to the old observatory behind Rosenborg Botanical Gardens (Botanisk Haven).  I am a few blocks from the queen's castle, Rosenborg, and the Copenhagen K (central) district.  I am really quite lucky to be working in this area--it's a great way to be in Copenhagen and get to know the heart of the city while I am here.

IND entrance at the top of the only hill in CPH/KBH

IND (the Institute) has about 14 faculty/researchers--I have slowly been going around to chat with each of them about their work and mine.  The idea is that somewhere there should be some synergy between my interests and theirs.  That way, we all keep in line with the goals and direction of the Institute, and I have some extra insight and guidance into my own research project.  It is a very social place--which I can't say is normal in Denmark, as I have heard stories from both sides of that coin. But, for me, I will just be thankful that it is such a collegial atmosphere.  We have lunch together each day, outside if the weather is nice, and sometimes have work breaks or family day/parties throughout the year.  These would involve a Julfest (Christmas party), dinners, or other celebrations.  Also, there is a ping pong table and cozy breakroom on the bottom floor.  Fridays seem to be pingpong day--those of us in the office late that day (not so many considering the Danish penchant for reasonable work hours and time with family--37 hours standard) go down and play a "round" ping pong tournament.

view of my office space and desk

The offices are typically shared, and mine has the 8 desks arranged in pairs facing one another.  This is where my selfish use of 2 desks comes in.  The room has an "A-frame" roofline, and two bright skylights that look up to the telescope observatory tower.  Quite a nice space, but my perch under the skylight (or at any other desk) left me sitting near enough to the wall that whenever I stood, I hit my head on the slope of the ceiling.  After 2 days, I broke the collegial tradiation of this room, and turn a desk to face the wall, and now have a corner style desk set up with the two.  If another Master's student comes perhaps I will change, but for the time being my skull appreciates this new desk design!  :)

sky light view of telescope/observatory tower

My task this week is to read articles, and begin to translate a former Master's thesis on a related topic to my interests.  My goal is to narrow into a suitable research question by the end of the week.  We will see how this goes....But for now I am still focusing on the Gymnasium (high school) level, and somewhere between the content standards and the teacher's instruction.  How do the standards look in the classroom.  I suspect I will end up choosing to focus on the competency standards as there US counterpart is what most interests me in the states, but we'll see.