I remember when I was in about Year 11 or 12 at high school, and I made the mistake of taking Chemistry as a subject. It was a mistake because I really had no interest or aptitude. What I had, through, was a Father interested in helping me learn the basics, and funnily enough, I have never forgotten the first 10-12 elements on the Periodic Table of Elements, largely because he stuck the table on the back of our toilet door and for 6 weeks, drilled me on it.

Rote learning has it's detractors, however there are some things, that I know I learned by rote, that are so second nature to me now, that I can't deny the effectiveness of the technique. My times table up to 12, for example, the alphabet, afore mentioned periodic table (hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, flourine, neon....etc)

So, it was no real surprise to me, when I got in the shower one morning last week to discover this.

My daughter, Emma, is studying higher level biology as part of her IB studies in her final year of high school. She has been struggling to remember some the processes involved in Cell Respiration and Meiosis so, it seemed natural to her to plaster our shower walls with her notes so that she can study when showering.

Given the current water shortage, this really only means 4 minutes per day, however it seems to be doing the job.

Well, it's doing the job with me. I can now draw the stages of Meiosis from Prophase through to Telophase.