Day in the Life of Dr. Ava Chow

Role
I’m an Associate Professor with the School of Dentistry and I’ve been with the SoD since the Fall of 2010.

Enthusiasm and embracing the outtakes
Every day is always a little different, but I always try to bring enthusiasm to work. There are always some aspects of work that are more enjoyable than others, but enthusiasm really turns work into play.

I don’t think that has changed too much since the COVID-19 transition, but I think I’d also have to add focus to the list. My work area at home is in an open loft, which makes for some hilarious outtakes when I’m recording lectures with the kids running around, but can be quite challenging when I really need to concentrate.

Escape rooms
One recent thing that sticks out is the development of a series of escape room scenarios that I created for anatomy lessons. Because learning anatomy is often memorization-based, it can be pretty dry at times. So, over the course of the past year, I created some “missions” where the students had to work through a series of anatomy-related clues, puzzles and problems in order to “escape” from the room. I piloted the activities this past year and the overwhelming feedback from the students indicated that the escape rooms were not only effective and motivating, but also fun. Seeing the success of the escape rooms and the enthusiasm of the students was really quite rewarding.

Midnight running
Like many others in the sandwich generation, my days tend to be quite long with work, the commute and caregiving activities, but I try to make it a point to fit some exercise in. It’s not unusual for me to be working out in my basement or going for a run at midnight. I’ve also picked up a few other hobbies since the pandemic began, including knitting- not that anybody really needs a wool toque in July!

Astronautical dreams
I come from a family of well-known artists so the push was always in that direction, but it was always science of some sort that drew me. As a child, I imagined myself as a biologist, a chemist and of course, an astronaut.