Their biology simulation class is taught by a PE teacher......

Text | China Science News, trainee reporter Wang Zhaoyu, reporter Sun Tao

Passing through the busy construction crowd and entering the playground of the West Campus of China Agricultural University, the last of the row of low rooms on the right hand side is Yu Guoliang's warehouse, which is also his dinosaur world.

This is a "small world" that belongs to him, which is filled with dozens of model works, large and small, as well as glue, raw materials, and 3D printers. His works had nowhere to be placed, so they had to be disassembled and packed into dozens of cardboard boxes. To find a dinosaur creation, the tall Yu Guoliang needs to bend over and hunch over for a while.

As a physical education teacher at China Agricultural University, Yu Guoliang was a member of the national rugby team and the coach of the Beijing men's rugby team. He is also a prototype designer of paleontological restoration models.

From an amateur to a well-known model "prototyper", he has walked this road for more than 10 years.

In the life of more than 10 years of "stepping out of the comfort zone", the branch line of art has greatly inspired Yu Guoliang's main line of career - sports. He wants to help students and inspire these young souls to explore more possibilities in life.

Yu Guoliang, who is serious about making dinosaur models. Photo courtesy of the interviewee

Because of his daughter's request, he became attached to dinosaurs

Back in 1981, Yu Guoliang was born in Beijing to a working-class family. As a child, he showed great talent in both sports and art. However, due to the relatively high cost of studying art, Yu Guoliang became a sports student from the third grade of primary school.

From elementary school to high school, Yu Guoliang's physical training never stopped, and by the time he was in his third year of high school, his strengths - the back-to-back high jump and the discus throw - reached the first level. As a sports student, his goal is Tsinghua University.

However, during a test, Yu Guoliang suffered a strain on the posterior muscles of his leg and missed Tsinghua University. Fortunately, he was accepted into the China Agricultural University, where his main business changed to rugby, and he was selected for the national rugby team in his second year at the university.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree, Yu Guoliang stayed at Agricultural University and continued his career as a rugby player until he retired in 2009 and became a rugby coach at Agricultural University.

In addition to sports, Yu Guoliang did not give up his childhood love for art.

As early as junior high school, Yu Guoliang submitted articles to comic magazines many times. While in college, he also created a series of comic book stories about "football coaches and athletes". After working up a sweat on the stadium, he always likes to spend his free time in the dormitory by drawing.

In 2010, Yu Guoliang's daughter was born. When he was 4 years old, he found out that his daughter liked dinosaurs, so he went online to buy various dinosaur models, but there was one model that he couldn't buy. Yu Guoliang, who loves his daughter, bought semi-finished products, colored them himself, and later simply bought raw materials and made dinosaur models by hand from scratch.

"Unexpectedly, my daughter's casual little request made me fall in love with dinosaurs from then on. Yu Guoliang said with a smile.

When his daughter had more new toys and gradually lost interest in dinosaurs, Yu Guoliang "went up" instead. He immersed himself in the world of dinosaurs, and took photos of the dinosaur models he made and posted them to the online platform, and also gained a large number of fans and made many like-minded friends.

"On the Internet, I received encouragement from netizens, including theoretical guidance from some professionals, and some people said that my works are collectible. Yu Guoliang told China Science News.

The support from Tiannan Haibei gave Yu Guoliang great confidence and motivation to persevere, and he "went on the road" and gradually formed his own style.

"Out of the circle" is not only because of interest

Paleontological models have two important characteristics, one is scientific and the other is artistic.

The first is scientific. Artistry is to form a unique artistic style on the premise of ensuring scientificity, and to make reasonable artistic creations for details that cannot be found on the basis of fossils (such as the color of the epidermis).

The restored model under Yu Guoliang is vigorous and lifelike. He likes to do the "dynamics" of animals, focusing on showing every movement and muscle of the animal, so that the viewer can feel the power and speed. This is in natural harmony with his main business.

In the past 10 years of exploration, Yu Guoliang has developed his hobby into the "second branch" of life. He also taught himself software related to digital design, as well as 3D printing, kept up with the latest technology trends, and set up a course on "Design and Production of Biological Simulation Models" at Agricultural University.

Is the reason for making a hobby a profession and "getting out of the circle" just an interest? The answer is no.

"The most important reason why I've been able to keep going is that it helps me in my job. Yu Guoliang said, "If you want to do art well, you must first calm your heart." Once my mind is calm, I can reflect on many things and solve some of my confusions as a sports coach and teacher. ”

After losing a rugby game, Yu Guoliang, as a coach, was depressed for a while. During that time, Yu Guoliang used his free time to make models. In the process of constant dialogue with himself, he realized the similarity between sports competition and modeling.

The first is the importance of collecting information. The first step in modelling is to collect information on a large scale and carefully distinguish and make trade-offs, and the same is true for sports, which requires information about the opponent and the situation of your own players. Yu Guoliang said that the important reason for the defeat in that game was that he did not do a good job in collecting information.

Second, the structure is more important than the details. To make a model, it is necessary to establish the proportional relationship of the body structure, if the overall proportion is not correct, it is useless to pursue perfection in the details. The same is true for sports, each module is very important, in addition to training, there are also logistics entrances and exits, medical security, salary package, technical arrangements, etc. The division of labor in the coaching team is also very important, physical coaches, technical coaches, tactical coaches, team doctors, and the relationship should be balanced.

Yu Guoliang said that opening up a hobby of "second field" can temporarily "jump out" from his current work.

"If you have been in a discipline for a long time, you are prone to bottlenecks and cannot see your own problems. But when you move on to other hobbies, take a break from them, and look back at your job, you can find a good solution. Yu Guoliang said.

Physical education brings confidence and intelligence to students

Today, Yu Guoliang is still a lecturer, his attitude towards scientific research and professional titles is "go with the flow", and his positioning is always a teacher. "When you're with students, your words and actions can affect them. Being a teacher is a reflection of the value of a teacher. ”

His "Rugby Basics" course was particularly popular with students, often filling up during the pre-selection period, and it was hard to find a lesson. But he also felt lost about teaching.

Traditional physical education classes are somewhat boring. For example, in the case of passing, the traditional teaching method is that after the teacher has finished explaining the technique, the students work in pairs and practice the passing over and over again. Yu Guoliang has been asking himself: why do you do this, and what is the goal of teaching students each lesson?

Benefiting from the thinking in the process of modeling, Yu Guoliang continues to improve and enrich the classroom content, integrating various mini-games into the rules of rugby, so that students enjoy the class more and at the same time master the rules of rugby better.

Some students feel that they are not athletically gifted and self-confident, and Yu tells them: "Rugby is a team sport and you need different types of people in every position. You may not be the fastest, the most powerful, the most enduror, you just need to do the best you can. ”

In his view, sports competition is not only physical strength, but also wisdom. Rugby pays attention to "four or two thousand pounds", even if it is a "little thin monkey", there is a way to win in the face of the "big guy" - using the principle of inertia to change direction at the right time when running, so that the opponent can't brake. Yu hopes that students can apply the confidence and wisdom that sports bring to them in the next few decades.

In addition to attending classes, Yu Guoliang also devotes himself to the campus football club, and he wants to create a "sports social" atmosphere for the children of Agricultural University, so that college students can have a different way of socializing in addition to watching movies, eating skewers and killing scripts. During his tenure of more than a decade, the rugby club has grown from less than 10 people to more than 200 today.

Using his art expertise, Yu Guoliang also designed mascots and logos for each rugby team that could convey the team's culture. With a cultural carrier, the team members have a sense of belonging. He also designed the posters and trophies of the game to add a touch of style to the school football game.

When it comes to his students, Yu Guoliang is like a treasure. "There is a female student who took my biology simulation model course as an undergraduate, and now she is a part-time naturalist painter, and her work has been included in many publications. There is also a boy majoring in chemistry, after coming into contact with the rugby club, he likes to play very much, even if he has a leg injury, he will come back to play after recovery. He failed the first time due to fever, but succeeded the second time, exceeding the score line by more than 50 points. Yu Guoliang smiled happily.