Re: [At first arrival]
[let me think about this... translate trek speak to words I understand]
[oh, wait...]
Bones, my ancestors have been traveling the stars for far longer than humans have existed. We never worked on faster-than-light travel because we never needed it -- when your home is a ship as self-contained as a planet, finding habitable worlds to stop and trade with matters more on a species timescale than an individual.
I suspect my teacher would be far more interested in human tool use from an academic point of view; we do things far too differently for anything to be even indirectly adaptable. Humans build tools; Oankali breed them.
[In other words, it's not a clear Prime Directive case, since the aliens really are alien in their mindset.]