Ternaugh Posted March 5, 2020 Report Share Posted March 5, 2020 Back in high school Accounting class, we would have a weekly quiz. One week, we came in and there were a bunch of words on the chalk board. After each question, I'd write down the answer, look up at the board, find that answer, and wait for the next question. At the end, the teacher announced that everyone should have 100%, and looked at me, and said, "Joe, would you explain why I said that?" And I said, "Because all of the answers are on the board." And the rest of the class let out a groan. I was the only one with a perfect score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 5, 2020 Report Share Posted March 5, 2020 Meanwhile, I have a pair of students in lab right now for whom the zero point energy is strong. "Zero point energy" is the all-pervasive energy field that causes students taking freshman-level physics labs to get zero points. Pariah and Logan D. Hurricanes 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted March 5, 2020 Report Share Posted March 5, 2020 6 hours ago, Cancer said: I see very little difference between what you describe and current political reality. But, it is always different when you are god-chief. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 5, 2020 Report Share Posted March 5, 2020 I'm more of a demon-lackey sort, so I will take your word for that. Quote Yes, I am a minion of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted March 9, 2020 Report Share Posted March 9, 2020 Happens more than we know, I'm sure... L. Marcus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 9, 2020 Report Share Posted March 9, 2020 I've received one of those. Mind you, what is shown there is the translation from the academicspeak, but I have received one of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 Did you retaliate by calling him a mean doo-doo head? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 No, I sent my people after him. Old Man 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 20 minutes ago, Cancer said: No, I sent my people after him. Who, grad students? *shudder* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 If I told you, I'd have to send them after you, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 Quote Here's what I've decided to do for our final exam. The final exam is optional. By the end of Monday March 16 (last day of classes) I will have composed an all-work-so-far curve; this will include a necessarily cursory grading of the final homework. At that time I will transmit to each of you your grade in the course in that curve, probably by email (because I can't think of another way to transmit the information in a timely way that has better privacy). *IF* you already have an A in the course in that curve, you MAY NOT take the final. You're done. Take your victory lap and go home. See you next term. *IF* you have something other than an A and are satisfied with that grade, you do not need to do anything. The default option is "No, I will keep what I have." *IF* you want an opportunity to improve your grade at the risk of doing poorly and hurting that grade, and the cost of the time and effort in preparing and taking the final, THEN you need to send me an email declaring that you are "opting in" to the final exam. That email has to be sent to me no later than noon Seattle time Wednesday March 18. About the final: I will be re-using a final exam that I have given in previous years (but one from which I have drawn no homework problems); it is far enough in the past so as to be lost in the mists of time for anyone but me. I will be assuming that, statistically, the overall performance of the class is the same from year to year; this will allow me to infer letter-grade performance on the exam this year despite having only a partial and biased sample of this year's class taking the exam, and so on. I like to think that I have improved as a teacher over time and therefore my students will perform better than they did then, but (1) that presumably will operate in your favor, and (2) I concede I am given to vainglory of this kind. The intended circumstances for the exam will be the same, and the exam itself will be comparable to the sample exam already posted to the Canvas page, so that sample is relevant to your exam preparations. Those intended circumstances are: for the final, you have 110 minutes of time. You are allowed THREE pages of notes. If your previous exams' note sheets served you well, you may re-use those, or you may prepare new ones in their place, and you need to prepare a new note page for the material since the 2nd exam. You are also allowed a small box with the vectors I, B, and F written along edges as appropriate for the magnetic right-hand-rule. And, you are allowed a non-web-enabled calculator. Other details of how the exam-taking protocol will work remotely I will post at a later time. If you are already on record with Disabilities Services as requiring extra time, you will be allowed that extra time. If there are other special circumstances that are provided for under your accommodations (e.g., taking the exam alone in a non-distracting room), you will have to provide those by yourself somehow. Draft of a policy declaration. Pariah and Starlord 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 23 minutes ago, Cancer said: Draft of a policy declaration. Please let us know how this turns out...particularly how many people with C or lower opted not to take the exam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 I was always amazed at the students - and parents - that were perfectly happy with a D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 My Mom had the expectation that I should do my best, which meant that I was frequently on the Dean's List while in college. Dad, on the other hand, was mostly a C student. He was very proud of one class where he received an A, but Mom told me later that he had flunked out of all of the other courses he took that semester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 1 hour ago, Starlord said: Please let us know how this turns out...particularly how many people with C or lower opted not to take the exam. Well, on partial returns admittedly, but at the moment, there's a dozen (of 74) at C or below, but no one lower than a C-minus. (I have scared some individuals into dropping the class already.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 2 hours ago, Logan.1179 said: I was always amazed at the students - and parents - that were perfectly happy with a D. It depends on the class. For me in an English class a D wasn't so bad. In history, I would be insulted with myself if I failed to at least make at least a B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 The meetings etc. for the faculty search are over. Man, was that a stupendous timesink. Now, the timesink of prepping to do teaching online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 I got a D in Math (singular here in the USA) in 8th Grade...because it was exactly the same as Math in 7th Grade, which I already knew and had no more reason to be interested in. I also got a D in History my senior year in high school. I was about to graduate and had already been accepted to the colleges I wanted. And the teacher was a putz (and the father of our eventual class valedictorian, whom I loathed on personal grounds). As far as college goes, I always tell people that Biochemistry is "the class I enjoyed so much I took it twice!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pariah Posted March 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 Just now, Cancer said: The meetings etc. for the faculty search are over. Man, was that a stupendous timesink. Now, the timesink of prepping to do teaching online. Good luck. I do not envy you the task before you, but you've got this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 Well, now I need to fake up a way to write on a board. I have an old iPad, but I don't have a stylus that works with it. Zoom itself doesn't seem that mysterious, but there will be the usual first-time learning-to-use nonsense. OTOH, we are being told that need to explore going to online-only courses next term. Exactly how one does that with lab courses has not, of course, been mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted March 10, 2020 Report Share Posted March 10, 2020 9 hours ago, Logan.1179 said: Who, grad students? *shudder* They're top men. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted March 11, 2020 Report Share Posted March 11, 2020 5 hours ago, Badger said: They're top men cannon fodder. FTFY. Back when I was a grad student, I made the comment: "Grad students walk point through the jungles of astrophysics." I have to explain the term "walk point" to my students (kids these days, yeesh) but they get the point when I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted March 11, 2020 Report Share Posted March 11, 2020 walk point seems pretty much self-explanatory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted March 11, 2020 Report Share Posted March 11, 2020 It ought to be for a generation that has never known a country at peace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted March 11, 2020 Report Share Posted March 11, 2020 Walk point? Oh, take point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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