I'm crying and suicidal. and a bit hungry

[Pengwuino]

So I began grading my students first lab assignment. It was a 175 question math review going all the way from basic addition to logarithms and basic algebra and they had a week to do it.

First person was decent enough.

This second person makes me cry. MY STUDENTS CANT DO ARITHMETIC WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH



Please, leave me alone. I don't want to speak to anyone ever again

Also, does anyone have a good recipe for a good lasagna?

 

[wukunlin]

awww, I know how you feel :(

 

[Doc Al]

I feel your pain! I remember grading a homework assignment and concluding that forget physics, some of these kids cannot string a meaningful sentence together. Brutal.

(I ended up switching several of the exams to be multiple choice--just to give me a break when I graded them. Of course, my multiple choice questions were pretty tricky! )

 

[Pengwuino]

Ohhhh 3rd and 4th person sadfaced me too!

 

[I like Serena]

Welcome to the world of teaching.
1% teaching physics, 99% teaching basic algebra.
I share your pain.

It's still rewarding to see someone learn and enjoy it, even if it's only basic algebra.

 

[Pengwuino]

Teehee.

Guess what? They're all future teachers.

THAT'S RIGHT, YOUR CHILDREN'S TEACHERS CAN'T DO BASIC MATH.

Home schooling my lil penguins.

 

[wukunlin]

Welcome to the world of teaching.
1% teaching physics, 99% teaching basic algebra.
I share your pain.

It's still rewarding to see someone learn and enjoy it, even if it's only basic algebra.

so true, when I work as a TA, I spend most of the time showing people how to do algebraic rearrangements and trignometric identities

 

[rhody]

Teehee.

Guess what? They're all future teachers.

THAT'S RIGHT, YOUR CHILDREN'S TEACHERS CAN'T DO BASIC MATH.

Home schooling my lil penguins.

Pengy,

Do any of your students:

A: Know you are a member of PF
B: Know your ID

If yes, then tread carefully my flippered friend, some disgruntled student could use this post against you. I am semi serious here. Nothing you have said is inflamatory, but with people losing their jobs over their FB posts, you never know what will raise the ire of college administrators. Just a thought.

Rhody...

 

[Borek]

It would be interesting to see questions and - at least some - answers. I wonder how serious the problem is.

 

[flyingpig]

I thought you were teachign physics.

 

[Borek]

I thought you were teachign physics.

That's Peng thought up to today as well.

 

[flyingpig]

Just fail them all and laugh at them when they cry leaving the classroom. My calculus teacher did that

 

[Pengwuino]

Pengy,

Do any of your students:

A: Know you are a member of PF
B: Know your ID

If yes, then tread carefully my flippered friend, some disgruntled student could use this post against you. I am semi serious here. Nothing you have said is inflamatory, but with people losing their jobs over their FB posts, you never know what will raise the ire of college administrators. Just a thought.

Rhody...

God no, I'm not that dumb. I think. Honestly, some of my students during yesterdays lab didn't realize that the packet I gave them with the instructions on how to do the lab was... well, in fact, instructions on how to do the lab. SIGH.

It would be interesting to see questions and - at least some - answers. I wonder how serious the problem is.

I'll put some up when I get back home :)

That's Peng thought up to today as well.

LAWLS D:

 

[turbo]

Not good! It's really not good if your students can't master questions that can be easily tackled with algebra. Does your university actually have any entrance requirements or do they just want the tuition money?

 

[BadBrain]

If today's students scare you, you oughta meet some of today's graduates.

I recently conducted an online "discussion" with a man older than myself, and with more degrees than myself, on a matter of history, such that, had I been this guy's world history professor, I could easily imagine him asking me questions on the order of: "Did the Nazis build the Berlin Wall to keep Varius' Roman Legions out?".

In fact, there's one on-line discussion I've had with a woman who is known to me to be a Ph.D. candidate at a European university (I'm no victim of internet fraud here: I know her independently) whom I found impossible to enlighten as to the difference between public-sector employees and private-sector employees.

As I've said, if it's just your idiot students you're afraid of, you're totally over-optimistic!

 

[BadBrain]

Not good! It's really not good if your students can't master questions that can be easily tackled with algebra. Does your university actually have any entrance requirements or do they just want the tuition money?

Turbo:

Did Penguino say anything about his being an instructor at university level?

 

[Evo]

Turbo:

Did Penguino say anything about his being an instructor at university level?

His students are undergraduate university.

 

[Ms Music]

Also, does anyone have a good recipe for a good lasagna?

I have a GREAT lasagna recipe. But it is made of AVOCADO!

 

[Evo]

I have a GREAT lasagna recipe. But it is made of AVOCADO!

<PERK> Avocado? :!)

 

[256bits]

: "Did the Nazis build the Berlin Wall to keep Varius' Roman Legions out?".

Well, what is the answer? Don't just leave it dangling like that in suspense!

 

[HeLiXe]

Hey sometimes the obvious is not so obvious...like multiplying both sides by 8, etc.

I tried this one sans pork and used store bought sauce and it was good
http://mylasagnarecipe.com/"

 

[micromass]

Pengy, I want to see funny answers!

 

[NeoDevin]

I once saw a student write \frac{\hbar}{2}i\geq\frac{\hbar}{2} in a third year undergrad physics course.

 

[rootX]

It would be interesting to see questions and - at least some - answers. I wonder how serious the problem is.

Pengy, I want to see funny answers!

Me too!

 

[HeLiXe]

I once saw a student write \frac{\hbar}{2}i\geq\frac{\hbar}{2} in a third year undergrad physics course.

That is soooo ridiculous!

I have no idea what that means lol

 

[Pengwuino]

His students are undergraduate university.

Ok technically this new job is at a community college so no, not university students. However, after telling my adviser about these near-Einsteins, he commented to me that he had students in our physics for non-engineers (so not even physics for poets/morons) who didn't know how to do inverses (that is, 1/x = 5/8... x =...)

I have a GREAT lasagna recipe. But it is made of AVOCADO!

BAN HER EVO! AVACADOS MUST DIE

Well, what is the answer? Don't just leave it dangling like that in suspense!

Yah what a jerk! I want to know what happened!

Hey sometimes the obvious is not so obvious...like multiplying both sides by 8, etc.

I tried this one sans pork and used store bought sauce and it was good
http://mylasagnarecipe.com/"

*pats Helixe on the head* there there, we all make mistakes.

Just kidding, I'm perfect. You should be ashamed.

I once saw a student write \frac{\hbar}{2}i\ge \frac{\hbar}{2} in a third year undergrad physics course.

It has more things on the left hand side!

 

[Mépris]

Well, was your test anything like this one?

I would cry with you but I'm afraid that would be too homo. Even for me. :)

 

[Pengwuino]

Well, was your test anything like this one?

I would cry with you but I'm afraid that would be too homo. Even for me. :)

What the F*** is that test?!??! Is that a math test for people who want to be teachers?

 

[Mépris]

What the F*** is that test?!??! Is that a math test for people who want to be teachers?

Use it to scare your students. (for ages 15-16)

If you want to scar them for life, go for http://xtremepapers.net/CIE/International%20A%20And%20AS%20Level/9231%20-%20Further%20Mathematics/9231_s02_qp_1.pdf" . (taken by students aged 18 - note, that I don't do this subject; wish I did though)

Saves you the trouble of typing up another exam.

 

[grzz]

I am retired now. But most of my time in class was spent teaching students ... how to think!

 

[BadBrain]

I once saw a student write \frac{\hbar}{2}i\geq\frac{\hbar}{2} in a third year undergrad physics course.

If i is greater than or equal to one, then he's correct.

Could you clarify the value of i?

And what does h stand for? Hypotenuse? If this a trigonometric equation, then your student was obviously wrong.

But you're leaving me guessing as to the value of your variables.

 

[BadBrain]

Stole this one from Chicago's famous radio "journalist" Paul Harvey:

Definition: Hypotenuse:

Occupied lavatory aboard an airplane!

(Get it?)

 

[BadBrain]

Ok technically this new job is at a community college so no, not university students. However, after telling my adviser about these near-Einsteins, he commented to me that he had students in our physics for non-engineers (so not even physics for poets/morons) who didn't know how to do inverses (that is, 1/x = 5/8... x =...)

Well, OK, so I'm aware that some young offenders are sentenced to community college (at least they are in my state), so your story begins to make more sense than my own observations concerning genuine university graduates.

 

[micromass]

If i is greater than or equal to one, then he's correct.

Could you clarify the value of i?

And what does h stand for? Hypotenuse? If this a trigonometric equation, then your student was obviously wrong.

But you're leaving me guessing as to the value of your variables.

i is the imaginary constant, i.e. i^2=-1
\hbar is Planck's constant (or something like that)
2 is 1+1

 

[Jack21222]

Not good! It's really not good if your students can't master questions that can be easily tackled with algebra. Does your university actually have any entrance requirements or do they just want the tuition money?

This is just speculation on my part, but I suspect these students did quite well in their respective algebra classes. Students just seem to have a habit of dumping all knowledge as soon as they take an exam on a topic.

So, it's quite possible that even a university with entrance requirements might let in students that got an A in their previous classes, but have since forgotten everything they've learned.

 

[NeoDevin]

If i is greater than or equal to one, then he's correct.

Could you clarify the value of i?

And what does h stand for? Hypotenuse? If this a trigonometric equation, then your student was obviously wrong.

But you're leaving me guessing as to the value of your variables.

i = \sqrt{-1}

 

[BadBrain]

Well, what is the answer? Don't just leave it dangling like that in suspense!

WhoooahKay! Here's the correct answer:

The government of the National Socialist German Workers Party was dissolved by the Allied Powers on 23 May, 1945. Construction of the Berlin Wall (officially the "Anti-Fascist Protective Barrier") was begun by the government of the German Party of Socialist Unity of the German Democratic Republic on 13 August, 1961, for the purpose of preventing the escape of GDR citizens to the west. Publius Quinctillius Varus (not Varius, I got that one wrong!) led the XVII, XVIII, and XIX Legions into the forest of Teutoburg (literally, the "Earthworks of the People" (far preferable to the "Anti-Fascist Protective Barrier"), where my ancestors made mincemeat of them (more literally than most of you would care to think!) in 9AD.

 

[BadBrain]

Micromass and NeoDevlin:

OK, now you're violating the laws of mathematics.

How can any even-numbered exponential have a negative number as a product?

If this is, indeed, an "imaginary constant". then what's its purpose?

 

[lisab]

Micromass and NeoDevlin:

OK, now you're violating the laws of mathematics.

How can any even-numbered exponential have a negative number as a product?

If this is, indeed, an "imaginary constant". then what's its purpose?

Trust me, there's no violation. Keep taking math and physics classes, and you'll know soon enough !

 

[micromass]

Micromass and NeoDevlin:

OK, now you're violating the laws of mathematics.

How can any even-numbered exponential have a negative number as a product?

If this is, indeed, an "imaginary constant". then what's its purpose?

It's the definition of i. Basically, we adjoin a number i to \mathbb{R} that has the property that i^2=-1. Of course, i cannot be a real number, as the square of a real number cannot be negative. So i has to be another kind of number: a complex number.

The purpose of complex numbers was (originally) to being able to solve equations. It was nothing more than a handy tool in the beginning. But now complex numbers have even found their way into physics and electrical engineering.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number

 

[BadBrain]

Doesn't anybody want to take me up on my "Siphon Theory" challenge?

Like I said, I like winning online arguments, and I'm clearly losing this one!

 

[HeLiXe]

*pats Helixe on the head* there there, we all make mistakes.

Just kidding, I'm perfect. You should be ashamed.

*wags tail*


*suddenly snaps tail sharply in your direction rendering one of your eyes inoperable*

 

[Pengwuino]

*wags tail*


*suddenly snaps tail sharply in your direction rendering one of your eyes inoperable*

BAD UNDERGRAD BAD