Grading freshman lab reports=hilarious

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the experiences of teaching assistants (TAs) grading freshman lab reports in a general chemistry course. Participants share humorous anecdotes and frustrations regarding common mistakes made by students, such as improper graphing techniques, poor grammar, and failure to follow instructions. The conversation touches on the challenges of grading and the expectations of students in a university setting.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some TAs express amusement at the mistakes in lab reports, noting issues like connecting data points without fitting a best-fit line and mixing up axes.
  • One participant recalls a grading experience where only a couple of reports had proper grammar, highlighting the lack of basic skills among students.
  • Another TA mentions the absurdity of students blaming instructors for their mistakes, suggesting that students should take ownership of their learning.
  • Some participants argue that if many students make the same mistake, it reflects a failure in teaching, and instructors should focus on correcting these errors rather than ridiculing students.
  • A student contributor suggests that university students should already possess basic lab report skills, questioning the lack of preparedness among freshmen.
  • Concerns are raised about the impact of high school education on students' readiness for university-level lab work.
  • Several participants share their experiences of grading and the emotional toll it takes, with some finding humor in the situation while others express frustration.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

There is a mix of agreement and disagreement among participants. While some find humor in the mistakes and believe it is part of the learning process, others feel that making fun of students is inappropriate and that instructors should focus on correcting errors. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the best approach to handling such situations.

Contextual Notes

Participants note that the grading process can be subjective and influenced by prior experiences with teaching and grading. There is also mention of varying expectations based on students' backgrounds and previous education.

  • #31
Moonbear said:
I think there are two general categories of students who go to such great lengths to cheat. First, there are those who really don't care and should have never gone to college in the first place. Their parents pay for everything and told them to go, so they went, and figured they'd party for 4 more years before having to get a job or move back onto their parents' sofa. They just want to pass to keep the beer money coming. The other group are those who are failing and do it out of desperation. They're often the ones who don't cheat until the final exam, and then are so afraid of failing anyway, they figure it's worth the risk. Well, there might be a third group, those who are just dishonest in general and want to take the easy way out on everything they do.
I've heard that another group sees it as a mark of prestige among their peers, if they can cheat their way through a supposedly difficult class. This is not inconsistent with my experience.
 
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  • #32
BobG said:
I loved the labs, but they were definitely an adventure. I still remember the experiment where you put the mystery liquid in a beaker, cover the beaker with tin foil with a tiny pin prick in it, heat the liquid until it becomes a gas, then let the gas condense back into a liquid. Then you had to figure out what the liquid was from it's boiling point and how much liquid you wound up with.
That reminds me of a quantitative chem lab I took. We were given unknowns and needed to do a colorimetric titration. We were told that we should stop as soon as it turned the palest pink. So, that's what I did, got my results, went up to the TA, gave him my results, he looked at it and told me it wasn't right, but there was time to try again. In the meantime, I watched the person who was across from me on the bench turn his solution a dark magenta, get his results, bring them up to the TA, and was told he had the correct values. So, I dragged the TA along to my bench and made him watch EVERY step to find out where I went wrong, because I was positive I had been very careful to do everything right. So, he watched, didn't see anything wrong with anything I did, and the results came out almost exactly the same as the first time. I was convinced my sample was measured incorrectly when it was given to me, but the TA just would not believe me, even after watching everything I did. :cry:

I preferred organic chem lab, at least when I had to measure out all my own chemicals to synthesize something, I got reasonable yields and the right product.

Oh, then there was analytical chemistry...ha ha ha...our TA would disappear and attend their department seminar during our lab! There were 12 students in the lab, we each worked with a partner. Each team was doing a different experiment from every other team in the class (6 different pieces of equipment to play with, one experiment for each piece of equipment, and we each started on whatever one we happened to stand in front of the first day of class and rotated through all of them during the semester). So, after the first week, there was at least one group that knew how to use each piece of equipment, and we ended up teaching each other. Though, once we had a problem with a piece of equipment that just wouldn't work right, and out of desperation, we went over as a class to the lab across the hall where we knew another TA worked, and pleaded for him to help us. He was shocked and appalled that our TA had completely disappeared (and he was probably a little bit fearful that a bunch of undergrads were working unsupervised right across the hall from him...we were a bit fearful ourselves). Our regular TA began staying around during the lab after that. :biggrin: But, to be honest, we actually learned a lot more without our TA...that one was generally useless and when we had to teach each other, we were forced to really learn what we were doing. Oh, but that was also the class where we had to identify an unknown analgesic. For some reason, all the women could identify the tablets based on appearance (even the ones that didn't have "Bayer" stamped across them :smile:)...we weren't supposed to get given the tablets, but I guess our TA couldn't be bothered to crush them to a powder before giving them to us.

Sorry, I'm just reminiscing about chem labs.
 
  • #33
pattylou said:
I've heard that another group sees it as a mark of prestige among their peers, if they can cheat their way through a supposedly difficult class. This is not inconsistent with my experience.

Good thing I am not amongst this kinda thought process...
 
  • #34
Pengwuino said:
Good thing I am not amongst this kinda thought process...
I think they're the future politicians and used car salesmen. :biggrin:
 

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