Today I was called "stupid" by students. Not to my face, verbally. Instead, I was called stupid by their performance on their lab finals. On one question, the appropriate calculation calls for the students to plug in a number for the variable "r". The equation given was exactly how they had seen it in their laboratory exercise a few weeks ago - "r" stands for the distance from the Sun. While the students were taking the lab exam, a few came up to me asking if "r" meant the radius of a planet, and if so, why hadn't I given it to them? I told them that they had to trust that I had given them the appropriate information, just as on their lab exercise. I also hinted that perhaps "r" could stand for something else besides radius and that they should recall the calculations that they had done previously. I had anticipated that a few students might stumble on this, but it should basically just separate the A's from the B's - I'd be able to tell who studied for the exam.

So, I was grading at Starbucks this morning, and I came across two exams where the students answered this calculation along the following lines: "we were not given the radius, so we aren't able to do this problem." Wow. These students actually implied that I was incompetent enough that I didn't draft a final exam with the correct information. Wow.

It's been a rough semester. I've had several incidents of cheating, and so far the high score on the lab exam is equivalent to the average score from previous semesters. (And yes, it's basically the same exam. I get lazy sometimes!) I establish high standards, and my students generally rise to meet them. It makes me miss students from previous semesters - Nicole, Rosa, Sarah? John, Kevin, Phil? Come back!

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