Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Yesterday I received e-mail from one of the students of Computer Science doing their thesis in astronomy. This time she asked me to provide the corrections about the statements in the survey that the students have erroneously marked as “true”.

Again, an example of either the students’ panicking due to the pressure of the deadline and not thinking clearly or plainly wanting not just everything handed to them on a silver platter but brought to their mouths as well (even pre-chewed perhaps?).

Of course all I had to do was reverse the tone of the sentences from positive to negative or vice versa, and send it back to them. For example, “It is safe to look at the Sun directly during a solar eclipse” became “It is safe NOT to look at the Sun directly during a solar eclipse”.

I just added in my reply that they should also research on the validity of those facts themselves and give customary sources, maybe even from the internet, because I doubt if the panelists will accept it if they put in their bibliography “our astronomy professor consultant said so”.

In the Wednesday mechanics lab classes, David and I again gave the students revised procedures for the Projectile Motion experiment.

This time, instead of getting the mark of the ball on a vertically placed paper whose horizontal distance from the end of the ramp is changed, it was a horizontally place paper whose vertical distance from the ramp (or, to put it simply, the height) is changed.

The graph of the trajectory came out more or less the same, especially once the students were reminded that for the downward moving object, vertical displacement would have negative values.

Their graph was curve-fitted (sort of linearization for the nearest parabolic equation), and equally spaced values of horizontal displacement (to show no change in the velocity) were determined along with the equivalent change in height. These values were the ones that they placed in the tables.

So unlike the initial procedure for the experiment, in our version, it’s absolutely necessary to make the graph first before the table can be filled.

It was also during the lab sessions that I found out Joanne, the lone rose among the thorns in the fourth group of the 11am session, was not allowed by David to switch groups even though her group mates had already agreed to it. I guess there is a limit of how far a teacher can adjust for the students, and when they have to start adjusting to the teacher.

Today in the mechanics lecture I scheduled their long exam, which will be on March 1, and the field trip, which will be on March 20.

I was also late for my 1120am class because during lunch two visitors in the canteen - husband and wife where the guy teaches at a neighboring school - asked to join me and wanted to know a lot more about this institution. Some of the students left the room already because I went beyond the 15 minute grace period, despite the fact that they were also having lunch the same time we were.