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

Course card day today. More or less finished my grades in Trig over the weekend, and I just printed out the final standing of the failing one fourth of my class, which I attached to their course cards.

In mechanics I had to wait for three more projects to be submitted before I could finalize the grades of some thirty students.

The projectile motion impact boards arrived varnished. That was the only thing that needed to be done with it when it was submitted last Friday. I had already completed their grades, and was just holding their course cards pending the submission of their project.

For the conservation of mechanical energy first setup, there was one more setup that arrived. The only difference between this one and the previous one was that this one had the blade firmly attached to the stand already. Unfortunately, this also meant that the blade could not be replaced if it became dull. There was also a hook instead of a screw for attaching the string. As with the other set up, the height of the string and the blade were fixed and could not be adjusted. I guess that's one project I could have for next term.

The group only got a credit of 7 out of 20 for this submission.

For the second setup, it was a completely new submission that they gave compared to what they showed me last Friday. The plastic hula hoop curved tubes were cut on the inner side then glued to an iron stand. Then the whole thing was (spray?) painted a silver color.

For one thing, the height again wasn't adjustable. For another, the paint will most likely add to the friction. Third, they did not remove the threaded side of the tubes, which will again add to the error in the experiment. Lastly, the cutting that they did to the side of the tubes wasn't even. It looked narrow for some and very wide for others.

I only gave them a 75% grade for that project, which was still an improvement over their original grade of half the full credit.

There was also a student whose course card I withheld pending declaration from his groupmates that he contributed (either in labor or funds) to their project.

Brian's mother also called. Unfortunately, her son only got 26% in the Trig finals, to which he didn't even bring a calculator and for which he stayed less than thirty minutes. If he had maintained the same score as in his first exam, he would have passed the subject.

The student with the long neck during exams also failed, which is a big relief for me. Good thing he didn't show up today to get his course cards, when Maila said his complaint with her last term was he was comparing his grade with his classmates, when he should have gotten as high as they did.

Lastly there was one student who did not take the finals in mechanics, believing that she would not pass anyway. When I gave her her course card today, it had a zero-point-zero, but also indicated that she did not take the finals. When I asked her to just submit an excuse letter and take a make up exam, she said she preferred to just repeat the subject. Not my decision anymore.