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

First activity in the mechanics laboratories yesterday, which is about Signficant Figures. Everyone showed up for the 8-11am class, even though some of them were almost too late for the ten point five minute quiz at the start of the class.

For that one I had to adjust the time because they had to tear up the one fourth sheet of paper I said was going to be used for the quiz. I also had to repeat the questions (good thing there were only three, two being multi-point definitions and the last being enumeration) every time someone showed up late before the time ran out.

I also tried to emphasize to them the value of quick measurement and leader’s delegation of work. I told them that as soon as they finished with their measurements, they could submit their preliminary data sheet and leave. They just had to submit the group folder, with the computations and answers to questions, before the end of the class at 11am.

I also told them that there were three measuring instruments, three objects to be measured and at least three members per group. Even with one member of the group recording the data, the other two members could still be making measurements simultaneously, depending on what the leader told them to do. Maybe I should have five or ten percent of the grade allotted for lab team demeanor or something.

There were also three upperclassmen that showed up during this session only, and I had to assign them to different groups since there could be no more than four groups per class (based on the number of set ups available). That makes three groups of four members each and one group of three members.

Later I noticed that all of the groups (from the first class) submitted folders without fasteners (with holes on the data sheets) but with those plastic spine attachments on one side that makes the folder a page-turner like a book. I wonder how long they will use it before they realize it’s more difficult to remove and return that when they have to add to that every week.

This was the same warning I gave to another group who was planning on getting a clear book instead. I think I was able to dissuade them from the idea.

In the afternoon (2-5pm) class, only seven out of the nine students who listed last week showed up. The problem was that those two were from the same group, leaving one guy to perform the activity by himself. Even though he was given an incentive for that (he finished first in fact), it defeats the purpose on familiarizing all the group members with the practices they will be using in the experiments. So maybe I will require those absent members to make up this activity.

Two other members from another group also showed up late, despite the fact that I saw them in the hallway not fifteen minutes earlier asking about submitting the test booklet for the quiz(zes) today. Their group mate who was already there looked for them and found them in the computer lab two doors down. They said the class started at 240pm and not 2pm.

Speaking of neighboring labs, the supply room doors between the lab I used and the chemistry lab were also open, where I could hear the engineering sophomores who were my students last term noisily performing THEIR first activity, distracting all of us, more so since there are so few students in my class.

And that’s it for today. Tomorrow I’ll talk about the second Graphics Two session (even though it’s technically not my class) and today’s two quizzes and one lecture. Class dismissed.