Oh the lab practicum exam. If you’ve never had the “pleasure” of taking an 8am ecology course at Colby, you’ve also missed out on the epic experience that is the jabberwocky of all lab practicums. Economics majors may have the 345 and English majors may have critical theory, but these pale in comparison to a 2+ hour exam where you need to know 300+ species (English and Latin names, classification, adaptations, habitats etc..). One aspect of this Sisyphean task is a rotation through 60 stations, complete with an ear drum shattering buzzer every minute signaling that you are to progress to the next task.
The biology class I help out in had their lab practicum today. Only 15 stations and the teacher built in three rest stations…lucky kids….
At a station involving cellular respiration there was a bottle filled with yeast, water and molasses. Covering the top of the bottle is a balloon that expands as carbon dioxide is released as a product of cellular respiration. Four students are hovering around this station (note: there is only supposed to be one person per station). The teacher is walking towards the students to see why they are all on the same station when she overhears them talking about the answers.
--It’s is filled with carbon dioxide (Hooray! This is the right answer).
--Naw, it’s nitrogen
--No, air.
--It’s filled with yeast.
The students disperse, as the teacher is about to tell them to go back to their own stations. When she flips through the tests, she compares the four student’s answers who cheated and worked together. Despite their conversation, no two students had the same answer and the student who actually said “carbon dioxide” decided to opt for nitrogen. Oh dear.
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