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[galactic_hedgehog]

If the student is really serious about your class, she'll build a dinosaur skeleton out of the turkey bones for extra-credit.

Mr. Mer mentioned that you were incomplete.  A truly serious student would then put a ball at the top of its arc above the dinosaur with a label that states "The acceleration at the top of the arc is -10 m/s/s".

Since it's during Thanksgiving, that should be a sweet potato.  And the student should label it as an asteroid and make a crater out of mashed potatoes.

[llanfair]

If the student is really serious about your class, she'll build a dinosaur skeleton out of the turkey bones for extra-credit.

Mr. Mer mentioned that you were incomplete.  A truly serious student would then put a ball at the top of its arc above the dinosaur with a label that states "The acceleration at the top of the arc is -10 m/s/s".

Since it's during Thanksgiving, that should be a sweet potato.  And the student should label it as an asteroid and make a crater out of mashed potatoes.

That'll be some messy cleanup - an impact crater with mashed-potato rays.

[conjugate]

Student:  What were we supposed to put for the question about how thunder and lightning work?  I put that lightning travels faster because it is light and thunder travels slower because it is sound and if you can hear thunder, then you can be struck by lightning.

Polly:  That's a good partial answer, but I was also expecting an explanation about why they occur.

You might also want to mention that lightning is not actually light (made up of photons) but electricity (a stream of electrons).  However, that is surely quibbling, since the electrons still move much faster than sound if I recall correctly.

Here's a vaguely related question (that probably constitutes a thread hijack): when I walk on carpet, of course there's a static charge built up.  When I get close to a Christmas tree with little threads of aluminum tinsel, the tinsel reaches out for me, attracted by the difference in charge.  One of the threads gets me with an audible (and painful) snap.  Is the flow of electrons going from me to the tree or the other direction?  I know that shuffling my feet on the carpet causes electrons to move one way or the other, but never knew which way they were going (and never stopped to ask them, as they were in a hurry).  The foot-shuffling surely pulls electrons one way or the other, but it isn't clear to me which way.

[barred_owl]

If the student is really serious about your class, she'll build a dinosaur skeleton out of the turkey bones for extra-credit.

Mr. Mer mentioned that you were incomplete.  A truly serious student would then put a ball at the top of its arc above the dinosaur with a label that states "The acceleration at the top of the arc is -10 m/s/s".

Since it's during Thanksgiving, that should be a sweet potato.  And the student should label it as an asteroid and make a crater out of mashed potatoes.

That'll be some messy cleanup - an impact crater with mashed-potato rays.

<makes mental note for future class project purposes...>

FWIW, I actually did use a leftover Thanksgiving turkey skeleton when I taught an ornithology class some years ago.  Yep, boiled off all of the excess flesh and fat, dried out the skeleton, glued the leg and wing bones back in place, and all that.  No skull, and no digits, but the rest was there.  I also discovered that Cornish hens are cheaper (and more pliable) than preserved pigeons for teaching about bird musculature.  I never tried any of that acceleration stuff, though.


Okay, back to conjugate's question...

[concordancia]

Question posed to dual major: How would you compare your English classes with your Spanish classes?

Student: Our English professors don't count grammar as part of the grade at all, while for some of the Spanish professors, grammar seems more important than content.

[gennimom]

Okay. I'm just envisioning this future conversation:

Me: What style of citation have we been covering all semester?

Student: I don't know.

Me: What is the blue book that I've been waving in class all semester called?

Student: Oh, that is the APA manual.

Me: So, tell me again, what style of citation have we been covering all semester?

Student: Oh, I guess the APA?

Me: Yes, and what style did you use in on this last assignment?

Student: Um, the [I have no idea] style.

Me: Does that explain why you received a zero on that last assignment?


Of course, this is the same student who admitted to the program coordinator and I that he never reads the assignments before doing them. Think that might explain it?

[madhatter]

Student: Um, the [I have no idea] style.

That's as good a description of APA 6 as any I've seen.

[galactic_hedgehog]

Here's a vaguely related question (that probably constitutes a thread hijack): when I walk on carpet, of course there's a static charge built up.  When I get close to a Christmas tree with little threads of aluminum tinsel, the tinsel reaches out for me, attracted by the difference in charge.  One of the threads gets me with an audible (and painful) snap.  Is the flow of electrons going from me to the tree or the other direction?  I know that shuffling my feet on the carpet causes electrons to move one way or the other, but never knew which way they were going (and never stopped to ask them, as they were in a hurry).  The foot-shuffling surely pulls electrons one way or the other, but it isn't clear to me which way.

Well, obviously, the tree has been possessed by the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and is trying to reach out and touch you, using the tinsel as a substitute for His Noodly Appendage.

If you are an unbeliever, however, you might consider that if you are building up extra electrons by shuffling your feet on the rug, then you induce a positive charge on the tinsel, attracting it to you.  Initially, the electrons start to move towards the tinsel (a leader), inducing a larger positive charge and creating a leader moving towards you.  When they meet, current flows from you to the tinsel, but then there is a return stroke, from the tinsel to you, which is more powerful and, thus, brighter and louder.  So, to answer your question, yes, it goes both ways.

At least that's what I think would happen if you're playing the role of the cloud and the tree is the tree.

[gennimom]

Student: Um, the [I have no idea] style.

That's as good a description of APA 6 as any I've seen.

Well, I've been using APA in some form or another for nearly 20 years. It hasn't changed that drastically. What he used was NOT APA. This sounds like the poster who complained about the student that declared they would NOT use the assigned style.