next »

[concordancia]

On a quiz today:

"The anthers and the of stamens make pollen and with filaments which support the stigmens for fertliza pollena pollination which has is a pollen tube the femail part of the plant flower."

The really endearing thing was, student crossed the whole thing off and wrote below that,

"I have no idea, I am not preparred."

My word, this is middle school biology.  Sometimes it's like students come to university with no school at all behind them.  This makes me sad.

I have to admit, stamens and pistils are about as far as I remember. I have not had a lot of call for this information since middle school biology class.

[barred_owl]

I'm sorry for the double post, but I could not hold back on this one:

"Bad hobbits hijack the brain."

Sounds like the voice-over for the trailer for "Lord of the Rings and Zombies."


Loved the Daphnia one, too, but the anthers and pistils one makes me sad (although a phantom point for the student's admission of non-preparedness).

[dr_alcott]

From an essay a student claimed has "no weaknesses":

"I had a brand new Pontiac g6 before I was 16 years old. So therefore, I was being showferred around in my brand new car before I could drive it."

[anakin]

I love the hobbit image.

Today's:

Daphnia are platonic crustaceans.

Daphnia can be parthenogenetic. Therefore, the "platonic crustaceans" comment is highly...perceptive.

[msparticularity]

On a quiz today:

"The anthers and the of stamens make pollen and with filaments which support the stigmens for fertliza pollena pollination which has is a pollen tube the femail part of the plant flower."

The really endearing thing was, student crossed the whole thing off and wrote below that,

"I have no idea, I am not preparred."

My word, this is middle school biology.  Sometimes it's like students come to university with no school at all behind them.  This makes me sad.

This is how I learned all about human sexuality--in 5th grade--with petunias. Seriously, our science teacher (a rather elderly gentleman from my perspective then, so, probably around my age now) was very, very embarrassed by the fact that he was supposed to teach us sex ed. So we had a looooong unit on plant reproduction, with a particular focus upon petunias because all of the relevant parts are so large and easy to see. When we got to the end, he said, "And human beings are just like that."

[frogfactory]

On a quiz today:

"The anthers and the of stamens make pollen and with filaments which support the stigmens for fertliza pollena pollination which has is a pollen tube the femail part of the plant flower."

The really endearing thing was, student crossed the whole thing off and wrote below that,

"I have no idea, I am not preparred."

My word, this is middle school biology.  Sometimes it's like students come to university with no school at all behind them.  This makes me sad.

This is how I learned all about human sexuality--in 5th grade--with petunias. Seriously, our science teacher (a rather elderly gentleman from my perspective then, so, probably around my age now) was very, very embarrassed by the fact that he was supposed to teach us sex ed. So we had a looooong unit on plant reproduction, with a particular focus upon petunias because all of the relevant parts are so large and easy to see. When we got to the end, he said, "And human beings are just like that."

Flowers are essentially tarts.  Prostitutes for the bees.

[alleyoxenfree]

On a quiz today:

"The anthers and the of stamens make pollen and with filaments which support the stigmens for fertliza pollena pollination which has is a pollen tube the femail part of the plant flower."

The really endearing thing was, student crossed the whole thing off and wrote below that,

"I have no idea, I am not preparred."

My word, this is middle school biology.  Sometimes it's like students come to university with no school at all behind them.  This makes me sad.

This is how I learned all about human sexuality--in 5th grade--with petunias. Seriously, our science teacher (a rather elderly gentleman from my perspective then, so, probably around my age now) was very, very embarrassed by the fact that he was supposed to teach us sex ed. So we had a looooong unit on plant reproduction, with a particular focus upon petunias because all of the relevant parts are so large and easy to see. When we got to the end, he said, "And human beings are just like that."

Flowers are essentially tarts.  Prostitutes for the bees.

Don't hate them because they're beautiful.

[biomancer]

I love the hobbit image.

Today's:

Daphnia are platonic crustaceans.

Daphnia can be parthenogenetic. Therefore, the "platonic crustaceans" comment is highly...perceptive.

True... in the evo class I recall learning quite a bit about what external factors trigger the Daphnia to stop being parthenogenetic and start having separate sexes and the whole stabbing-reproduction thing.  (IIRC, when life is easy parthenogenesis works, and when conditions change so that the clonal population is not longer supremely adapted, they return to sex to shuffle the genetic cards a bit.)  Some of the females get stabbed in lethal places and die before they can lay their eggs, but apparently most get stabbed in the abdomen, which is full of eggs, and they manage to survive long enough to lay those eggs.  I'm still glad I'm not a Daphnia.

Ms_P, I'm sorry you had to live through that sex ed class.  I wonder if some of your less perceptive classmates are still waiting for a pollinator to arrive.

[anakin]

We're working with pillbugs. Students submitted background research they did on isopods.

"Although most isopods are found in fresh water and marine systems, we found mention of some that live in the forest duff layer that were called wood lice, but we think that's splitting hairs."

I can't figure out if they're clever or oblivious!

[anakin]

I love the hobbit image.

Today's:

Daphnia are platonic crustaceans.

Daphnia can be parthenogenetic. Therefore, the "platonic crustaceans" comment is highly...perceptive.

True... in the evo class I recall learning quite a bit about what external factors trigger the Daphnia to stop being parthenogenetic and start having separate sexes and the whole stabbing-reproduction thing.  (IIRC, when life is easy parthenogenesis works, and when conditions change so that the clonal population is not longer supremely adapted, they return to sex to shuffle the genetic cards a bit.)  Some of the females get stabbed in lethal places and die before they can lay their eggs, but apparently most get stabbed in the abdomen, which is full of eggs, and they manage to survive long enough to lay those eggs.  I'm still glad I'm not a Daphnia.

Or a snail receiving a love dart. Or the female argonaut, who receives this detachable penis.

[galactic_hedgehog]

On a quiz today:

"The anthers and the of stamens make pollen and with filaments which support the stigmens for fertliza pollena pollination which has is a pollen tube the femail part of the plant flower."

The really endearing thing was, student crossed the whole thing off and wrote below that,

"I have no idea, I am not preparred."

No mention of the stamen being used to stab the female flowers?

[frogfactory]

I love the hobbit image.

Today's:

Daphnia are platonic crustaceans.

Daphnia can be parthenogenetic. Therefore, the "platonic crustaceans" comment is highly...perceptive.

True... in the evo class I recall learning quite a bit about what external factors trigger the Daphnia to stop being parthenogenetic and start having separate sexes and the whole stabbing-reproduction thing.  (IIRC, when life is easy parthenogenesis works, and when conditions change so that the clonal population is not longer supremely adapted, they return to sex to shuffle the genetic cards a bit.)  Some of the females get stabbed in lethal places and die before they can lay their eggs, but apparently most get stabbed in the abdomen, which is full of eggs, and they manage to survive long enough to lay those eggs.  I'm still glad I'm not a Daphnia.

Or a snail receiving a love dart. Or the female argonaut, who receives this detachable penis.

Not detachable penis?

[canonicalkumquat]

I'm not sure "entertaining" covers it, but here's a working thesis statement from one of my students:

"For what we know [author] is contradictory to the views that he wants his readers to see, but how does this point of view have on acceptable life for immigrants for the life they should have, compared to the life they do have."

I've asked him to re-write it from scratch, without looking at his original, to try to get a better idea, but in the meantime does anyone want to help me parse this?  I want to help this kid move in the right direction, but I can't do that if I don't know what he's trying to say.

[melba_frilkins]

I'm not sure "entertaining" covers it, but here's a working thesis statement from one of my students:

"For what we know [author] is contradictory to the views that he wants his readers to see, but how does this point of view have on acceptable life for immigrants for the life they should have, compared to the life they do have."

I've asked him to re-write it from scratch, without looking at his original, to try to get a better idea, but in the meantime does anyone want to help me parse this?  I want to help this kid move in the right direction, but I can't do that if I don't know what he's trying to say.

Unparsable.

It looks like he started to edit the sentence and then got distracted. I would just forget about translating it and talk to the student in person.

[mystictechgal]

I'm not sure "entertaining" covers it, but here's a working thesis statement from one of my students:

"For what we know [author] is contradictory to the views that he wants his readers to see, but how does this point of view have on acceptable life for immigrants for the life they should have, compared to the life they do have."

I've asked him to re-write it from scratch, without looking at his original, to try to get a better idea, but in the meantime does anyone want to help me parse this?  I want to help this kid move in the right direction, but I can't do that if I don't know what he's trying to say.

I think he is trying to say that the author is trying to discuss immigrant expectations versus the reality they find.  That, perhaps, they come in with an idea of what their new life here will mean to them (be like) and then find out that that is not the life they are living (expectations not realized). (Streets paved with gold, and all?)  Beyond that, I think he's trying to say that the author is known (through previous works? through statements made in the book?) to disbelieve what he is positing, but is offering it as, perhaps (?) a prevailing view to be discussed and, perhaps, debated.

Knowing the author and work in question would make it easier to guess, though.