The One About Teaching a Lab Class

[tanarill]

The thing is, the thing is, the thing is, it turns out that even the undergrads who want to learn are pretty stupid. Not ignorant, stupid. It is as follows:

Reactants 1+2 -> Product 3, in the presence of enzyme A. Enzyme A, Reactant 1, and Reactant 2 are all colorless. Product 3, however, is peach-colored. How do you tell if there is Enzyme A in a given colorless clear liquid?

If your answer was "add Reactants 1 and 2 and wait to see if it turns peach-colored," you are smarter than my students! This is an example of basic logic, the only part you had never done before was the part where we actually measured to see how much color there was. And that's not that hard because we have a machine for it, so it is really "push the button" levels of difficulty!

They didn't have trouble with the experiment where we took some sea urchin eggs and some sea urchin sperm and mixed them under on a microscope slide. Admittedly, they were surprised at how much smaller the average sperm is in comparison to the average egg.

The last thing we did was perform a transformation, when we put plasmid -> bacteria. To simplify this, we used a plasmid that codes for a protein that glows in the dark. It is very easy to tell if you did it right then, because it glows in the dark. All but one group did.

Then I had four days to grade 26 lab notebooks. That was hideous.

So, in conclusion: prefer sections over teaching labs, always. At least in section, you have the chance to answer the damn questions!

Comments

Sometimes I wonder how they made it into college

[tsaiko]

I 100% understand about lab students. I use to do Geology labs for freshman. Every year I'd give out the first lab with instructions like "Draw the crystal in box 1 in the space below." I didn't want a Rembrandt. Just a general shape of the crystal.

Every year I would get the most ridiculous answers including someone who wrote "clear, solid." How they thought that answer came close to the instructions I'll never know.

At least it was an easy way to figure out who was going to give me trouble as the year went on.

[everbright]

Hahaha, this is why I hate labs, from the other side. No matter how simple it is, when you're all anxious about the lab you will misinterpret the instructions! Also, MATH. My level 100 geography class had simple algebra in one lab, and I was the only one who understood what to do with it.

*pats* Sounds like a lot of stress for you, so I'm glad it's over at least!

[tanarill]

Perhaps I ought to do that thing where, on the first day, I give them a long list of pointless tasks. The instructions clearly say to read all of them tasks before doing any of them, and the last task says, "Actually, all you have to do is write your name of this paper and turn it in."

Taught me to read all of the instructions first, anyway.

[tanarill]

:?

I never found labs that stressful, provided that I actually read the instructions before going to lab, as I was supposed to. The biggest issue was always time, as it, WE ONLY HAVE THREE HOURS TO DO FOUR RECRYSTALLIZATIONS AHHHH!!!

>.> But I am glad I am done, yes I am.