Records of a Mad Scientist: Warnings

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Warnings

I sent out a curtsey email this week to all my students who had a grade lower than a C in my class. I figure that they have the right to know that they were failing. I also suggested that they should either consider dropping the course (in which case, I would like some warning), or, if they felt they needed it, coming in for help. I got an email in response from a student. She called me unprofessional, and an awful teacher. She said that when she had asked me for help, I'd be an snob, or else given off an attitude like I didn't really want to help. She claimed I had wasted her money and made her hate chemistry.

Here's the thing. I'm 22-years-old. I'm not entirely comfortable with this authority role. But, I make the best of it...I set expectations. If I say I want to see something on their report in class, it had better be in their report. If a student is unsure of my expectations, they can email me, and I'll tell them exactly what I want. I've sent out a sample report with exactly how I want to see their report, and a sheet of sample calculations describing the way I want them in complete detail. I've set aside two hours a week nearly every week to sit down with my students and explain things to them, so they don't have to go to the resource room. I take time to carefully explain things... even if it means that I do the same thing over and over again. I even leave the students with a sheet of paper describing what we've done.

Yes, the student complained at one point that she didn't understand what she had to have in her report. I pointed out that I told her every week. She said she didn't take notes. I shrugged and said that was her problem, not mine. She came to one help session. Recently, she's been battling me on not having equation editor on her computer, which I require her to use. Plenty of students don't have the program on their machines, but they still manage to follow directions. Why should I make a special exception for her?

At least Dr.R is behind me. He said that if he was getting complaints that I was unprofessional from a lot of people (say 10% or more), he'd be worried. But, he thinks she is just a whining because she isn't getting her A. Thank goodness my boss sides with me.

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Cast of Characters

AC -- AD's roommate. Famous for his frustration with his own epic procrastination and ability to curse the latin word on the tip of his tongue.
AD -- my boyfriend. Its new... and exciting... and hard from this distance. An aerospace engineer. Still goes to the famous former football giant across the road from the castle where I went to undergrad.
BD -- one of my best friends from undergrad. Another ex-boyfriend and part of my incestious little circle of friends. Has rigid boundaries that serve him well. Math major and genius.
Dr.jR -- head of the chemistry and biochemistry department. Researches NOM (not eating, sadly, but natural organic material). Nice, but unpredicatble.
DrA -- my research boss. Somewhere in his thirties and totally chill. The first PI I've ever met who bakes cookies during lab meetings.
DrR -- my teaching boss. Crotchety old man who doesn't take shit. Slightly sexist. Smokes like a chimney. A teddy bear.
JL -- our post doc in lab. Chineese. Tells me not to work so hard.
JP -- an ex-boyfriend of mine and sort-of friend. Suitmate of AD. Sort of an asshole. VERY crude. We tend to play off eachother. Once dropped his pants in the middle of a crowded room. Also, halo teabagged someone in real life. More than once. Signature phrase is "Dicking Fuck." Exemplifies why Physics and Math double majors scare me.
Kara -- basically the person who told me to write this.
Michael Cera -- guy in my program. Actually younger than I am (I was suprised). Very nice. Lutheran boy scout. Might decide to teach chemistry. Analytical chemist.
MK -- The youngest member of the Quad (AC, AD, JP and MK). Computer science major. Bearded. Sometimes more mature than his fellow seniors who can drink. More or less uncorrupted. It was adorable when he had his first girlfriend.
N -- my fabulous Indian roommate. Seriously, she is great. And, she feeds me.
St. Pat -- One of the guys in my program. Older than the rest of us by a few years. A good analytical chemist. Smart. Familiar with the works of Joss Whedon.
T -- my former roommate. Gave me a cold for my brithday. LIke, a stuffed one.

A few definations...

Cell Biology -- a field of biology that is basically their answer to the fact that life is based in chemistry. As a graduate level course, it has involved a 2 day lecture on atomic bonding and the Krebs cycle. These were things covered in my freshman chemistry and biology courses.
Cubby's -- My prefered non smoking bar in graduate school
Macrophage -- Somestimes called Macs; a type of immune cell, and the target of my research. I've been told they're ugly, but I think they're pretty cute when I get to dye them pretty colors with florescent dye or proteins and look at them under the microscope. I get geeky abou them.
Microscope -- Dr.A's big, expensive microscope that looks at cells. It can see brightfield (normal cells) and florescent ones. We can also see if protiens are clumping together with it.
Students -- I teach freshman science majors, except for the ones who want to be chemists. I have a lot of engineers, a handful of premeds and biologists, and quite a few pre-pharmacy. Sometimes agravating, often exhausting, and a huge time suck. I want them to suceed, which, according to my defination, is learn something.

WARNING: Scientific Content

I realize that not all of my readers are scientists (I think maybe 1/3?), and even fewer are chemists. So, I propose a science warning system.

* Basic science. Things you should have learned in school if you had been paying attention. Or... if you don't know this, you need to talk to T because our science education system sucks.

** High School/Freshman college science and math. Stuff I would expect you to know after a calculus class and at least one class in physical and life science.

*** Some scientific knowledge. Let's assume you've had 1+ upper level science course in either biology or chemistry.

****Upper level science. You probably need 3 - 4 years of college chemistry/biology to get this part. Maybe not, though. I'll try to avoid this as much as possible. Sometimes, though, I can't help myself and I geek.