Arguments for Pro -Cheat Sheets:
1) chemistry should be about understanding not memorization
2) memory aids would lower the stress of testing so that the student can do his/her best work
3) creation of the summary sheet is itself an excellent learning process
2) memory aids would lower the stress of testing so that the student can do his/her best work
3) creation of the summary sheet is itself an excellent learning process
Arguments for Anti-Cheat Sheets:
1) this course is not a democracy so if I say you need to memorize some basic formulae and logical problem solving sequences suck it up and march like a soldier ... you know what? When I was a student we had to memorize the entire periodic table AND the isotopic masses IN LATIN. I don't care what the professors in OTHER universities are doing, if all the other chemistry professors jumped off a cliff would you expect me to as well? Hmm? Why are you smiling? Did that image make you happy in some way? Well, just for that smarty pants the formal report is due tomorrow ... hand it in just before the unscheduled mid-term.
1) this course is not a democracy so if I say you need to memorize some basic formulae and logical problem solving sequences suck it up and march like a soldier ... you know what? When I was a student we had to memorize the entire periodic table AND the isotopic masses IN LATIN. I don't care what the professors in OTHER universities are doing, if all the other chemistry professors jumped off a cliff would you expect me to as well? Hmm? Why are you smiling? Did that image make you happy in some way? Well, just for that smarty pants the formal report is due tomorrow ... hand it in just before the unscheduled mid-term.
And at some point in the debate the two sides would descend to childish name calling and secret scheming for retaliation.
So, I have decided to roll over like an old dog. The kicker was a low key investigation at the recent conferences that I attended where the dominant logic was that cheat sheets give the illusion of help but if the student doesn't know the chemistry they will fail anyway.
By the way, I came across this link to a spectacular online periodic table:
I like this quote for the way it makes the causal link between philiosophy and morality:
"To say that a man is made up of certain chemical elements is a satisfactory description only for those who intend to use him as a fertilizer."
Hermann Joseph Muller
Hermann Joseph Muller
And as I have discovered while on sabbatical ... Jesus may take the wheel but He doesn't do paperwork. My office is a disaster and the lab looks like a combination yard sale - toxic waste dump. I am trying to get things back to "Normal" and I like the attitude in this cartoon:
1 comment:
I read the blog. I don't think a cheat sheet would have helped me. FYI from a former student to any new students.
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