Grading Fun

What happens when eleven chemistry nerds gather together to grade for an afternoon? You might be surprised but a lot of laughter. Especially at the beginning...towards the end of the hours of grading, we're getting tired I think.

Sometimes students are trying to be funny and we laugh at that.
Q: What could you do different to make your experiment work?
A: I could be a good chemist.

Sometimes students answer scientific questions like they're writing in a personal journal and we laugh at that.
Q: What went wrong in your experiment?
A: I was so stressed out and impatient. I need to calm down and learn to breathe and....(it would continue).

Sometime students have no idea what to answer so they either (1) make up something and throw in a few fancy words or (2) state the obvious. And we laugh at that.
Q: Why did you get a high product yield?
A: Because I got more product than I should have.
OR
Q: Why does ice float in water?
A: The scientific process involves energy and things like endothermic reactions.

So whenever we get a good response, we read it outloud to the rest of the TAs. Of course, if a student makes me laugh, they get a smiling face...next to the big slash through their answer.