Some things I learned from my students' recent presentations:
1. Ostriches bury their heads in the sand—not out of fear, but to detect the vibration of predators' footfalls.
2. Chernobyl, scene of a nuclear disaster, is in France.
3. An elephant seal looks exactly like a walrus, and elephant seals are called "elephant" seals precisely because they have tusks, not because of their elephant-like noses.
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Monday, May 25, 2015
student myths
3 comments:
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When I was a teaching assistant for a college history course, we had a short-answer essay question: What was the Zimmermann Note?
ReplyDeleteOne student started his answer: "The Zimmermann Note was found wrapped around an ear of corn."
What was weird was his detailed (and correct) description of the content - the appeal to Mexico to join the Central Powers to attack the U.S. and the resumption of submarine warfare.
I think I gave him 80% credit.
"Ostriches bury their heads in the sand . . . to detect the vibration of predators' footfalls," thereby leaving themselves vulnerable to attacks from the air.
ReplyDeleteThe correct spelling is "Cher Nobyl," and it is indeed in France!
"An elephant seal looks exactly like a walrus, and elephant seals are called 'elephant' seals precisely because they have tusks, not because of their elephant-like noses." Nonsense! Your student is all wet! Elephant seals are called 'elephant' seals precisely because walruses are elephants!
Jeffery Hodges
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Perhaps they are confusing Chernobyl with chez Noblet?
ReplyDeleteI misread the first one as "their predators' footballs," which made the answer that much weirder. I spent a few seconds trying to figure out why their predators would be playing football, and why that would pose a threat to the ostriches. Maybe they were on defense?
(More often than not these days, Bloggers' automatic validation has seemed reluctant to believe I am not a robot, and forces me to jump through various hoops. Somehow this offends me, and I find it more onerous than the original method. Oh, so my click wasn't good enough for you, Blogger?)