I shouldn't laugh, but ... (classroom story)

[Lisa]

I'm teaching a summer course on resource management issues, and in previous years I would ask students to select term paper topics from a bunch of real-life controversies, such as prescribed burning in Yellowstone, or the conflict between fisheries and agricultural users over rivers in the Pacific Northwest.

Students were supposed to imagine they were in charge of researching possible options, based on similar situations in other parts of the world. I finally decided to change my strategy after I caught a couple of students lifting entire sections out of an EPA report. I spent quite a long time making up a bunch of hypothetical situations based on real life conditions, so now they have no choice but to find a wide range of examples and analyse them, since there's no pre-existing ready-written material on those particular scenarios. (One of the scenarios was about a Texas rancher who is wondering whether or not to clear brush from his property, and students are consultants have to assess a bunch of conflicting scientific evidence about whether it would improve wildlife habitat. I had a lot of fun making the character altogether different from Bush!)

Anyway, a student who hasn't been to class much sent me an e-mail today. She said that she looked all over the Internet but couldn't find ANY trace of the countries or towns I mentioned in the scenarios -- and she was beginning to think that there was a problem with Google. I guess she must have missed both the class briefing and the low-key puns in the background handouts (I decided not to make the names too funny, since these are supposed to be formal reports which students will be showing to potential employers).

I just finished writing a (serious) response, explaining the rationale behind the assignments -- and that I was actually relieved that she hadn't found anything on those countries, since they aren't supposed to exist.

[LynzM]

1. Yes you should!

That's great, and not great, at the same time :rofl: I mean, great that she tried to actually research and get evidence based on the real places, I think. But funny that she managed to miss the entire point.