The End of the Semester

As the semester ends there are a variety of emotions from the students …. And me also.  The one part of the semester I don’t like is assigning grades. I feel that students should assess themselves based on how much they think they learned. But of course, no one can honestly assess themselves with objectivity (even instructors sometimes don’t assign grades with objectivity).

I don’t know what happens to the students by the 3^rd exam. Its only then that they realize how they are doing in class, and then I have students writing to me, asking me personally what they can do to improve their grades. But after the 3^rd exam its really tough for anyone to improve drastically to change the letter grade to one higher. I get reasons like: I spent one hour solving this one problem, and I wonder – WHY? Why would anyone spend so much time on just one problem? I have learned to move on to other problems and then come back to that one problem I could not do before. I even tell them to do this – why don’t they learn to move on? 

Then there is the classic, “I am getting As in all my classes except yours”, well….I don’t know. I cannot comment on that one until I see their transcripts.

Another one, which is probably a little more honest, I did not give this class enough time.

I just don’t know how to guide these students anymore. There is so much going on in their lives: classes, work, family and of course the ever present, phone. I just cannot believe them when they say that they study 2 hours for my class and still get only a C. It means they are just not studying the right way or they think that opening the book is considered studying. And one has to think themselves and realize, what am I doing wrong if I am studying this long and not getting the grade? They should think about getting help early on. But there is a general feeling of self confidence (or lack of it) that does not let them get help.

The other culprit I think, is work. They work to pay for the course (maybe?). But the problem arises when the work takes precedence over education. Some students can manage it all, but most cannot.  One of the things I really like about our Indian culture is that studies are done in the first 25 years of the life. And I can see the benefits of it. One has to get education out of the way before you start a family or work. How can you give education the time it needs when you have kids or if you are reporting to a boss? And I see that conflict all the time in this college. And there is nothing I can do about it.

But one other problem I have with about 70% of the students is their lack of study skills. Study skills include taking notes, practicing problems, copying notes from one notebook to another, scheduling the right amount of time to the right subject. I will confess that I was never a high IQ student, but I did put in my time to learn the material. And I never shied away from getting help. I hardly get anyone during the semester for help.

The end of the semester brings in the typical question, “is there any extra credit”? And I never understood that question. I never had that when I was going to school. You are supposed to do everything for the given credit. If you cannot do that, then how can you do extra credit? Extra credit is supposed to be intellectually difficult – so I don’t want to give something even more difficult to do if someone cannot do the normal stuff.  And then it suddenly becomes my problem that I am not giving them extra credit.  Last year I broke down and I did give extra credit – out of 36 students, only 2 took advantage of it. So there goes that idea!

I am at a loss as to how to motivate my students to do better and show them that education is the only solution to all problems. It gives one a better life and a chance to succeed. If they are going to college, they must realize that aspect. Chemistry is a hard subject, no one takes it for fun, so one must be ready for the time they have to spend on it too. And I think that if you cannot handle the heat, get out of the fire. It’s possible that chemistry is not for everyone. But how do you say that to a student?

Every semester I go through the same emotions.Every semester I feel that the students should have the responsibility to take care of their education and the acceptance of whatever they get as a result of their work.

Back at Work

I have been back from India for over 6 months now. I spent my summer in Columbus, teaching at Capital University again. It was quite a busy summer. Mom did not do so well, healthwise, so I was doing a lot of up and down to Windsor. I got only 2 or 3 weekends to myself. And then I spent my remaining 3 weeks of the 4 week vacation in Windsor also. So all my summer was gone like that...no big issues, except of course my Mom. She is recovering....slowly.

It was interesting teaching at Capital. It was so nice to be teaching back in USA again. After the 10 weeks of teaching at Subharti, I was happy to be in a place where students attend classes, do the work, are not talking over me and I have technology in the classroom! It felt normal again. Students were really good and I really enjoyed it. Teaching at Capital gives me the relief that I need even from Palm Beach sometimes.

Then of course, I had to come back to Florida. I did not go to my office until the faculty meeting. Why bother? The cluster meeting was utterly useless. I don't talk to anyone, no one bothers to talk to me. It is the most dysfunctional department ever! Even more than Park and Shenandoah. Those departments were too small, but this one is big enough that people can talk to each other, but they don't. 

I had to try out my new teaching idea this semester with all the power point studies I had made for gen chem 1 and organic 1. Ugh!! That was a mess. Two things I did not account for: one - students don't print out stuff on time and two - so much grading for me!! It was too much. After 2-3 weeks of not getting work from them, I started getting copies for them, but then, so many would not come to class, so would not pick up the copy and so would not submit....so some frustration or another. On the other hand there were a high number of students who submitted all the work.

Organic 1 was a major disappointment this semester. Half the class is failing. First of all, not many students take my class because "someone" has told them not to. And the ones who take should know that they would have to work hard. Organic chemistry is not entry level class! I could not inspire them. Half the class will pass with good grades, while the other half will fail. It reflects poorly on me. But what to do? Go to teach at Capital in summer!! :-)

The college work life is the same. Nothing has changed. My colleagues are as sour as they come. We have not spoken for over two years. But who cares? Not the boss....he is equally bad. He has no communication skills and does not promote any kind of collaboration in the department or division. He is afraid to talk to anyone and I don't like talking to him at all. He has appreciated my input when I was the chair, but he still does not respect me or understand the difference between "someone" and me. He thinks we are all the same. Any person who cannot recognize the value of people who work for him, is not worth working for. Sadly, no one - HR, Dean, VPAA or the President - no can do anything about him. He is one of those people who will never get promoted, but he will also not go anywhere. So we are just stuck with a leader with no vision, no people value, no proactiveness or any quality that a leader should have. Maybe that is what the college wants! 

So essentially, I feel like a robot who goes in to teach with hardly any incentive to do anything creative. The students have their own lives and issues that they are not able to give time to college. The faculty have their own families that they don't want to socialize with colleagues. Our leaders are mere pencil pushers. The president is too far removed from faculty to have any influence. The only good thing that happened was that we got a little raise, because the college got "Gold" status. I think we all had a little bit to do with it. Ramos wanted 70% passing rate - he got it. I had to pass students I normally would not. 

So .... life just goes on at work. I have to inspire myself to keep myself motivated.

Creativity

Dictionary.com defines creativity as "the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination".

As my semester is coming to an end and I was sitting and wasting time on facebook, I saw a posting of Ken Robinson's six year old speech on the lack of creativity in our current educational system.  It rang very true with me.

Lately I have been griping a lot about how I have to keep giving instructions to my students about every single thing.  At what point did these kids become so dependent on just getting instructions and being told what to do (which they eventually don't do)? It is as if they have lost the capability of having an independant thought.  "Just tell me what you want me to do," .... is their attitude. 

In some career choices this attitude is just right, like in the army, where you are required to follow rules.  But in a place of higher education you are supposed to open your mind, think outside the box, express yourself and have an open discussion about your ideas.  But it seems like the current generation is not ready to express themselves intellectually or artistically. 

What's going on??

I have also been having discussions with myself and one of my chemistry colleagues about the way we teach chemistry.  Sometimes I don't even like what I have to teach then how can I inspire my students to love chemistry the way I do? These days we teach what is in the text book and what is prescribed to us, not what should really be taught in the at a particular level of student intellect.  So, in reality, we are also becoming like our students, unthinking machines, just teaching right out of the book or just from the power points.  Where is our creativity? We make our students memorize facts and equations as if memorizing those will solve all the problems and help them reach their goals.  When really what we should be teaching is problem solving and critical thinking (another day.......another blog)

After hearing the speech by Robinson, I decided to write about what I have been thinking about for a while.  So......in my humble opinion I think we are all falling victims to the system.  Up to secondary schools we are taught to be disciplined to the T and in college also we are told what classes we need in order to "make the money" we will need to "live" life.  Everything has become about "making money" rather than following one's passion and to live the life they actually want to.  This system works for a person who likes to follow orders and cannot think much for themself.  And then of course, there is the lucky one - a person who can make money while following his/her dreams!

I thought I was the lucky one when I got my first job teaching chemistry, a subject I love, and a profession I love.  It all began very well, but somewhere in the last 7-8 years my love of this profession has suffered a set back. I don't feel like the students are what they used to be and I don't think I am able to convey to them the passion and love for the subject as I was able to before.  We are repeatedly told to accomodate the new generation and adapt the new technology - as if that will solve all the problems that students are having with their ability to think.

Most students just sit in my class looking at me to finish my gibberish; they think I am teaching them a foreign language (which sometimes chemistry is).  The amount of content and books don't make it easy to get creative in class.  We are recommended by some higher ups that we have to finish these 10 chapters in class in 15 weeks, and if we don't do it then the students are not prepared for the next level of class.  This does not sit well for the creative types like me. I want to do something new, I want to take my time, I want to go over the material in a different way, I want to....oh so many different things. But this silly preparing the students for the next level is just killing me!! well....my creativity.

The students don't make it easier either.  They don't feel they should have to do any work outside the class, they don't feel like they should have to make any effort to learn the material themselves so I can do more creative things in class. My class has become like a recorded script of last year and the year before....

I really need to get my creative mojo back!!!

Chemistry and Spirituality

As I was writing notes for my General Chemistry class today there were so many terms I wrote that made me think of how easily they can be applied to our spiritual lives.  Yes...chemistry is related to life – in so many ways.  I have studied all these terms many times before but suddenly I am seeing them with a different perspective.

SURFACE TENSION

This is evaporation of the molecules from the surface but because of not enough energy and more intermolecular forces the surface molecules are not able to leave thus causing a film on the surface of the liquid.  The elasticity of this film is called surface tension.  It is dependent directly on intermolecular forces and indirectly on temperature.

1) This got me thinking about how children in a family are like those surface molecules, ready to leave but not able to because of the familial intermolecular forces, but energy gained from education and jobs makes them want to leave their container (home).  This creates the tension in the container, and the children are left in this tension where they sometimes are not able to belong either to home or to the outside world.  This is apparent when kids have very few friends or are sometimes not able to be successful in life for some reason or another.

One can view this in different ways:

One is that a molecule sometimes needs to leave the container to be able to go places….and the other point of view is that if the intermolecular forces are strong then one can have a good family life since everyone stays together.  Depending on one’s circumstances one can view from either point of view.  Of course in the former case if all molecules start leaving the container, there comes a time when there are no molecules left in the container.  There is also this little equilibrium on the surface of a liquid where molecules keep leaving and coming back.  That could be the best kind of situation, where an equilibrium is maintained, where the molecule is allowed to leave and come back.

2) The other aspect of surface tension is “us” individually.  We have this inner self which is in perfect equilibrium within us, however there is a whole surface personality that comes out when we deal with other people.  Our inner values (intermolecular forces) create the tension with the outer world (maya).  During the times of stress, if we have low intermolecular forces (values) then we lose to the outer world and vaporize.  But strong values give us the depth and stability we need in this world of high temperature.

VISCOSITY

The ability of a liquid to flow. It is also dependent on intermolecular forces and temperature.

We as human beings are in constant motion in this world.  Our basic nature is to keep moving, how fast or slow depends on our intermolecular forces: our attachment to family and our values.  The more we have of those two the slower we will move.  Slow here does not necessarily mean bad.  When we move slowly we can see where we are going and how we are getting to where we are going.  The faster we move the more the chances that we might go the wrong way or lose our way.  Speed makes you lose control (as in a car).Moving slower also means we have more control over our actions.  

Higher temperature decreases viscosity i.e. a liquid moves faster.  In human beings high temperature can be anger, temperamental nature etc., and those might lead to a person's molecules moving faster than normal, and then he tends to lose control.  So I think high viscosity is good for a human being.

VAPOR PRESSURE

This is the evaporation of molecules from a substance which then exert pressure on the substance.  Vapor pressure also increases with temperature, as more molecules would evaporate. High intermolecular forces cause the vapor pressure to be less.

Here again we have to think about our nature and values (intermolecular forces).  How volatile are we? Do we lose our molecules (cool and values) at the slight increase temperature of a situation?  And suppose the vapor pressure does increase due to some reason, do we start boiling and lose total control of ourselves then? 

So keep your intermolecular forces high and hold on to your molecules.

CRITICAL TEMPERATURE

The temperature at which no amount of pressure can turn a vapor back to its liquid state.

One can view this from two points:

1) One is where you reach such a point in your life that no matter how much pressure the world exerts on you, you are at a different level of life where nothing can affect you and you remain in your state you choose to be in. 

2) The other view is that you are so far gone in your bad habits that no amount of knowledge or education can bring your back to your normal self. 

You decide where you want to be!

TRIPLE POINT

The temperature and pressure at which all three phases: gas, liquid and solid exist.

I think this point is the bliss point! We can exist in our fullest potential at this point.  This would be where the world (maya), the divine and the mortal coexist in perfect balance and harmony then that would be bliss.  This is not an easy point to reach but once reached would make anyone to want to be in that balance all the time.