Miami University - Recensio Yearbook (Oxford, OH)

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The Laborious Lab iiOh brother, Iive got a paper due for this Wednesdayis lab. What a bummer? Did that sound familiar? To many students, labs were not the high spot of their weekly Classes. Yet, on the other hand, many students enjoyed labs. According to freshman Lynn Librizzi, special education major, til felt that labs were a reinforcement of what you had learned in the classroom. The lab books that you had to use usually explained the procedures and experiment techniques well enough to understand? A major complaint from many students was that it seemed as if nine out of ten experiments were hopeless andlor failed. But of course, it was always oneis lab partneris fault. Also, some commented on the poor condition and the age of the lab equipment. Professor Walter Hogue, Director of Laboratories, oom- mented that ttwhile most students opened up more during lab than during a classroom situation, it all depended on h0w the teacher related to the students. If he encouraged and invited classroom participation, all was better for both the teacher and the student. If he didnt, then lab was a time to ask ues- tions about something one didnit understand iwhich ap- pened oftenl. I tried to get to know the student and keep lines of communication open? A professor usually based his grades on a point system, a student receiving so many points for attendance, quizzes, re- sults of the experiments, and cleanliness. Yet, zoology labs were conducted for two hours per week and classes for three hours per week; and lab points were only worth 200A; of ones total grade. There was not much of a tendency for a student to skip labs because he was allowed to work at his own speed and was not constantly being overshadowed by the teacher. Most teachers taught the same lab at another time during the week, making it possible for a student who did miss one to make it up. In the long run, labs were beneficial to the student because A they helped him to apply what he learned in class and to understand the concepts of the problems. m Larry Kaufman Jess Ennis Chemistry lab is not always as simple as it seems. A short experiment Is this the making of a pOSsible world renown scientist? Andrea Simon is intent can take hours of preparation, as Nancy Lepak, a graduate student in upon her work as she carefully adds the solution. chemistry, demonstrates. 25 Labs

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Dissecting a clam can be great variety from the ordinary routine of Classes as surely the clam would agree. Zoology 112 Lab offered this fabulous ogportunity and Tom Golobish and John Stamm seem to have jumped at the c ance. 3 i s '2 2 2 Bill Millhaem, a lab teaching assistant, helps Chip Singleton with his A view into a timost interesting Zoology 112 Lab class. Mary Ann Kaps, experiment, Sin 1e Phase Transformation Data. This engineering lab is going Tom Golobish, Denise Mess and Sigita Zibas are all hard at work examining on in Kreger Ha I. . their specimens. 24 Academics Mike Nicklawsky Larry Kaufman

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PROPS lDlSAPPEAREDl AFTER CLASS Many students said it was hard to see their professors out- side of class. Profs said their office hours were rarely utilized by the students. What was the problem? Were the wrong students seeking the wrong rofs at the wron times? From the students point 0 View, it was bar to gain access to teachers. Some profs were so busy that they always had a stream of students outside their office door. Then there were profs who had hours at extremely inconvenient times. Who wanted to walk 30 minutes to Western campus at 8:00 in the morning just to clarify the fact that bananas were vegetatively reproduced? A combination of the above two cases was also common. Had one ever gone to see a prof whose only office hour he could make was the 1l2 hour between two classes, and found someone else already camped in front of the desk? Or how about when a student had ten minutes between classes; he popped in quickly to see a prof whose office happened to be between his classes, and he was ten minutes late? From the prof's point of view, office hours also meant a lot of waiting - waiting for the few students who utilized the available time. Professors were required to keep a certain amount of office hours per week. Some profs, however, felt that for other than accounting or math-related courses twhere outside work is assi nedl, office hours could almost be dispensed with. One pro remarked that, even before exams, there were few regular office Visitors; most students would rather have been only partly sure of an answer than to have taken the time to con- sult their teacher. Those who did come were often unpre- pared. They were just generally itlost, and came to have the rof guide them to an instant comprehension of the course. A Few students came just to snow the profs, talking about the course, the school, and the weather on a regular basis. How could students and profs better correlate their times? Students suggested that at the beginning of the year, profs should have surveyed the times that students would have been able to come to their office, and based their hours on these times. Also, students felt that it would help if profs had come to the offices on time. Profs felt that students should have utilized office hours more. And, when they came they should have been better repared; students should have thou ht about their rob- ems, and had questions ready to ask w en they steppe into the office. II Utilizing office hours for make up testing, Barbara Thomas and David Phillips met in Hughes. 2 6 Academics Larry Kaufman