Today is Reading Day, a day between the end of classes and the beginning of final exams. It's a tradition I hadn't experienced before coming here which seems like a good idea. It gives everyone a breather before starting the examination process. Most years there is a peak of activity in the BCRC associated with the end of classes. For much of the day yesterday, the BCRC was full. Today there are a few people around finishing projects, but not as many as I would have expected. It's fun to see the things that students have accomplished. I've had several students working on coding and database projects, where I have been more or less involved. On some student projects, I end up doing essentially all the work: the student just sits and watches. More often, I can put together something that just barely works, turn that over to the student, and let them extend and polish it. I'm very happy when projects work like that. Every now and then, however, a student comes along who can just do the project and my only role is to consult on design and troubleshoot problems. Those are the best.
Today for 
BioTeach we read Chapter 2 from 
Jay Lemke's Talking Science. We began near the end, where Lemke describes how through a transcription error a subject who has been described throughout the chapter as "Eric" was actually "Erin" and how for many readers transforming the gender of the student transforms how the reader interprets the relationship between the teacher and student. Biology, unlike other sciences, has more female students than male at the undergraduate level (and, at our university, at the graduate level as well). This led to a discussion about gender responses to authority and authority in the classroom. Our experience has been that when an instructor makes the transition between semantic authority (trying to make the topic make sense for the student) and social authority (telling the student they need to understand it this way because the teacher is the authority) poisons the environment in the classroom. Randy has observed that there are several (7?) "deadly sins" an instructor can make in the large classroom which will poison the atmosphere permanantly and this is one of them. We spent some little time trying to identify how the instructor can use authority (and how not to use authority) to encourage students to engage in meaningful learning in the classroom. We ended by deciding to read a chapter from Bruffee's Collaborative Learning next week that talks about higher education and Authority. It was one of our best discussions so far.
Today the Department offers a graduation picnic for the seniors. The Department has tried a variety of formats for honoring the seniors. For a while, there was a breakfast and then they tried a dinner, but always had problems with attendance. The lunch format has worked the best. It should be a nice day for it. I took along the camera and got a few pictures.
