Re: schools banning homework

Ouch! I was often generous with my marking if the students had most of the
solution. If they made a common mistake like a sign error, I usually
didn't penalize them too much. Even if they made an incorrect assumption
but had most of the rest correct, I was fairly lenient.

Multiple-guess answers don't show how close one actually came or where one
made one's mistake. That's hardly an effective way of teaching, though it
does reduce the burden of marking.

Many of my colleagues who used tons of multiple-guess questions on
their exams, were either really pessimistic about the level of their
students and/or they were really lazy when it came to their teaching.
Basically the department head would be paying them a visit if the
final grades were too low, and/or there were too many student
complaints about their teaching.

For physics specifically, these days many places use a web service
which generates multiple-guess exams which they make their students
write online every few weeks or so. The given numerical figures in
the multiple-guess problems are largely generated randomly within
reasonable bounds, and the order and choice of problems is generated
randomly by the instructor. Several textbook publishers offer web
services of this sort for freshman physics courses, based on
particular popular textbooks.

Unfortunately, the real world doesn't work on multiple guesses. Often a
software program give erroneous results because of a typo. One doesn't
have to write the entire code just to fix it.

Too many folks expect everything to be point-n-click? (ie. The
consumer/computer version of multiple-guess).

I suppose the Star Trek, Star Wars, conspiracy theory, UFO,
etc ... folks just go straight to various online web pages and chat
boards these days, to indulge in these topics.

Or hang out in newsgroups. ;-)

That was more common in the mid-late 1990's. Less so these days.
These days there's probably many dedicated web forums to topics of
that sort, without all the crap that is common to usenet newsgroups
like spam, trolls, etc ...

A long time ago before the internet became popular, there weren't many
places for folks into UFOs, conspiracy theories, Star Trek, Star Wars,
etc ... to hang out at, with other like minded people. It seemed like
Mensa meetings were one of the few popular venues in those days, where
other like minded folks could be found.

Back when I first looked into Mensa (when I was in high school), I was
looking for other like minded folks who had an interest in cutting
edge physics/tech/engineering type topics like elementary particles,
cosmology/astrophysics, electronics, home computers, etc ... I didn't
really meet anyone who had an interest in particle physics and/or
astrophysics, but there were some Mensa folks who were into
electronics and computers.

Wait until you check out a Mensa newsgroup. High IQs, huh?

I stopped reading any Mensa newsgroups a long time ago. Most were
just filled with crap and spam. I don't even read any of the physics
or math newsgroups these days, other than skimming through a few of
the "moderated" ones every few days.

.

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