An Easychair Moment

No, this is not exactly a relaxing event.

Did you ever have a student submit some work that is so perplexing that you have to ruminate on it for awhile? I received a Lab report today that is very mysterious. First of all, it is nearly perfect; almost as if it had been copied from some book or website. Curious! This always makes my antennae perk up. But, the work also suffers from a couple of problematic features. It’s almost as if the student did not actually see what they said they saw. …hmm….

The lab is designed to ascertain that the student actually saw the moon on several different nights. They are supposed to look at it and draw what they see. They also record certain information about its height above the horizon and the direction. On each night the “tilt” of the moon will be different depending on the direction and time. The phase will also be different.
So, this student reports a uniform tilt for each night. Interesting and very wrong! But, the drawings are beautiful. What to do?

All my instincts are telling me there is something fishy about this work. Students try to fake this assignment all the time. Most of the time something obvious jumps right out; like when one “draws” the moon when it was not actually up. That is a dead giveaway. But, this student’s work could be the effort of a very good student who just messed up a little.

So here is my moral dilemma. In my mind, I cannot convict this student of faking the whole assignment and give him a zero. Though I am suspicious, I must give him the benefit of the doubt. I am going to nail him for the errors and not following instructions, but I am going to willingly suspend my disbelief on the basic project. In fact, he could just be a good student who went slightly off.

But, this entire process set me back a little. I had to visit my easy chair and contemplate the entire situation for ten minutes. In my mind, I had a little trial with a prosecutor and a defense attorney. This is not uncommon. It happens to me several times every semester. I find myself trying to read the minds of students while making sure they have to be very good to get anything past me. I catch quite a few trying to play the system. If I am certain of their guilt, I award them a nice, juicy zero. But, when there is reasonable doubt, I always give them its benefit. They are innocent unless proven guilty.

This is hard work!