Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

My second first meeting for the new term – if that makes any kind of sense – was the introduction to electricity and magnetism lecture class.

What’s interesting and never before tried with this course is that the lab class follows immediately afterwards. And since this is a twice a week meeting class that is nearly full (defined as having thirty students) that means there are two lab sections. One meets right after the first meeting of the week, the second after the second meeting.

I found out immediately that there is a discrepancy between the enrollment of the two sections, so I split them up evenly right there and then. If they hadn’t done it voluntarily, I would have been forced to arrange them randomly, and they might not have liked the classmates and group mates that they will eventually end up with.

To quell their complaints about having to add and drop subjects with the registrar’s office (For those who will switch sections) I told them that I will handle the paperwork.

I also warned them, from their previous experience in the first general science requirement mechanics lab class, that the more students there are in each group, the less each student actually learns.

So the protestations died down and, they were content with having three to four members per group, with a minimum number of groups having four members.

For the first time, I also warned them during the very first meeting about the lecture and the lab class having just one grade, and that the only way they can fail one but pass both is if they get a perfect grade in the lecture.

For the lecture (since I was switching between policies for both classes) I said that we will schedule it to have an exam set every three weeks, regardless how much or how little we’ve covered in the lessons.

For the lab, I gave them their first assignments of what to bring for the first lab session.

Session 1129 enrolled both. Class dismissed.