[Alpha-Omega]

First I thought you all were answering questions....so I did too...then last night in middle of helping some kid with his questions...and had 11 answers...and BOOM someone locks his trhead down....so my work was trashed when I tried to send it,.

Now I just see one kid up there with a Scavanger hunt...FYI:  I see him getting questions answered on line...he is also sening personal requests for more help....

Will never not help anyone with Chemistry...but you have a team of 3 working together here...LOL...now I am very new...and I really like answering the questions...great practice for me too...

So are they in lock down...or are those hunts still viable???  Do not want to break any rules...

[Arkcon]

IMHO, there comes a point where the questions become too demanding, and show no signs of work on the students part, at which time, no one wants to give answers.  That point can come sooner, rather than later, when someone copies 95 questions from an online assignment, and just goes away.  Obviously, we can all just ignore the posts we don't feel like answering.  But anyone can feel a little disappointed when a favorite online spot degenerates into a pit of spam and fail.

As for explicit rules, the student is supposed to show some work.  These scavenger hunt questions make verifying that dicey -- a student can work real hard on the first 5, palm off the next 11, work on 2 more, palm off the next 15, ask for just the last 2 -- then dump the remaining they said they'd done  -- each question in the list of 95 is unique, working out one doesn't help on the others.  So you can't say they haven't tried at all, but can you say they have they really worked on the problem you're helping with?

These scavenger hunts were famous years ago.  Every so often, on the Usenet someone would want the answers to very obscure chemical questions such as:

1. A white cloth is dipped in turmeric solution until it gets yellow.
It is then dried and the turmeric powder sticking on the cloth
removed. A person washes his feet in slaked lime water and walks on
and walks on [sic] the cloth. Red foot prints appear.

2. Aluminum coin (five / ten paise) when rubbed with saturated
mercuric chloride solution on palm, gets heated and a gray substance
starts forming on the coin. Washing the coin starts the reaction
again.

and the big favorite,

5. Yellow phosphorous is mixed with wet cow-dung cake. When it dries
in the sun fire is produced.

You were never expected to perform these operations, you were expected to walk around the university, chatting with upperclassmen and professors to glean their experience, search the library for obsolete texts, as a rite of passage, learning how hard it is to discover this info.  The internet screwed that procedure all up.  I bet if I go on YouTube I can see that dung experiment

[Alpha-Omega]

I will tell you if I had know about this when I was teaching at TAMU in Texas...instead of giving 750 pts of extra credit...TAKE HOME...1 week to finish it...OMG...I so would have done that....they would have worked their..A...es  off just hunting on the web....

So much better than getting 5 papers naming Co  as Iron.....and it does force them to read something....

[Mitch]

The forum policy is to either, lock or delete the post. Often the judgment is based on the mood of the moderator/administrator that comes across it first.

Students need to show some attempt at the problem(s), regardless of them saying they've tried.

[Alpha-Omega]

OK then...and I will not et into the 50 calories/Tblsp for Hershey's syrup...very frustrating ewhen you are new and answere 11 questions go to post...and POOF they all be gone....LOL

[Arkcon]

Students need to show some attempt at the problem(s), regardless of them saying they've tried.

Like I said, it's hard to tell they've worked on them, when there's 95 unrelated questions and they've worked on 3 or 4.  It might be better to encourage them to ask one at a time.

[Mitch]

Asking 95 questions one at a time creates its own unique problems unfortunately.

[Arkcon]

Asking 95 questions one at a time creates its own unique problems unfortunately.

I was rather hoping we could count on that not happening, the class deadline would be reached, they'd get tired of the manual typing, etc.  Or they'd develop a reputation as the person who asks question after question with no work. 

Plenty of people have posted 5 or 6 questions, shown no work, and gotten their thread locked.  How'd 95 random trivia questions get a gimmie?