Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The camel in the classroom

My students are in the throes of preparing for their first midterm exam.  I posted a practice exam and a somewhat hastily produced set of answers to the exam (memo to self - don't try to do this after 10 pm at night after a long drive and office hours).  I corrected the errors in class this morning (humility, it's good for the soul, right?).

In the usual after lecture scrum, a student came up and showed me her work on one of the more complex problems and suggested there might be another error.  Given my track record for the night, I looked carefully at her work.  Whew.

"No, no, I'm quite sure I'm right on that one," I tell her,  "I know that you get roughly a pound of water for each pound of camel fat you metabolize, so burning a kilogram of fat should yield a bit more than a liter of water for the camel, not 100 ml."

There is a sudden silence.  Did their professor really say that she keeps that kind of data on camel fat in her brain?

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Everything I know about camel fat I learned here: F. D. Gunstone & R.P. Paton, Biochem J. 1953 July; 54(4): 617–621.



14 comments:

  1. That fact is probably going to stick with me for a good long time. I might not remember where I left my keys, but stuff like this gets into my brain and NEVER LEAVES.

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    1. That's precisely my problem. Keys? My favorite travel mug?? No clue. The atomic mass of iron? No problem.

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  2. That would be me (and, I'm sure, you!) and a description of the visio beatifica.

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    1. Heaven on earth, a full measure of trivia flowing over??

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  3. I love the way that the professor's mind works! If only she had been my chemistry teacher!

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    1. Before waxing too enthusiastic, Fran, bear in mind that I make them do algebra mixed with crazy word problems!!

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  4. I am so intrigued by the way in which you think! Absolutely amazing!!

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    1. Intrigued is a nice way of saying it...I'm fairly sure my students are wishing I were a bit less intriguing at the moment!

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  5. I have no idea what words like metabolize and kilogram and liter mean, but I'm SURE that there's an Epiphany sermon in here somewhere.

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    1. That sounds like a challenge :)!

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    2. I think it must begin something like: The magi are a cartographer, a chemistry professor, and a Jesuit astronomer. Thus the camels make it to Bethlehem, although they are about two years late. And very skinny, I presume. In need of St. Francis, who tells the chemistry professor that she should not have relied on her student's miscalculations.

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    3. I see some writing ahead for me....

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  6. Hey. You want to come over for a camel free pizza?

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    1. Are you willing to help grade exams??

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