Thursday, October 20, 2011

Lab Quote Friday- A Lesson in Colors and Reactions

I know today is Thursday, but it's really our Friday due to fall break.  Hooray for a long weekend!

The first quote from this week comes from a TA.  Yes, that's right, sometimes our teaching assistants also make me laugh.  I just had to share this one.
Male TA:  I have to give everyone 2 extra points on their lab reports.
Me:  Oh yeah?  Why is that?
Male TA:  Well, on the flame test, everyone wrote down lavender for one their answers.  I thought lavender was pink.  I eventually Googled it and learned that it is really purple.  That was such a guy thing to do!

The second quote comes from a lab where students were testing reactions of different metals.
Lab group 1:  Are any of yours reacting?
Lab group 2:  No, they're all just bubbling.
A few minutes later...
Lab group 1: Did you see a reaction yet?
Lab group 2:  Nope, still just bubbling.
Lab group 1:  Yeah, ours too.  

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hmmm... I could see confusion if the color was chartreuse or puce, but I think lavender is pretty run-of-the-mill.

Also, did they never learn what "reaction" meant? Weird.