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Archive for November, 2009

Completely lost in teaching until early december (that is, soon). To the exception of the coming edition of Berry Go Round due in a few days. So I let you with another abstract (from American Journal of Botany) to consider (woot woot! :)

I like this paper, because the very first version was submitted as we were (well, not all of us) late grad students. Got rejected, but there was some reason. Than it slept deep in a drawer because so many more projects were leading us somewhere else. But then, we were on our way to being sort of scooped… In a hurry, we decided to not let it go that way, and eventually ended up with something somewhat more pleasing (+ it was the opportunity to reemphasize unexpected and -yes I tell you so– interesting results). In short, I enjoyed the maturation process much, and I’m quite happy with not being too late to publish “old” data and not being scooped at the end… The paper version will appear in December.

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So here are a few gems from a student exam in Plant Morphology class (Anonymity is entirely respected since this is not mine anyway).  I acknowledge that this is a rather ‘private’  post since many (lay) readers may not spot the issue  or the joke in these answers to the test. I tried to add the basic background information needed to decipher the joker within. Let’s keep in mind that students are supposed to learn  and understand their lesson and a lower treshold in the basics is expected. It is, I think, legitimate to have a good laugh when the mistake is abysmal. Most of these gems are entertaining or cute, to a teacher (though they might drive them to despair). Anyway, some students do have a clear preference (not to say a strong bias already) towards animals but must take the class (it is not optional). It certainly doesn’t reflect their biological level but most likely their (lack of) interest in plant biology.

Warning: some jokes may be lost in translation…

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Voici une série de perles issues de copies d’étudiants pour un examen de biologie végétale. Il est presque impossible que ces perles fassent rire les lecteurs généralistes qui n’ont pas de formation en biologie des plantes, les perles sont donc suivies d’un commentaire aidant le non-spécialiste à comprendre les erreurs grossières ou subtilement amusantes de ces copies. Gardons à l’esprit que les étudiants sont supposés travailler un minimum leurs cours, et qu’en conséquence il est parfaitement acceptable d’être moqueur à leur égard. Finalement, ce cours n’est pas optionnel, et la majorité des étudiants ont déjà un biais affirmé envers la biologie végétale. Ces perles ne reflètent probablement pas le niveau des étudiants mais plutôt leur absence d’intérêt pour la gente photosynthétique…

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BGR #21

The 21st edition of Berry Go Round can now be found at Beetles In The Bush. Go read for a good plant yield!

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