The stories of how science students are cheating reminded me of an
experience (actually, two experiences) I had while working as a lab
assistant for a summer program for gifted high school students. Towards
the end of the first three-week session, one of my Intro to Lab Science
students was way behind on turning in homework assignments - and
suddenly turned in five or six assignments at once. They bore a
remarkable resemblance to his roommate's homework, which I re-collected
(under the pretense of having forgotten to record his grade) and
discovered had been copied word for word. So of course I turned the
first student in for cheating, and he had to call and tell his parents.
Then, three weeks later, with a completely different batch of kids, the
exact same thing happened: one student was falling behind, "borrowed"
his roommate's assignments, copied them, and turned them in. How could
these kids think we wouldn't know??? (Needless to say, the other
instructional staff started teasing me about being a tough grader...)
-Mara Casar
