Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Smarter than me but then so is wood

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy it when my students know how to have fun with an exam. Last week my students took a practical midterm. One of my students gave an alternate answer in addition to the correct one for a few of the questions. Some of these may not make sense, but I thought I'd list them anyway.

Q: What important biological process occurs within this structure?
A: Meiosis
Alternate Answer: That and karaoke night

Q: How does this organism reproduce?
A: Sexually (by conjugation)
Alternate Answer: Listening to Barry White tunes.

Q: What is the primary ecological function of this organism (a mushroom)?
A: Decomposition
Alternate Answer: Giving Mario a 1-up

Q: What plant organ are you seeing a cross section of?
A: Leaf
Alternate Answer: Gives Mario a raccoon tail and ears.

Q: What is the term used to describe this organism's ability to survive both as an autotroph in light environments and as a heterotroph in dark environments?
A: Mixotrophic
Alternate Answer: A Papi Chulo!

Q: What is one of the main functions of roots?
A: Anchorage, absorption, storage, etc.
Alternate Answer: Increase self esteem? Rah-rah! root. Get it? Ah, nevermind!

5 comments:

Jenny said...

Ahhhh, young minds... before life crushes them.

Do they get extra credit when they do this?

Anonymous said...

I would never be brave enough to do this...

PsychDoctor said...

....unless you had a cool professor like NativeMinnow... :)

Native Minnow said...

Sometimes I've been known to give a half point if they don't know the answer but write down something that makes me laugh. The key is, it really has to make me laugh, not just smile, so it can be hard to do. And for the record, I'm not a professor, just a cool teaching assistant ;-) Humble too!

elbee said...

I have previous experience with this, except I got full marks on the "What shape is a starfish?" question. It helps to make your TA laugh.