ecru, caustic, relentless stirring

Buzzzzzz!
"What was said in chemistry lab last night, Alex?"

Absolutely correct!
Two were words that were new to several of my students.
Hooray!
Any time I can broaden their vocabulary is a good time!
I had tasked them with using three descriptive words or phrases to describe the results of the qualitative tests they performed on the soap they had created.
The soap created after relentless, continuous, stirring of the lye and vegetable oil.
Amazingly, half of the lab duos were successful!
Even more amazing, though, was the fact that four of the five pairs were newly created teams.

I don't usually have the students change lab partners during the course of the semester.
Sadly, my three labs that I am teaching this semester, including the one at Savannah Tech, have been plagued with cheating. Cheating on Pre-Lab Quizzes and Assignments, cheating on Post-Lab Reports.
Sigh.
It had been breaking my heart and ticking me off.
Nonetheless, this is the fifth week of classes.
They should certainly know better by this point in the semester.
I had warned them two weeks ago that continued instances of cheating would earn grades of "ZERO" for all parties concerned.
Sadly, I had to carry through with that threat.
As I graded, I found the same wacky, improbable mistakes in calculations on several student's papers.
"ZERO" grades for all parties.
As I graded, I found written answers which were word for word - including misspellings and grammar lapses - those of other students.
"ZERO" grades for all parties.
The worst cases of plagiarism were in my Chem1152 Lab, in which I had four groups of students all copying each other.

Those "ZERO" grades certainly got their attention.

On Monday, in the Chem1151 first-semester Lab, a student came forward and confessed that she had copied another's work.
Her cohorts did not.
But her coming forward did my heart some good.
I thanked her for her courage in coming forward and sent her an email commending her stand on responsibility.
I know she will be a good student, too.

Yesterday evening, I had two of the most flagrant cheaters in my Chem1152 second-semester Lab come to my office.
To apologize for their actions?
Oh, no.
They came to berate me for grading too hard!
I was aghast at their audacity.
I think they expected me to immediately change their grades!
So very disappointing.
But I had another member of that class come to my office and confess her actions.
She had been an exemplary student when I had her for lecture last spring and I had been very disappointed when I had found evidence of cheating in her lab reports.
I was so relieved that she had come to me and apologized.

And the very first thing I did at lab last night was to reassign lab partners.
I had told the 1152 groups last week that I was going to do so, as I had noticed that some of the students needed to be paired in lab with someone with stronger chemistry skills.
Of the eleven original groups, I left three intact.
The cheaters were separated from each other and paired with students I knew to be of high moral character.
I even rearranged where some of the pairs were on the lab benches.

And it worked...
the lab performance was energetic and patient...
the attitude was of people working together in harmony and with light hearts...
and a student came forward and took responsibility for their mistakes...
and another student come forward and confessed their actions...
and I think yet another would have...
but she could not work up the courage.

Progress, at last.
I felt better about the class than I have all semester.

Then, in my Savannah Tech lab this afternoon, one of my 12ll students asked to speak to me in the hall about her misdeeds, confessing that she had copied verbatim another classmate's work.
She even hugged me afterward and promised to never do so again.

Wow.

i thank You, God, for this peace of mind...
and for restoring my faith in the basic goodness of my students.