It was strange. I’ve got to get used to this again. Today was another day for registering incoming first-year students, so I was guiding newbies through the process and making sure they were taking the right courses (for biology majors, it’s easy: take general chemistry. We can fix just about any other omission in your schedule in this first year, but if you don’t take that chemistry prerequisite for just about everything else in the curriculum, you’re screwed.) Once the required courses were set up, we wedge in a few other things, and voila, they’re on track. Then we let them toddle on home until August.
I also spent some time with the spiders, since I’ve finally got a male. I encouraged a mating, but he was shy, so I had to leave them overnight together, with a swarm of fruit flies, which I hope will dissuade her from munching on her lover. I’ll be in tomorrow morning, hoping I don’t find a corpse in the bridal bower.
Good luck amorous male spider!
So we’ll see if he fails introductory chemistry?
As someone who has taught general chemistry, all I can say is, very true. And it’s also true for every other science and engineering major, and for some like kinesiology. My department once tried to determine how many majors were required to take gen chem their first year: we stopped when we reached twenty, and never did find the real answer.
The necessity of getting it done the first year also gives rise to the most persistent and relentless whining by students and lawnmower parents if they don’t pass it, or don’t get the A they think they are entitled to.
Oh well! Chemistry likes to boast that it’s “the central science”, so we’re just getting what we asked for.