It still surprises me when my students can't tell when I'm joking in class. Today, one of our labs required them to fabricate data for 30 participants such that there was a positive correlation between two variables, and some students were like, What? How do we make up data?
I was like, OK, everybody pay attention because making up fake data is one of the most important steps in your development as scientists.
People looked at each a little uneasily.
Then I said in a dramatic voice, I'll not have anyone saying that I did not train you properly in the crucially important task of making up fake data to get the results you want.
Now people started to laugh.
And I am pleased to note that I did not make any reference to Chinese scientists during this discussion, even though they demonstrate a much greater aptitude for this particular task.
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3 comments:
This doesn't surprise me. You're very good at making that kind of joke in an understated enough way to create comedic ambiguity.
They are probably taking school pretty seriously and not even thinking anyone would joke about it.
Tam, hah, it's all about the comedic ambiguity around here.
Mom, I hope it's a reason like that and not that they are so confused / bored that they don't know what the hell is going on.
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