Thanks for all the responses. As I mentioned, I was asked to give an
opinion. Here is my opinion.
The professor should either give credit to those students who assumed
the dock was the reference point, or the professor should throw out the
question and figure the grade just using the other exam problems. There
are slight risks either way. If the problem is thrown out, that gives
some penalty to those students who worked the problem correctly
according to the professors intent. If the people who gave the trivial
answer get credit, you don't really know if they understand how to do
the intended problem or not.
The professor could try to discern which students understand the
problem, and give them credit if it improves their exam grade, or throw
it out if it does not improve their exam grade.
Any of this sort of thing should be acceptable, but the professor should
not penalize the students who assumed the 3-m walk was with respect to
the dock, because his wording implied that. I myself assumed it meant
that, although I realized right away it was not his intent.
In any case the professor should use the incident as a learning
experience. He can talk about the need to define the reference point.
He can talk about the need to be clear. The professor could also inform
the class that a similar problem will appear on the next exam. Of
course if that is done, you can bet just about everyone will get it
right. That might skew grades upward, but you can also bet the students
now understand this problem very well, and that is the whole point of
teaching. Right?
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
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