General biology at Ohio State in 1966 had a real innovation , lectures that were on tape, I have no idea the numbers of students took the open freshman science class. In 66 they were limited only by the numbers of labs they could provide because the lecture was taped. Played on tv screens in a big lecture hall. Almost every hour during the day.
Dr Jim Haub was the lecturer. I knew him since I was a child because my Daddy also taught in that department. He had a wry clever sense of humor. I clearly remember one lecture he started out with him looking under the podium and looking suspicious. He started the lecture and would occasionally checking under the podium.
Finally he said, well I might as well tell you there are wild and animals under here and I want to make sure that they don’t escape. He said wild animals were animals not handled by humans. He said these had been isolated from humans. Finally he brought them out. It was a shoe box sized box of leopard frogs. He poked at them and of course they jumped. He jumped back.
I learned something from him. You can make anything exciting and holding the attention over a bod of frogs.
At the end of the term the afternoon before the final I walked in my dorm and a guy saw my zoology book and asked me if I was taking zoology. Yes. Want to buy the exam. I said let me look at it. I looked, it seemed legitimate. I turned it down. I had a real dilemma. It came down to want a fair shake when it came to the exam. I finally got the nerve and called him, I said I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble.
Dr Haub, I said, when I came into the dorm a guy offered to sell me the exam. Hot damn, he replied, they found it. He said he’d had the final in his car trunk for three weeks. He left a fake mimeograph in the trash. He asked me not to tell anyone.
I went up and was happily studying when a friend came up having bought the exam and was sharing it with me. I said well let’s look over the questions so we can see how they are worded and then go back to our books and notes. That’s what we did.
When I got into the exam room I could see more than one student filling in the answers without reading the questions. Apparently they had studied the exam and what they knew was AACBCCABBB…. there were a ton of students who flat flunked, all surprisingly with the same sequences. Karma
Just remember the sequence for each page, I got an A. I was so proud. I’d deserved it. My buddy got a C which made her really happy.
Karma
The Spirit Will Tell You 