by Caroline Crocker | Dec 2, 2025 | Science, Teaching
The Sadistic Teacher “Class, give me your attention. For this part of the lab, you’ll be studying osmosis by observing water uptake by raisins. First, weigh a raisin while dry, then soak it in distilled water for 2 hours. Weigh it again and record the weight gain. At...
by Caroline Crocker | Nov 27, 2025 | Family, Uncategorized
It’s Thanksgiving, the day when families around America gather to enjoy each other’s company, feast on turkey, and maybe, like us, add a few more stories to their repertoire. Here follows a few of my favorite Thanksgiving stories. They may not have been funny at...
by Caroline Crocker | Nov 25, 2025 | Uncategorized, Writing
If you’re my age, you’ll remember a hilarious commercial for Alka Seltzer where a man is being told, Try it, you’ll like it,” repeatedly, until he does. His response after tasting the food is, “I thought I was gonna die.” Try it!...
by Caroline Crocker | Nov 19, 2025 | Science, Teaching
A Variety of Students On the first day of the fall cell biology class at NVCC, my attention was drawn to a bright-eyed, attractive Persian student, Neshat. Seated in the front of the class, she nodded in comprehension when a concept registered, smiled at my jokes, and...
by Caroline Crocker | Nov 11, 2025 | Science, Teaching
It was my second semester at NVCC, and I’d been assigned Bio 102. Full of enthusiasm, I wanted to be the best college professor I could be. I pored over the course objectives for Bio 102 and the list of chapters to be covered: zoology, botany, and ecology. “Wow,...
