by Caroline Crocker | Sep 30, 2025 | Science, Teaching
Enjoy this, the third in a series of posts about teaching at GMU and NVCC. In researching how to teach effectively, I now focused on learning styles. I was sure that I would need to cater to these. Diagrams and pictures on the PowerPoint slides would help the visual...
by Caroline Crocker | Sep 23, 2025 | Science, Teaching
Here follows the second installment of my series on my experience as a biology professor at NVCC and GMU. How Hard Should it Be? It was time for the first exam. Since many students didn’t take notes, I figured the material was probably too easy for them. I carefully...
by Caroline Crocker | Sep 16, 2025 | Science, Teaching
My years of teaching biology and biology labs at Northern Virginia Community College and George Mason University were both educational and enjoyable. In the following series of blogs, I’ll be sharing stories that illustrate both. Enjoy! The First Lab Beginning...
by Caroline Crocker | Jun 13, 2025 | Science, Teaching
The first-year medical student bit her lip, “I don’t know what to do. Most of my class is cheating, and the teachers don’t do anything about it. I’ve been offered a preview of the exams for $100 each. The only way to compete with the cheaters is to cheat. But...
by Caroline Crocker | Jun 6, 2025 | Teaching
(updated from a published article) “Dr. Crocker, I know who complained about you to your boss—you reported her for cheating on her final exam.” Only a week after the publication of the story of my time as an educator at George Mason University (GMU), I was contacted...
by Caroline Crocker | May 27, 2025 | Science, Teaching
Kitchen sponges. Those who use them love them. Those of us who are scientists trained in microbiology don’t. Why not? Wet Places are often Germy The simple answer is: because they remain wet. Bacteria love to grow in damp places. During COVID, I had my students...
