Words that Students Don't Know

[mamselle]

Heifer.

In a class of students who thought they were going to become veterinarians.

Assign them a James Harriot book....!

M.

[RatGuy]

In my essay assignment for 2nd-year students, one bullet point says that students should include "definitions of terminology" in their introduction. With the essay due at 5pm today, I've received five students in the last hour asking what "definitions of terminology" meant. Not sure any of this bodes well for their grades.

[RatGuy]

Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

[marshwiggle]

Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

That's an expensive car, isn't it?

[apl68]

Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

That's an expensive car, isn't it?

I thought it was a class that's online but also has some students in the actual classroom.

[marshwiggle]

Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

That's an expensive car, isn't it?

I thought it was a class that's online but also has some students in the actual classroom.

That was going to be my second guess.

[EdnaMode]

My students don't know the word omit, and this often results in them doing more work than they need to.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Ten years ago, in an Introductory Astronomy course, I had a student ask me what 'vicinity' meant.

[marshwiggle]

Has there ever been a study of vocabulary used in social media; specifically Twitter and Facebook? I'd guess for younger generations for whom those make up 90% of their "reading", the *lexicon is pretty limited.

(*whatever that is)

[EdnaMode]

Has there ever been a study of vocabulary used in social media; specifically Twitter and Facebook? I'd guess for younger generations for whom those make up 90% of their "reading", the *lexicon is pretty limited.

(*whatever that is)

I receive emails from the Microsoft Office 365 spies (the same ones that tell me I spend too much of my work day answering email) and these messages routinely tell me that I use a larger variety of words than 90-something percent of their users. And that makes me wonder how many (or few) words do most people actually use?

[the_geneticist]

Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

Well, I'm a geneticist and hybrid has a particular meaning in genetics that is different from the everyday meaning.  Don't even get me started on words like transcription, dominant, and mutation.

[mamselle]

From another thread, "least common denominator," "function of (x)" and "percent error" appear to be dim lights in the universe of scientific terms.

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

Heliocentric/heliocentrism

Even with a labelled diagram and an explanation, it apparently wasn't clear.

[dismalist]

No.

[secundem_artem]

One of my undergrad profs used to tell the story of one of his undergrad profs from back in the 1950's.  Apparently said professor had a student who defined brownian motion as diarrhea.