Nuking Student Papers

[Aster]

Has anyone microwaved student papers before?

No, this isn't a joke. A colleague mentioned this to me yesterday, and it got me seriously thinking. I'm sure that most of us have had uncomfortable moments where sneezing and wheezing students cough all over their papers. Or you get papers that appear dirty, stained, spotted with who knows what.

I also know several professors that are unapologetic germaphobes.

For situations like this, what if you could just stick your student's papers into the microwave oven and nuke all those cooties away?

Has anybody done this before?

Paper won't catch fire will it? What about pencil marks?

Paper clips and staples are probably no-goes. So that means that single-sheet assessments would be much easier to nuke. Test forms. What about blue books?

I feel that I am on the edge of a profound epiphany. Please, let's discuss this possible new innovation to the educational workplace!

[spork]

I'm going to respond seriously: I went totally paperless about fifteen years ago. It solved many problems, like "My printer ran out of ink," "My roommate's printer ran out of ink," and "My printer card wouldn't work in the library." Now I know that it reduces my chances of contracting a potentially fatal disease.

[mamselle]

No, but you can microwave (and otherwise torture) Peeps....

   http://www.peepresearch.org/

M.

[Morden]

Paperless has dramatically reduced the number of colds I get each year. And because I mark and return as I go, I also avoid the dreaded paper hand back sadness.

[Hegemony]

Yes, do it online. I understand that paper can indeed catch fire in the microwave. You may be interested in this thread, "Why did microwaving my exam papers make them catch fire?":

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=44362.0

The why is not clear, but the fire seems clear.

Plus you have the problem of getting the papers into the microwave without touching them.

Just go for online submissions.

[apostrophe]

Another vote for online submission of papers. Added benefit is that it will help students who are sick with the decision to stay home.

[Hegemony]

Today's relevant tweet:

"My professor just told me that if we get a whiff of smoke it's because another professor put the papers he was grading in the microwave to rid them of any chance of Corona Virus & then the papers caught on fire... I can't make this stuff up people"

https://twitter.com/Lou16em/status/1237399131074768897

[Aster]

Oops, I see that this derailed fast for the professors whose curriculum model allows for digital submission of student documents. My bad.

Lots of us don't do that, or can't do that. Handwritten assignments for example. In-class assessments for another example. Workbooks. Blue Books.

So setting aside the issue of digital submissions for the moment, are there examples of techniques where one can mitigate combustion risks from nuking papers? I mean heck, the world routinely nukes paper packaging associated with food in the microwave. Is that stuff specially treated or of some kind of special paper?

[VaticanCameos]

Microwaves aren't particularly useful for disinfection.  Now, if your colleague has access to a uv light box, that might work better.  In all seriousness, exams are the only assignments my students complete on paper, and I frequently wash my hands or use hand sanitizer while grading.

[Morden]

My students do a lot of inclass writing; almost all of them have some sort of electronic device they can use to submit (including taking pictures of the handwritten page (encourage them to send those by email rather than text)). We still have to do exams in booklets, but at least I'm touching less paper.

[no1capybara]

Aster, the virus only lives for so long, so maybe just put off grading the papers for a week?

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/as-coronavirus-spreads-many-questions-and-some-answers-2020022719004

[the_geneticist]

My cat once vomited on a stack of graded exams.  It was really, really bad.  I waited for them to dry and then ran them through the department copier to give the students a new copy.
Taking out the staples was the most annoying part.  Well, that and explaining to students why I was returning exams later than promised.
Maybe scan them or make new copies?

[apl68]

My cat once vomited on a stack of graded exams.  It was really, really bad.  I waited for them to dry and then ran them through the department copier to give the students a new copy.
Taking out the staples was the most annoying part.  Well, that and explaining to students why I was returning exams later than promised.
Maybe scan them or make new copies?

What you just said about taking out the staples...maybe a failure to remove staples was what caused the microwave fires mentioned above?

[Diogenes]

DRY PAPER WILL BURN IN THE MICROWAVE AND YES I AM YELLING THIS!

[apl68]

Guess you have to keep it below Fahrenheit 451.