Penn Staters Skipping Class Journal

My biology room is an enormous lecture hall. It seats over 750 people comfortably. I know this because my class alone has 741 people in it. There are two entrances for massive amount of people to file in at one time and two rows or stairs in between the sections of hundreds of red cushioned chairs. Usually to my left I have Mike Caplan. On my right is Danielle Falco. In the front of the room there is a podium where my professor stands with an attached microphone on her shirt so she can speak and everyone will hear. Above her lies a 30 foot by 15 foot projector with the computer screen on one side and the normal projector on the other side. My professor speaks with a loud voice that can be heard from 360 degrees around the room, and paces back and forth to try and make eye contact with all 741 people. Mike, on my left, has his clicker out to answer the various questions that give us participation points for each day. It is the only way to tell who is attending class and who isn't. New people around me everyday because there are so many people and so many possible choices of seats. The room is almost a theater.

"I haven't gone to biology this entire year so far except for the first day. It's just too hard to pay attention with that many people," says Will. He is one of my friends that I met in biology the first day we had class. He is a student here at Penn State and 18 years old.

"Dude clicker question are worth like no points, it doesn't even matter if I go or not." This again was Will who seems to have a bad attitude about going to class. He is saying that his grade may be negligibly affected by not answering the daily clicker questions.

"Honestly with 740 people even if I get up and leave everyday she won't know who I am, my name, or even remember what I look like," says Mike Caplan who actually does not skip class. He is 18 and went to my high school, Methacton, where we were in multiple of the same classes. I guess he has morals. Dr. Carla Hass is the she in this situation. She's the professor of biology 110. She can't keep track of this many people. It's just not possible.

Online I found that the most common excuse for students skipping class is that they are sick. This was a simple google search that lead me to a yahoo blog questionnaire. Teachers rarely believe this depending on your personality in class. This made me think that even if I actually am sick what are the chances that my professor will believe what I'm saying? Another thing I found really interesting was that at Penn State the most common actual reason for skipping class is being hungover from a night of being out late and drinking. This I heard from a Junior at Penn State who is seemingly popular and parties a lot. He wished to be remain anonymous. This person is also an older brother of a close friend I have here at State.

I would like to look at how many times a teacher actually believes their students excuses about missing class. I will look at the amount of teachers here that do not take attendance and how their grades compare to those classes that do take attendance. I have realized that some teachers here take a stance of letting their students decide how much effort they will put in. In other words if a kid doesn't want to go to class the professor doesn't care. Another thing I want to research that I found interesting is the amount of times students miss an early class because they were sleeping with a girl or vice versa.