Anorexia, Boredom, and Fun in the Biological Sciences

As part of the BYU Biology 100 class every student is required to create a poster concerning a science related issue. At the end of the semester the students present their posters in a convention setting in the Wilk. The students must prepare a two minute spiel concerning their poster, which they then recite to the grader.

This semester it was was my turn. Within the first ten minutes of my assigned hour I had given my presentation to the grading TA. It would have been really nice to put my poster away and carry on with my day. We had, however, been warned that we were required to remain there for the entire hour. After twenty minutes of staring at photos of skeleton-like models from the anorexia exhibit opposite me, I couldn't take it any longer, I was bored stiff.

I noticed that the only thing differentiating the regular students from the grading TAs was the clipboard that the TAs carried around with them; a situation easily remedied. For less than a buck, and a five minute detour to the bookstore, I quickly changed from a reuglar student to a grading TA.

I must admit that I did have some initial apprehension, but there are many things that the Honor Code office could expel me for well before "Impersonating a TA." And besides, after watching my first victim sweat like a Nazi at a Holocaust commemoration I decided that it was way too much fun to stop. Hopefully none of the students that I "graded" got as bored as I did and decided that they could go home after I'd graded them. That would be bad.