To find the tutors, go down the stairs in the CE building to the basement, turn right, and it’s the first door on the right. Room 030 CE Building.
Tutoring, and Student Use of the Solution Manual:
(Sent to the tutors)
When students come in for assistance:
1) Please ask to see what they have done thus far on the problem. If they say they have nothing to show you, tell them to go away and at least get some kind of start on it. If they say they have started, but don’t have it with them, make them go get it. If they say their dog ate it, make them go get their dog.
For economics they must at least have at a minimum a cash flow diagram, for linear programming they must have “what might I do”, etc. For 211, 305, 345 they must at least have a picture of the problem and appropriate free bodies. For 446 they must have block shear diagrams, etc. In every case if they have not made a substantial good faith effort to solve the problem on their own, chase them out and tell them to come back when they are not simply looking for you to do their work for them. I fully understand that it is probably a lot easier on you, and a lot quicker, to just show them how to work it and get them out of your hair, but that is not in their best interest.
2) After showing you their good faith effort, hand them the solution manual (if we gave you one) and make them sit down and figure out on their own where they went wrong by comparing their work with the correct solution. This won’t save you any time, but at least it makes them try and dig out the solution on their own. I find that if I just spoon feed them the solution they don’t participate in the learning process. If I hand them the solution manual, they at least have to try and understand what the problem is all about and how it is being solved, on their own. Use of the solution manual should be under your direct supervision, no copying the solutions. I will be doing the same thing if they come to my office.
3) No writing instruments or recording devices of any kind are permitted anywhere within 10 feet of the solution manual. They are not permitted to copy down anything of any nature. They ARE permitted to compare their work side by side with the solution, but they cannot make any corrections or changes of any kind while in the vicinity of the solution manual. If they cannot remember what they saw by the time they leave your office, and copy it down then, they have learned nothing and they will have to come back and look at it again. And again. And again. They are permitted to circle errors on their papers before leaving, but cannot copy answers.
In CVEN 221 and CVEN 305, your solution will be for a different problem, so there is less of a problem of them just copying the answer from the solution manual.
4) They may indeed in good faith say that they really just do not understand some point in the solution, or perhaps they don’t understand anything at all. At that time you can help them with the solution. But please try and make them do as much digging on their own as possible.
5) They are welcome to come compare their solutions with the solution manual in my office at any time, but again, no pencils or copying of any kind is permitted. If they cannot remember how to correct their homework after leaving your office without copying from the solution manual, then they haven’t learned the material. Crying that they need to copy it down to study for the exam is to be met with the response “Sorry, you should have been correcting these papers during the semester, one at a time.”
Thanks for your assistance this semester, and I look forward to working with you in teaching the students this material.
L^3