I can't hang around here fixing your science all day. I've got documents to write.

[nanila]

I was in lab today and a pair of students were trying to diagnose a circuit. They worked on it for about half an hour before they called me over. They showed me how carefully they'd probed all the components with a multimeter and checked their breadboard connections three times. I listened. I waited patiently. When they finished, I raised an eyebrow.

"I can fix your problem by pushing one button," I said.
"Really?!"

I pressed the power button on their prototyping board unit. The oscilloscope signal flicked from flatline noise into a square wave.

I smiled at them and walked away.

Comments

[recessional]

Ah, the eternal proverb, "It works better when you turn it on/plug it in." (Alter as appropriate.)

[nanila]

They were so earnest. It was very difficult not to giggle while they were talking.

[weaverbird]

*snicker*

[nanila]

Every now and then I think it's OK to feel a little bit superior. Not too often, though. ;)

[nadriel]

Win and Awesome = You :-)

[nanila]

Well, I can't say it was the most effort I've ever put into fixing a student's problems. Usually it requires more than one finger.

[lark_ascends]

*snorts*

[nanila]

I tried very hard not to laugh until later.

[sfred]

Sometimes it feels like half my job is switching things on/plugging them in, to solve people's unsolvable technology problems.

[nanila]

It's a nice feeling when said problems are so easy to fix! A lot of times they aren't.

[miss_haitch]

Hee, you were very forebearing! I think I would have been much more sarcastic.

[nanila]

Heh. I try not to be scornful toward the students. A disturbing behavioural trend in some science students is adopting superior attitudes and feigning knowledge. I don't like to encourage it.

[lurkingcat]

Hee!

I think the weather today deserves to be in smug mode ;)

[nanila]

Smug mode was canceled earlier today, when I received a phone call ten minutes before leaving asking me to fix something that I couldn't without a supply of toluene. Which I don't have. :/

[kake]

When all else fails, you call in... Super Nanila FROM SPACE!

[nanila]

Oh how I would love to join the crew of the Swinetrek.

[liseuse]

Ahaha, awesome!

[nanila]

It was a rather satisfactory moment. For me, anyway!