What to do when your chem lab partners don't care? -VENT-
Hi all,
I just thought I'd get everyone's perspective on this as it's quite possible that I might be too much of a perfectionist and that I might should expect less from people, so here goes:
Today in my chem lab (first semester of General Chemistry) we had an experiment that involved figuring out some unknowns. We were fairly pressed for time, as our experiment had gone awry earlier with another part of the lab, so we needed to figure things out fast. We had to develop a procedure based upon earlier data in order to figure out what the unknowns were depending on whether they formed precipitates, sort of a process of elimination type thing. Well, the two people I was working with said "Oh if we just add X solution, then that means it's Magnesium!" and I was like "No, actually, it could still be Barium because..." This went back and forth for like five minutes. Now, normally I'd wonder if maybe my logic was wrong, but I was pretty danged sure I was right.
Well, this girl just decided to move on and write down whatever she wanted without justification, leaving it upon ME to do everything if I wanted to get a good grade and wasn't satisfied with putting in a half-hearted effort. Shortly thereafter, the guy that was in our lab group raised his hand, turned in his lab, and said that he was ready for the lab quiz. We weren't done with the experiment. Nowhere near. And we hadn't cleaned up. And he had done next to nothing to help us with any of the other parts of the lab. So basically he was going to ditch us and leave... so when the professor came over to check him out and I noticed, I lifted up my head and said "Uh, there's no possible way that you're done!" Our professor agreed and so he left and told the guy to clean up. Then the guy turns to me and says "You just ain't got no people skills. You ain't gotta disrespect me like that. You don't know me so well as you think you do." Um? I don't care WHO YOU ARE, nor do I claim to know you, but, you're not going to wash your hands of your lab group and leave us to finish everything up just so that you can get your quiz done and leave early. That was my take on the situation at least. I didn't say that though, I simply said "Well, we haven't cleaned up. I don't know.." and he interrupted me and said "Nah, you ain't gotta say nuthin' else", effectively telling me to shut up.
Then he went over to the girl in the group who was cleaning up and muttered something and all I caught was "That girl be trippin'." "Psh, yeah I know!"
I got everything done, thankfully, and my grade will be a good reflection of my abilities, unless I screwed something up due to being so flustered. My question is what I should do in the future. Should I ask my professor if I can join another lab group in the class? I really hate to work with people who don't care nearly as much about their grades as I do, leaving me to do all of the work or correct their mistakes when they mix the wrong test tubes, etc. Am I wrong? Was I wrong to call that guy out for not really being done? It might sound like I care too much about my grades to some people, but I really am a perfectionist and with good reason. I want to go to medical school and chemistry is one of the required pre-requisites, so I better make a good grade. People look over at my grades in class and like today for example, I got last week's lab back and I made a 19.5/20 and she said "Haha, you just can't get that last half a point, can you?" I'm tired of feeling ostracized for doing well in school. >.<
By the way, many many thanks to anyone who actually reads this and/or takes time to respond to it. I know it's a fairly petty thing to be upset over, so again, I appreciate it.
The college my bf and I are going to offer online classes. The bf is taking chem right now online. It doesn't include a lab, but you can do just that portion on campus. If your school offers this maybe you can drop the class??
I know... It's extreme.
Maybe classes in the future though?
I dunno.
Yeah, there's really no reason for me to drop the class. I think my average in that class is like a 97 or 98% right now, so that would be cutting off my nose to spite my face, I think, especially since I need to take my science classes in a very specific sequential order or else I won't be prepared to take the MCAT on time.
Last edited by LindseyLouWho; 09-29-2008 at 07:30 PM.
I've been in your position. It was audio production and engineering and I was the only girl in the group- and they let me know. I was stuck with all the crap work while they ran away with the projects (which were AWFUL).
After our first project and subsequent bad grade, I spoke with the professor and told him to switch me. Not if he could, but to do it. I don't think I gave him much of a choice I think it impressed him enough that I cared about my work, not to mention some of it bordered on sexual harassment and that's not cool, so he let me go at it on my own with his supervision. It is by far the hardest class I have ever taken and I walked away with a B (the most hard-earned B of my life!).
They are welcome to not care about the class or their education. You really can't change that or expect them to care. You can change your situation and I think talking to your professor will bring about a reasonable compromise.
ETA: Some of the work I did that semester is some of my best production and engineering work and I progressed in leaps and bounds. That's not saying much because I'm not a strong engineer, but I'm grateful for the experience of turning it around when I could have just buried my head in the sand.
Yeah... I agree with you.
I'm sorry about your class.
I don't know... Nose to the grind stone and just try to get through it! You sound like a smart hard working girl, you can get through it!
Great job on the grade!
I know high school isn't college, but in my dd's sophmore year she had a tough English teacher..my dd was so sick with migranes she was going to the neurologist to get shots in the back of her head. The class picked groups one of the days she wasn't there for a group book report. She got grouped in with the skippers & slackers. There were four kids in the group. My daughter basically had to do the whole report. One of the boys watched the DVD instead of reading the book so all his facts were wrong. One of the girls didn't even attempt to write her section and got kicked out of school a short time later cause when she wasn't skipping she was in detention, the other boy in the group worked and played football and didn't have "time" to finish his section. My dd even had to type the whole report and fill in their parts the best she could since the boys said they would be done but gave the incomplete sections to her at the last minute. They passed the report part with a good grade but it messed up on the presentation of the info since they didn't do their part and the teacher even made a rude comment to the group about skippers which she had lumped my daughter into when the presentation wasn't up to par. DD came home in tears and that's when I went in to "talk" with the teacher. She "allowed" dd to do another paper for extra credit.
Being someone to whom the 1/2 point would have been a big deal , I think you should talk to the professor. He may or may not choose to reassign the groups, but he'll be aware of the situation. You can ask him to keep an eye on your lab partner's behavior. The partner is the one who's totally out of line. If you're developing a reputation for wanting to get the work right and get a good grade, he should be trying to benefit from that, not flout it.
You may want to ask the professor to lay out some ground rules for the whole class that he may have thought didn't need to be explicitly stated. He certainly also observed that your partner was trying to get out of the cleanup work and can comment on that in a general way. Since he deals with teamwork projects regularly, he may have some words of wisdom on how to deal with a jerk on your team as well.
I would tell them to switch you, because you do not want your grade to suffer because your lab partners don't care. I would also state that you do not want to work with someone (the guy who was trying to leave early) that speaks to you, and disrespects you in that manner.
Yes, in reality we have to work with all kinds of people-but in the workplace, how this person treated you could be taken to HR as harrassment.
YOU NEED to talk to your professor..... I am a University Professor and we are not deluded enough to think that group work isn't inherently difficult. I as a Professor WANT TO KNOW when things like this are happening.... the chances are that your prof. already can see what is going on.... but if he can't then I suggest going to talk with him during his office hours. It will make you seem responsible and concerned about your grade and the actions of your group.....
Its a bit different but I did Comp Sci for undergrad and I was in a group where we were writing a computer program together. Well one of our group partners couldn't really do it. We'd ask her for stuff and she said she couldn't do it or she would give us junk. This was an advanced class too. Well we went to the professor and she was removed from our group.
One thing about you: Don't ever think that wanting good grades is petty! Don't be afraid to show your smarts. Others who talk down to you are just jealous.
What to do when your chem lab partners don't care? -VENT-
I think it impressed him enough that I cared about my work, not to mention some of it bordered on sexual harassment and that's not cool, so he let me go at it on my own with his supervision. It is by far the hardest class I have ever taken and I walked away with a B (the most hard-earned B of my life!). 
, I think you should talk to the professor. He may or may not choose to reassign the groups, but he'll be aware of the situation. You can ask him to keep an eye on your lab partner's behavior. The partner is the one who's totally out of line. If you're developing a reputation for wanting to get the work right and get a good grade, he should be trying to benefit from that, not flout it.
