Is it bad....

[Kyle]

Yes.
I'm trying to study for law school finals, Constitutional Law tomorrow (Wednesday) and Wills and Trusts Thursday. Each test accounts for 100% of my grade in the class. Yet I still find myself posting on CF...

[psycln11]

The Mechanics class I took (in 2002) was a combined Statics and Mechanics (for 5 credits) class, we met 5 days a week, and I had it with Sturges. I believe spring 2003 was the last year they offered the combined class, at the time I graduated, Statics, Dynamics and Mechanics were all separate 3 credit classes, your couldn't take any of them combined.

So is the Mechanics class 'Strength of Materials' that also has the 1 credit lab?

I believe they were EM 324 & 327 when I took them back in the early 90's.

[isucyfan]

Finals week was always during my birthday, so it could be worse! This was especially problematic when I turned 21.

At least I was only a Psych major.

[Flag Guy]

Finals week was always during my birthday, so it could be worse! This was especially problematic when I turned 21.

At least I was only a Psych major.

That was my problem in high school (along with the fact that swim team practice started the same week)

In college, it's usually around the time period of papers/reports/last round of exams before finals (case in point I spent my 22nd birthday working on a take home test that took the whole night and the next day), I was working on a paper preceeding my birthday this year... drove to Kansas very early the next day so i coudln't stay out this year

November/December birthdays suck (You also have to throw in the proximity to Christmas and people's tendancies to lump the two together...)



As for the actual subject of this thread, I swear someone could drop dead in Sturges's class and he'd keep going like nothing happened.

[sodakjoe]

Do you got Mr. Monotone? Leroy Sturges

LEEEEERRROOOOOOOOOOOOY STURGES!

[clonefan_80]

So is the Mechanics class 'Strength of Materials' that also has the 1 credit lab?

I believe they were EM 324 & 327 when I took them back in the early 90's.

yup ......

[cstrunk]

Anyone else take it up the @$$ from this test tonight? I mean - oh my LORD - did they not learn from the exam averages of test 2? Exams 1 and 3 were straight-forward and good in testing the concepts we had learned. Exams 2 and 4 were absolute curveball tests that were ridiculous!

$(*#

[Wesley]

Actually I found the heavier the course load, the better my grades were. I did not have time to worry about anything - I was too busy going to the next task.

[Bwalk]

The following is a letter that Sturges posted to WebCT when I had EM 324. Its pretty long but it verifies what kind of robot he is. Although he was actually helpful once I worked up the nerve to go to his office.

Message no. 38
Posted by Leroy Sturges (EM324) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 12:04pm
Subject: EM 324 "Rules and Procedures"

A casual observation over the past couple of weeks indicates that only about 50% to 60% of the students registered for the class actually come to the class on any given day. So this seems to be the only way to reach the entire class. This of course assumes that those not attending class at least check WebCT once in a while. Perhaps everyone at least checks after the exam to see what grades were posted.

Anyway, what follows is a set of "rules" and "comments" about how the class is going.

1. The notes posted on WebCT are not a substitute for coming to class. The notes posted are just an outline of what I do in class. At the very least, you need to write additional notes on the pages as you follow along. Better yet, look over the notes before coming to class, then leave the notes at home and take your own notes in class. You still know that you can fill in some of the details from the posted notes if you miss something.

2. If you must miss class for some reason (or if you simply decide not to come to class), you must get notes from someone else in the class or at least talk with someone else in the class to find out what is happening in class. Any announcement made to the class is presumed made to everyone in the class. Such announcements will not normally be posted on WebCT.

3. Coming to my office for help is not a substitute for coming to class. If you must miss class (or simply decide not to go to class), then you must first read the book, get notes from another student, and talk with another student about what was done in class before coming in to see me. I will not do "personal, individual" lectures for each of the 100 or so students who are not attending class.

4. When you do come in to see me for help, bring your notes along. When you ask about something you don't understand, I may ask to see your class notes on the subject. If you missed class, then you should have notes that you copied from someone else. Bring them along.

5. I am still getting questions about whether I am going to adjust the grading curve in the course (probably from the students who don't come to class). As I said in class, I will not change the grading schedule simply because the class average comes out low. "Mediocre work does not become acceptable simply because a majority of students do mediocre work." The average on the first test should have been between 80% and 85%. Problem 1 should have been very simple. Problem 2 was an example problem from the statics book. Problem 3 simply required substituting the correct angle into two equations on your crib sheet. Problem 4 was the only problem that actually required much work, and even that problem should have been straight forward.

6. As I said at the beginning of the semester, statics is a prerequisite for this course and statics knowledge and ability is expected. It appears that a large number of you are not well prepared for this course. Perhaps the multiple choice tests in statics and physics are partially to blame. I don't think that the multiple choice tests can properly test: whether you are drawing a correct and complete free-body diagram; whether you are writing the equations of equilibrium; whether you can solve for the correct answer or are just able to
pick the correct answer out of a short list; etc.

7. I think that another possible problem is your reliance on calculators. You spend to much time punching numbers in you calculator trying to find a commbination that gives the correct answer and too little time analyzing the problem and understanding it. I think that this process may have gotten you through physics and statics with their multiple choice tests, but it is not serving you very well in this course.

8. Your grade in this class will not be that you did well considering your poor background in math or physics or statics. Your grade in this class will be based on whether or not you show me that you understand the principles of mechanics of materials. That is, do you know when to use one equation rather than another... Do you know whether to use an angle of -37 degrees (problem 3 of exam 1) instead of +37 degrees or +53 degrees... Do you know the difference between normal stress and shear stress... Do you know whether to use the cross sectional area or the surface area or some other area to find stress... All of the things that we talk about in class. I generally emphasize the things that I feel are important and that I will be looking for on exams. In fact, I generally emphasize them several times in class. Of course, you won't know that if you don't come to class, or if you come to class and sleep, or if you come to class and do the daily crossword.

9. The aerospace engineering department is starting to get complaints from the
mechanical engineering department and from the civil engineering department. They are wondering how you can get A's and B's in statics and not perform simple tasks in their follow-on courses. Specifically, they mention that you can't draw proper free-body diagrams, that you can't solve simple statics problems, that you can't analyze simple problems the way students could 5 or 10 years ago. I don't intend to have them ask how you can get an A or a B in my class without knowing the difference between stress and strain or the difference between normal stress and shear stress or any of the basic principles of mechanics of materials.

10. You may have been told that the teacher stands in the front of the room to teach you mechanics of materials (or whatever other course you are taking). If so, you have been told wrong. The teacher's job is to help you learn. The hard work (and learning is hard work) has to be done by you. I will do whatever I can to help you learn. But if you just sit back and watch me solve problems, you will probably not learn the material.

o You need to read the book BEFORE coming to class so that you have some idea of what will be talked about and what you have difficulty understanding.
o You need to try some of the homework problems BEFORE coming to class. The
example problems in the book may look clear and simple, but starting a problem on your own may not be so simple.
o I will try to highlight those things that I feel are very important and/or I think you will have difficulty with, and I will work and explain additional example problems.
o If you don't understand something in the book and/or in the lecture, you need to ask about it.
o Don't wait for someone else to ask questions when you don't understand something. Probably there are a lot of other people who don't understand it and are also timid about asking questions. Even if everyone else does understand it, that doesn't help you. It's your education. You need to participate.
o You need to work the homework problems until you understand the material. It is not enough to just play with the numbers on your calculator until you get the answer that is given. (As Charlie Brown observed, "The answers in life are not in the back of the book.") You need to work on the homework problems until you truly understand why you are solving it the way you are.
o You need to look at the answers you get and ask yourself if they make sense. Why does it work that way.


Most of the observations above are not unique to this class. You are paying a lot of
money to get an education at Iowa State University. Paying the money doesn't buy you
the education. Even attending class does not give you the education you are paying for.
Even after paying all of that money, you still have to work for your education. You must
participate in the process. It is not enough to just sit on the curb and watch the parade
go by.

L.D. Sturges

[mramseyISU]

Actually what ever department that is in charge of that class busted Sturges down to TA for a semester because to many people we failing mechanics. I want to say it was last fall, but I'm not sure. All I know is that in class you'd think he could make a Marine Corps drill instuctor cry, but if you met him during office hours he was one of the most helpful professors I had.

[throwittoblythe]

Actually what ever department that is in charge of that class busted Sturges down to TA for a semester because to many people we failing mechanics. I want to say it was last fall, but I'm not sure. All I know is that in class you'd think he could make a Marine Corps drill instuctor cry, but if you met him during office hours he was one of the most helpful professors I had.

If I remember correctly, this is how it went down...

Several students had a Physics exam the same night as the Mechanics exam. So, because mechanics was a smaller class, they had to reschedule that one. They all took the mechanics exam and every single one of them failed. When they went back over their tests, they found that Sturges had graded them all. Whereas for the other students, he only graded one problem on their exams and the TAs graded the others. So, they appealed to Sturges and he didn't bend. So, they filed a complaint with the department and he was a TA for a semester or two.

[BigDISU1]

In EM 305 (Statics and Mechanics) which I took in 2002, there were 2 sections of the class, one taught by Sturges and one taught by his TA, Peggy. Sturges wrote the tests and distributed them to both sections but he only graded his section, and his TA graded her students section.

I recall Sturges's class average (the one I was in) at the end of the year was in the 60's and the class average in his TA's class was around 80% (the difference of a D/F vs a C/B) Keep in mind, we were tested on the exact same tests (I had some friends in the other section I studied with and saw their exams). Basically, if you made the same mistake, you would get docked twice the amount of points in Sturges's class. Some complaints were made by some students in my section, but the argument I heard Sturges made was essentially that his section of students were 20% dumber than his TA's section of students. I usually don't remember my classes in this type of detail, but at the time it was a big deal.

They ended up getting rid of EM 305 in the spring of 03, I assume to poor grades.

One things for sure, I never thought I would see the day I would be talking about Sturges in Cyclone Fanatic

[iceclone]

Actually what ever department that is in charge of that class busted Sturges down to TA for a semester because to many people we failing mechanics. I want to say it was last fall, but I'm not sure. All I know is that in class you'd think he could make a Marine Corps drill instuctor cry, but if you met him during office hours he was one of the most helpful professors I had.

Hmm, to what does it even mean that a tenured professor was "busted down to TA"? Did they take away his tenure, fire him, admit him into as a graduate student into their graduate program, and then hire him as a TA? Sounds like a rather laborious process

[jdoggivjc]

November/December birthdays suck (You also have to throw in the proximity to Christmas and people's tendancies to lump the two together...)

I've never minded having my birthday in November, and I especially have never minded having the two lumped together as birthday + Christmas = bigger and better gifts. Nowadays anymore I usually get more money than gifts, and it's really nice being able to combine birthday money with Christmas money to get something I ordinarily wouldn't be able to get.

[jdoggivjc]

I was in engineering back in 2001-02 and I still remember the horror stories my engineering classmates told me about Sturges. He certainly is one of those professors that feels that simply because you are the student and he is the professor there is absolutely no way you can gain the same kind of knowledge he has and his grading reflects that attitude. As far as his attitude that he's not being paid to teach but to help learn - no, you're being paid to teach. Why would you be mandated to have lectures by the university if there wasn't a requirement to teach? As for a lot of the stress and strain mumbo jumbo he was getting in that written diatribe, I only had a couple of semesters of statics and mechanics classes before I left engineering, and yet I still remember how most of statics works. Is it a big surprise that most of that is probably due to the fact that I didn't have Sturges as a professor, but I was actually TAUGHT by the TAs?