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CATHERINE DRENNAN: The
idea was in a big class

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of like 300 students,
most of the students

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are not going to have
an opportunity really

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to meet the professors.

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They may go to office hours,
but even then, the office hours,

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you can't schedule your
office hours at a time

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where all 300 people in
the class are available.

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So you'll just get
to know maybe a few.

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But with the pizza
forums, they're

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every few weeks
during the semester,

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and we encourage
at least one person

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from each recitation to come.

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And it's just a way
for the students

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to get to know the
faculty and vice versa.

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And sometimes we discuss things
about chemistry, you know,

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especially if people
have suggestions of what

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they like and don't like.

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But a lot of times, they're just
talking about their experiences

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at MIT.

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And there have been some
really useful things,

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I think, for the course
that have come out

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of it, like learning,
for example,

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that we had our problems
sets due at the same time

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as pretty much all of
their other classes.

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So we moved it to a different
day because that made no sense.

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And also, kind of some of
the educational ways-- what

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clickers they're using,
how they like them.

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We heard some horrible
things about clickers

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that had been used in physics.

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And so then they
started to change them.

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And when we looked
at clickers, we

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learned from the
physics experience.

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But it really came through
knowing that from the students,

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rather than talking
to the other faculty.

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We had sort of heard what
worked and didn't work.

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So having those kind of
direct conversations.

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And they feel like they're
representing the student

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body in saying, oh
we like this, or we

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don't like that,
or have you thought

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about doing something this way.

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And it's just also a lot of fun.

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And everyone goes around
and says where they're from.

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I love to ask them, what
is one thing about MIT

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that is exactly
what you expected

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and what's one thing
that really surprised you

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when you got here?

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And I just find it
really interesting

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to see what people said.

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And I often get, I expected
everyone to be smart,

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everybody is smart.

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I expected everyone to
be just more serious,

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but people are fun
and nice and silly

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and they're kind of
like normal people

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and that sort of surprised me.

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So that is always a
lot of fun to hear that

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and get to know them.