Why does my biology teacher waste so much paper?DETAILS!!?

Question

OK....im a freshman in school and i DO care about the environment......im in honors biology, and my teacher always talks about *saving paper*and all that stuff....which ive always tried to do for a few years now....but for some reason, she gives us homework packets, and study guides that we MUST print(posts them on her website) and are at least 6 pages long and sometimes go up to 23.....WHY does she do that!?? it makes me so mad.......imagine 4 honors Bio classes with about 30-35 kids having to print all these out.....isnt there an alternative to doing this??? i mean i just would rather have the guide open on her site, and answer all the questions on a seperate piece of paper....this way i can save at least half of the pages that are neededt o be printer if not save more than taht.......i dont get it.....someone explain it to me or back me up here lol....

Answer 1

Of course there is an alternative to this.  I know that at the university level, most of our schools use classroom management software (Blackboard, CTWeb, and others) which allows us to post everything from syllabi to assignments to grades (which only the individual student can access).  I have used this for years and post readings, study guides, and any additional materials there regularly - all I have to do is scan things and upload them to the site.  I assume that similar programs exist at the high school level.  Even if your school can't afford this (and it frankly saves a lot of money in Xeroxing), certainly things like assignments can be posted online on the teacher's web page on a decent school website (or the teacher's own, if the school doesn't have one).  This might be unreasonable if your school has a very low income student population who doesn't have home access to computers, but otherwise it certainly saves paper, money and the frustration of losing papers!

Good for you for caring about such things!  Maybe you could suggest an alternative to her.  Don't suggest that the packets are too long, because that may make her think you are just being lazy, but you can certainly bring up your concerns about the waste and suggest another way of doing things.

Answer 2

23 pages!!!!!!!! she's insane, why does she have you waste so much paper and ink. she's a crazy environment loving bio teacher. i also agree that it would be smarter to have just hte questions and you guys can answer them. why would she give the questions and answers for a study guide and expect you to print it out? isn't that a student's responsibility to answer the study guide questions.

Answer 3

I would bring this to her attention.  If the study guides are posted on-line, then she obviously expects everyone to have access to a computer.  Suggest alternatives, such as e-mailing her the answers, or submitting it on a rewritable disc.

Answer 4

Perhaps she has had problems in the past with students 'losing' their homework online...great excuse.  What you should do, instead, is bring a box to her classroom and deem it the paper recycling box and make sure it's all recycled when you're all finished with it.  Good luck!!!