Midyear Exam fun

My seniors are almost done with their 10 page chemistry midyear exam. I am pretty proud of myself--I think it is a good one. And they are not done 45 minutes early like my 8th graders were. Awesome.

My juniors kill me though. They came in for their physics final and I was collecting their review sheets.
Mr. Arrogance (don't worry, he knows he's arrogant) : "Oh, were we supposed to turn those in for points?"
Me (reading from the top of the review sheet): "It is worth 20 points (as a part of your midyear exam grade) so look at it like the take home portion of your exam."
Mr. A: "Can I turn it into you by the end of the day?"
Me (reading again): "This review sheet is due at the time of your exam next week."

I know I read that to them when I handed it out last week. Wow.

Some of them finished early and wanted to go work on painting the wall in the cafeteria with the artist who designed it...
"hey Ms. Book, can I go work on the memorial?"
"the mural?"
"yeah."

A few minutes later:
Mr. A: Can I go work on the moral?
me: The mural?
Mr. A: Yeah.

Obviously a new vocabulary word they haven't quite mastered yet. The one they were working on last week was "hovercraft"...NOT "hoovercraft".

They're also the ones who'd rather shout out their questions during the test rather than come and talk to me. This usually results in a few class discussions during the course of the test. Whatever...they struggle enough, I like to give them at least a little help. Anyway, one question was the following:
"In your last stay at the space station you left two identical boxes, one filled with feathers and one filled with marbles. If you call the space station and ask them to send you just the box of feathers, what ould they do to identify the contents of the boxes without opening them?"

Ms. Quiet-but-Funny: "So this space station is in space, right?"
Ms. Only A in the Class: "What? How were we supposed to know it was in space!?!?"
Mr. Arrogant: "It's a SPACE station. If it wasn't in space she would have just said this was in a room or something."
Ms. QbF: "So how are they going to send this box back to you?"
Me: "Well...it doesn't really matter..."
Mr. A: "What kind of question is that? It's like asking if the space station is blue!"

Here's another of the questions on the test, and the response from a student who told me that his academic gifts weren't in math or science--they were in writing:
"Your elderly grandmother grew up during a time when seatbelts and headrests were not required in motorized vehicles. Explain to Grandma, based on what you've learned in physics class, why seatbelts and headrests are important."

"........It is just as critical to utilize your headrests. Because an object at rest stays at rest. For example: if we are going 0mph, then all the sudden you step on the gas pedal and we go from 0 to 100 mph in 1 second your neck will snap off. So, where your seatbelt Grandma do you understand. And she will respond yes Grandson."

I just really enjoyed the idea of a neck snapping off...like an appendage...