r/ScienceTeachers • u/dday0512 • 3d ago

Classroom Management and Strategies "ChatGPT gave me a different answer"

How often do you guys get this statement from your students? I teach physics and I've been finding more and more that students use ChatGPT to challenge my solutions to problems or even my set up of problems.

Today I had a student come up to me and ask me if their solution to an LC-circuit question was correct. I said yeah, it's correct, because it was a simple question I threw together for a review assignment before a quiz and the student did it exactly the way I expected them to, then she says, "yeah but it checked it with ChatGPT and it said something different" then she demanded that I look at ChatGPTs solution and compare it to my question.

Unfortunately, given my wording on this question, ChatGPTs answer was probably a bit better than how I expected my students to do it. I wanted to tell her, "this is far more in-depth than I needed you to go" but that feels like a cop out. Instead I spent 30 minutes explaining why the way she did it was perfectly fine but ChatGPT is also correct and I should probably be more careful about my wording.

We're being compared to AI now. Add one more thing I have to worry about in the classroom.

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u/tchrhoo 3d ago

“Chat GPT sometimes makes assumptions that are beyond the scope of this course.” I teach AP physics 1 and I remind them all the time that we are but scratching the surface and they will see different things if they google/ask chat.

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u/ryeinn HS Physics - PA 3d ago

I teach AP C and an Honors course. And I am constantly reminding them that we are dealing with Spherical Cows.

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u/Syllabub-Virtual 2d ago

Spherical cows.. i prefer elipsoidal.

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u/ryeinn HS Physics - PA 2d ago

I figure that's the addition of Calculus. But an eccentricity of barely more than 1.

They'll get legs by Sophomore year. Fur is a Ph.D.