Robert Badger, a professor of geology, describes the lab reports he wrote as a student in an introductory geology class. “I wrote tired, uninspired drivel, merely recounting a vague version of what the professor or teaching assistant had recited, without trying to analyze for myself what it was I had actually observed.” (p. 58) He promised himself that if he ever became a teacher he would not subject his students to “such tedious and pointless exercises.” (p. 58) Badger did become a teacher, and he avoided what he had experienced by having field trips but dispensing with write-ups. What he discovered, though, was that students could not answer even basic essay questions about what they’d observed on the field trips. So he added the usual lab report, got the expected poor results, and knew he had to do something better.