Things students say (or write) UPDATED x3

I will likely update this periodically. Here are two things written in student homework this week.

"because frogs are r-rated, this helps them survive."

Indeed.

The next one just shows so much confusion and or fence-riding I thought it was impressive. Poor ESL skill are also part of the problem, I'm sure. The response was to a question about how energy flows and matter cycles through an ecosystem.

It means that elements go through recycling in cycles in each ecosystem, while at the same time some energy is constantly getting lost and then gained by sunshine, etc. They are kind of the same, for there is an input and an output, and it is determined by which is bigger, whether there is a loss or a gain of the element or energy over time, although when considering energy there is always a gain as long as there is sunlight, and there is almost always a loss, when there isn't.

 UPDATE #1
This was at the end of an otherwise underwhelming student presentation on climate change, and when I asked her about it, she didn't actually know if she had thought of it herself or if she was quoting something she read. Still, I liked it and thought it was prophetic:

“If we want things to stay as they are, everything must change.” S.V.

UPDATE #2: from a student ecology homework, talking about the competitive exclusion principle:

"In fact it is the physically stronger species that survives. The best known example of this is the paradox of plankton."

I really have no idea what he was writing about, though I do think the "paradox of plankton" could be a cool band name.

UPDATE #3
Me: So, how was the test?
Student 1: It was confusing.
Student 2: It was awesome!

UPDATE #4
"The law of natural selection has played its part in the faith of the moths." (emphasis mine)