I have observed some interesting behaviors in my engineering students. Whenever we have anything timed in class I use a silver desk bell that you ring from the top to signal the end of the activity or to let them know they need to pass their paper to the next student. I will put it on the desk of one of my students so that they have the responsibility to determine how long the students need for the assigned task. For some the responsibility of ringing that bell without my permission causes them real stress while others relish the responsibility. I loved the absolute delight registered on one of my forty-year-old student’s face when he got the bell. Another is that the student who gets the bell and usually those sitting next to them just have to pick that bell up, examine it carefully, prodding and poking it, trying to determine how it works. It is really too fun to watch them and see their childlike curiosity. Some of them get so lost in the workings of the bell they forget to write.