Legal Research

If there's one thing that law students understand, it's the fine art of procrastination.  In the library, we keep a jigsaw puzzle on the reference desk.  Many students find that working on the puzzle is a good way to decompress, soothing tort-battered nerves.  And it's a nice bit of joint effort for students engaged in a highly individualistic discipline.  But every minute spent working on the puzzle is a minute spent away from the casebooks and outlines.  When guilt reaches unmanageable levels, the student returns to study. 

Now there are  online puzzles that not only engage and entertain, but also let you use your brain power to design new generations of drugs, classify images of distant galaxies, and help train artificial intelligence systems.  In several of these, you collaborate with an anonymous partner to label objects.  So, while you are procrastinating, er, resting from your labors, you contribute to the greater good and learn to work well with others.  Considering the benefits, it's almost imperative that students add these sites to their procrastination armamentarium.  Check out: Games With A Purpose; Google Image Labeler; FOLDIT; and Galaxy Zoo