Each class assignment corresponds to a word that ends in -ology or -graphy (hence the title), and each misunderstanding corresponds to one of those words minus the ending suffix. For example, students might misinterpret a topology assignment by bringing in dreidels. Using this information, we can order the logs so the class assignment on each day matches with what the students brought in the following day:
Day 1/9: I’m really excited to teach this new class! We’ll be covering lots of different subjects, and it looks like the students are already interested in the material. They don’t even seem to mind the daily pop quizzes! For tomorrow, I gave them an easy assignment: Bring in your favorite piece of classical literature, and we’ll do some analysis of the language.
Day 2/9: Wow, I can’t believe the students completely misunderstood my assignment. One of them brought in that dude who appears with Oprah all the time, and another brought in the guy who hosts The Amazing Race. What do they even think they’re studying? Hopefully, my students will do better tomorrow. For our next topic, I’ve asked them to do research on how Hawaii was formed and bring in their findings. This should be a piece of cake.
Day 3/9: Wow, I can’t believe the students completely misunderstood my assignment. Everyone brought in Star Trek episodes, and one of them even came to class with Mr. Spock! What do they even think they’re studying? Tomorrow’s assignment should be really easy, though: Pick a band, and bring in some of your favorite albums and tracks by that band.
Day 4/9: Wow, I can’t believe the students completely misunderstood my assignment. Everyone brought in frisbees and they just tossed them around. What do they even think they’re studying? For the next day, I’ve told them to find some sentences that are trivially true. There’s no way they can screw this up.
Day 5/9: Wow, I can’t believe the students completely misunderstood my assignment. One person thought the homework was to bring in a piece of string and made it really tight. What do they even think they’re studying? I don’t know what’s going on, but tomorrow’s homework should be a breeze. All I want is for them to read up on how Skinner trained his dog and learn some basics on how the brain works.
Day 6/9: Wow, I can’t believe the students completely misunderstood my assignment. For some reason, all they did was watch episodes of that detective TV show starring James Roday. What do they even think they’re studying? Because my students can’t seem to comprehend basic instructions, I’ve made sure that tomorrow’s assignment is impossible to screw up. I told them to find an atlas and bring in some maps so we can analyze them.
Day 7/9: Wow, I can’t believe the students completely misunderstood my assignment. They brought in a bunch of horse-powered vehicles and rode around in them all class. What do they even think they’re studying? For the next assignment, I’ve asked them to make predictions of this week’s weather and bring them in tomorrow. Seems simple, right?
Day 8/9: Wow, I can’t believe the students completely misunderstood my assignment. All they did was bring in some rocks that fell from space. What do they even think they’re studying? In preparation for tomorrow’s class, I told my students to learn about the Caesar cipher and bring in some encrypted messages. This is quite possibly my easiest assignment yet, so they should have no problem.
Day 9/9: Wow, I can’t believe the students completely misunderstood my assignment. Everyone went to the local graveyard and took pictures of the people buried there. What do they even think they’re studying? I’m beginning to think that I’m no good as a professor. Maybe I should just resign and go do something else with my life.
The corresponding words, in order, are philology, vulcanology, discography, tautology, psychology, cartography, meteorology, and cryptography. Using the graph at the bottom to index into these words gives the answer INDUSTRY.