38 yo boy here. Can confirm.

Seeing what the kiddos make is my favorite part.

Sometimes my heart gets broken - like once my high schoolers had to solder and build a prototype device using the components I provided to them, any function, they just had to create a slide show where they pitched their device to me as an investor. IE - this is a project I thought a lot about, spent real cash dollars on, figured out to teach a bunch of high schoolers to solder without them causing me to need to feel out paperwork…. I had two refuse to present. Was devastating to me, one kid in particular I was really surprised by, one I expected.

But usually it works out that I get to see a few that make me very happy. I try to suss out nascent interests that I can draw out. A project lets you find ways to help a student flavor it around marine biology or welding or something they actually like and will spend time researching. I also try to learn more shit about the world all the time and unleashing the mental processing power of a bunch of children can be a fun way to do that.

seeing balaclava/baklava mixed up makes me feel better about when I did it as a college student

Phrasing wise, yeah what they said wouldn’t work and this person is clearly early career. The most effective response to this (when it’s something I want to stop) is calling it “auraless” or “odd” behavior with varying intonation based on age group.