Specific
Information from you Professor: An Example
This and the next two pages are a copy of
instructions that Professor Jeffrey Koseff provides his teaching assistants.
The course, CEE161, has a significant laboratory component. The TA’s in CEE
161 conduct and proctor the labs. Not all courses have such laboratory
requirements, but notice how complete Professor Koseff has made his definition
of TA responsibilities. If the professor and the TA understand the
expectations, both have a greater chance of achieving classroom goals.
Many professors choose not to portray their expectations
inside the confines of a written document. However, this example provides you
with samples of the type of information that you and your professor should
discuss at the beginning of the quarter of your TA/CA appointment
CEE 161 OPEN CHANNEL AND
PIPE FLOW
|
Professor Jeffrey R. Koseff
Terman
M50
koseff@ce
723-3921
Administrative
Assistant: Lucretia Dibba
Terman
M50
725-2385
Teaching
Assistants: Sharp Dude, Sharp Dame
Environmental
Fluid Mechanics Lab
Bldg
524
723-1825
Overall Mission of Teaching Assistants
The teaching assistants in this class are responsible for
“running” the laboratory section of the class. Students get 4 units of
credit for this course of which 1 unit is for the laboratory part. The
laboratory part also counts 25% toward their final grade. “Running” the lab
involves the following activities: organizing the students into lab groups of 3
or 4, supervising the students while they conduct the lab, setting up the lab
apparatus (with me) and ensuring that everything is ready and working, grading
the pre-lab assignments, grading the lab assignments, and conducting office
hours to discuss the labs with the students.
There are a total of 3 labs in this class. The philosophy here
is that the students are given a lab assignment one week before they actually
perform the lab. The pre-lab assignment requires them to design the lab to meet
the objectives stated in the assignment. They will do the pre-lab assignments as
a lab group and turn in one report during the 1:15pm lecture on the Monday of
the week they actually perform the lab. The 1:15pm lecture that week will be
devoted to discussing the lab and how it can be performed successfully. This
discussion will ensure that all lab groups have at hand a strategy that will
work. The students perform the labs in their groups but need to turn in
individual lab reports.
The schedule for pre-labs, labs, and due dates is attached.
1. Organizing the Students
into Lab Groups
-
By September 21 please provide me with a list of times that you will be
available to run the labs. I expect that the labs will take no longer than 1
hour. Please provide me with about 5 slots each. The slots should be spread out
between 2:30pm Mondays and Thursday evening. [Remember the lab will only be
conducted during 3 weeks of the quarter.]
-
On the first day of class I will inform the students of the available
times and ask them to rank the times in order of preference.
-
I will give these to you by Friday, September 26 so that you can arrange
the students into groups of 3 or 4.
-
If possible I would like this back by Tuesday, September 30 so that I can
distribute this information to the students.
2.
Supervising the students while they conduct the lab
-
During
the week of the actual lab you will supervise each of your groups while they
conduct the lab. This means getting them started and being around to consult
and lead them to solutions when
they have problems. I strongly encourage you to use gentle prodding and
questioning to help them to find solutions to their problems. This is a
large part of the teaching process
-
Make sure that all the students participate in the lab. Try to rotate the
tasks so that everyone gets a feel for the lab. Try to avoid situations where 1
or 2 people are doing everything and the others are only mildly engaged or
simply writing down the results.
-
Ensure that before the students leave that they have the raw data they
need.
3. Setting up the lab
apparatus
-
The
week before each lab is conducted you need to ensure that all equipment is
working and all the “pieces and parts” necessary for the lab are
available.
-
We
should plan on meeting for about one hour during the week (as early in the
week as possible!) to do a “dry” run. We will take data and analyze it
ourselves to ensure that the lab works as advertised.
-
If
we need Bob Brown to do any last little modifications this is the time to do
it!
4. Grading the pre-lab
assignments
The assignments are short and I expect the write-ups to be
1 to 2 pages with appropriate equation development etc.
-
Each
group will turn in one pre-lab assignment on the Monday.
-
These
assignments are graded on the basis of their creativity and factual accuracy
(do the proposed solutions obey the physical laws?).
-
I suggest that one of you grade all the pre-lab assignments (and
not just for your group) each time.
-
Try to get these graded and turned back during the week of the
actual lab.
5. Grading the Lab
assignments
The lab write-ups are in the form of short memoranda. They
are 1 to 2 pages in length with attachments (figures and plots, sample
calculations, raw data).
-
Each individual will turn in a
separate lab report.
-
Group members may collaborate
on data analysis but everything else (including figures and plots) should be
original.
-
Lab assignments are graded
independently of the pre-labs.
-
Criteria for grading are:
quality of the results, quality of the brief discussion (needs to include
discussion of actual results plus estimate of accuracy and error),
presentation.
6.
Conducting office hours to discuss the labs with the students
-
Set aside 1 to 2 hours per week
for discussing the lab assignments (both pre-lab and lab write-up) with the
students.
-
Let me know these
hours so that I can advertise them.
-
I do NOT expect you
to discuss regular homework assignments with the students. Please refer them
to me if they ask you questions about the homework.
-
Again, try to engage
the students in a discussion that leads them to the answer.
7.
Estimated Hours (each TA based on an estimated class size of 25)
