Introductory Electronics Laboratory

Before lab began, it was my responsibility to help set up experimental workstations for the students. When students arrived, the first part of the lab consisted of a supplemental lecture I would design and give to teach the students the theory behind the experiments they would be performing. The second part of lab required me to rotate between the students helping them debug hardware and software issues and answering questions. Outside of lab it was my responsibility to grade student work.

Introductory Thermodynamics

As the TA for this course, I hosted 2 hour-long sections per week. Sections consisted of a lecture portion and a problem solving portion. In the lecture portion, I prepared advanced material that expanded upon the textbook readings and clarified particularly confusing concepts. The problem solving portion of section would involve students working in small groups on worksheets that I designed to prepare them for the types of questions they would be asked to solve on exams. For both iterations of this course it was my responsibility to create problem sets and solutions for the students, and the instructor involved me in exam design and grading.

Mathematical Methods for Physicists

Despite this class’s difficult reputation, it is one of my favorites to teach. Students typically struggle with this course because of the ambitious breadth that included linear algebra, vector calculus, einstein notation, differential equations, and complex analysis. Therefore as the TA, my twice weekly hour-long sections were entirely lecture-based. I designed my own lectures based on their textbook and my experience to provide alternative derivations and explanations, and I included example problems with solutions in each lecture to demonstrate how the material could be applied. To make up for the lack of problem solving time in section, I held supplemental sections before both midterms and the final exam to give students more hands-on practice with the material. My duties for this class included designing and grading both midterms and the final exam.

Computational Physics

As the TA for the graduate level computational physics class required of all incoming PhD and masters students, I had a variety of responsibilities. First year students entered with a large spread of ability and exposure to programming, with some students having never used python before to some being seasoned experts. My sections in the beginning of the course focused on teaching python programming, git version control, and command line. I held office hours in order to provide one-on-one help to students who struggled with the assigned homework problems. During the latter half of the semester, my sections focused on supplementing the instructor lectures with advanced topics such as parallel programming, optimization, and machine learning.