TA ORIENTATION

Overview

  1. Attendance, Greeting, and How are you doing?
  2. Culture — 3 C's
  3. Improvement Mindset
  4. Course & Lab Structure
  5. Special Roles
  6. Pre-lab Meetings
  7. Canvas
  8. Extracurricular Activities
  9. Ethos

0   Attendance, Greeting, and How are you doing?

In order of pictures:

  • Come to the front and introduce yourself.
  • Where are you from?
  • What do you do? Or who is your advisor and area of research?
  • What is an extra-curricular activity you enjoy?

1   Culture — 3 C's

3 C's Principle graphic

2   Improvement Mindset

Here is a video by Paul Akers, the CEO and Founder of FastCap, in which he talks about "lean" and continuous "2 second" improvement and seeing waste in the processes around you.

GROUP DISCUSSION:

What impressed you most about this?

MAIN IDEA:

Here's the main idea: Fix what bugs you! Be an innovator, not an imitator!

We are always improving: look at our previous improvements and previous projects!

GROUP ACTIVITY:

Can anyone recall one of the 8 wastes Paul mentioned?

3   Course & Lab Structure

GROUP ACTIVITY:

Let's apply the improvement mindset to this event with a K-W-L chart!

For the new TAs only: what do you KNOW about Physics Labs? What do you WANT to know?... at the end we will fill out what we LEARNED!

ELEMENTS:

  1. For students, labs are required, non-credit addons to a lecture course (except for PH1011), and the total lab grade is generally worth 10% of the student's overall course grade.
  2. During a normal semester, labs begin around 3 weeks after the semester starts and then one lab is covered each week for 11 weeks. So, Fall 2023 labs will begin on August 28 and end around Thanksgiving.
  3. The course lecture sections of 50 or more are divided into smaller lab sections of 18 students due to space and equipment limitations.
  4. Each lab room has 9 tables, each of which is assigned to 2 students to work as partners.
  5. Each fulltime TA receives 3 assignments, where one lab section or special role counts as one assignment. Assignments are given based on availability, experience, and your own schedule, so work with Bob Swanson to secure your preferred assignments.
  6. Each lab room and storage area has its own color and is associated with one or more courses:
    • Room 315: PH1011 - Yellow
    • Room 325: PH1113 - Red
    • Room 340: PH1123/2233 - Green
    • Room 330 and 341: PH1133/2223 - White
    example storage room
    example storage room
    Map of Labs
  7. Each room has one Senior TA. Seniors are responsible for ensuring all of their TAs know how to teach the concepts, know how to encourage students to learn, and know how to solve problems with equipment. This is mostly accomplished in the weekly pre-lab meeting. Before the pre-lab meeting, Seniors will now be responsible for packing up the current equipment and set up the lab room for the next week's demonstrations. Seniors should also remain on-call to support TAs if an issue arises, and they ensure that grading is completed on time. (Grades must be submitted within 1-2 weeks of the assignment due date.)
  8. Students are required to watch a concept video and complete a worksheet or quiz before coming to the lab. They must fully participate in lab activities, and complete the lab worksheet with their partner.
  9. The lab checklist provides a general overview of how each lab should proceed.
  10. Some assignments and grades are online in Canvas. (Bob will do a demo of Canvas shortly.) Any changes to Canvas assignments will be managed by Bob Swanson. He will gladly answer any questions you have throughout the semester.

4   Special Roles

Senior TA R&D TA
Report to: Bob Swanson Report to: Chase Boone
Schedule, organize, and lead the MANDATORY pre-lab meeting. (Teach TAs how to teach!) Participate in a team discussion meeting once a month.
Set up labs: move equipment to and from lab storage according to the setup standards, resupply teaching supplies (chalk, worksheets, pen, staples, etc.), and keep the TA table clean and neat. Perform PDCA cycles to record the why, how, and what of each improvement.
Maintain a close presence throughout the week to assist with any big problems. A Senior TA is the first person a TA should contact. Please share contact info with each other (phone, email, office, etc.) Gather ideas from other TAs and Managers and immediately initiate the work: take pictures of the problem, make an improvement, record with PDCA, and take an after picture.
Ensure grades are gathered on time from individual TAs and separate based on lecture sections. Recommended: create a firm lab schedule in the first week to set a deadline for submitting grades each week; any tardy submissions will automatically result in conference with Lab Coordinator. Improvements often go back and forth and initially go through several experimentation (trial and error) phases. R&D TAs should ask for feedback often on what is working and what does not work.
Maintain a culture of instant Communication, respectful Cooperation, and helpful Collaboration. Improvements that succeed should be standardized: R&D TAs will create process flowcharts or introduce/retrain personnel to establish the improvement as the new standard.

5   Pre-lab Meetings

Pre-lab meetings are the beginning all of the preparations for a week of labs, and when Senior TAs can impart their experience and wisdom about the labs to the other TAs (new and old). Seniors should make sure the checklist is covered in pre-lab.

GROUP DISCUSSION:

Do the Senior TAs have anything to add to this topic?

6   Canvas

Canvas is an online, computer service for managing course content. Here are a few examples of things you can do:

  1. Wide variety of homework and evaluation assignments
  2. Quizzes
  3. Videos and video quizzes
  4. Class announcements
  5. Class or private discussions
  6. Grading

Bob will now give us a demo!

GROUP DISCUSSION:

Any questions?

8   Ethos - Who we are and what we believe

Physics Lab personnel believe in the pursuit of excellence in our duty to facilitate learning. We design our environment and methods to encourage active learning for our students and seek out every opportunity to improve ourselves. We approach our students and each other with a heart of respect and "loving service" at all times, giving the best of ourselves for their benefit. We commit to Continuous Improvement, and to Communicate, Cooperate, and Collaborate.

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Updated: 2023-08-17