Previous to this summer I had been working at my
university with Dr. Ian Beatty on a project about our Learning Assistants
program. The abstract is provided below.
Extreme Learning Assistants: The impact of an authentic
teaching experience on undergraduate physics majors
UNCG
has an innovative Learning Assistant (LA) program, in which upper-class
undergraduate physics students teach laboratory sections of the introductory
calculus-based physics sequence. These LAs run the lab sections, generally
without faculty present; as well as write up handouts for the labs, quizzes and
other documents; and evaluate students’ work. The LAs meet with the professor
before the semester to determine an overall plan for the lab course. Weekly
meetings continue throughout the semester to review the previous lab and
prepare for the upcoming lab. This gives the LAs a genuine voice in the design
of the course. The program provides LAs with an authentic teaching experience.
Through interviews with former and current LAs we found that this experience
makes students more inclined towards a career in teaching, or even PER. It has
also improved student’s content knowledge, experimental
and laboratory writing skills.
Here is a link to my poster from the conference.
I
also submitted a paper to the PERC Proceedings, which I will provide a link to
if the paper gets accepted.