As a full-time Teaching Assistant (TA) throughout my graduate studies at the University of Alberta, I acquired a diverse amount of physics teaching experience. Over the 9 semesters that I worked as a TA, I taught over 220 students across a wide range of courses, from introductory physics to graduate-level advanced quantum mechanics.
Weekly tutorials, office hours, and marking.
Winter 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
In PHYS 485, weekly tutorials with students comprised a fundamental aspect of the course, which effectively replaced traditional assignments. The role of the TA was to facilitate these sessions several times per week and cover the assigned problems with the students in small groups. Additionally, the TA assesses the students and assigns marks after each tutorial. Lastly, any student questions about practice problems, lecture material, etc., are also typically addressed throughout the tutorials or during office hours.
Labs, office hours, and marking.
Winter 2017, 2020, and 2021.
Tutoring and marking.
Fall 2020.
The engineering physics 131 labs are essentially introductory mechanics labs that involve the students collecting data, analyzing it, and then writing a short lab report on their findings. Ultimately, this is an exercise in scientific writing, and the role of the TA is to mark the lab reports as such. Each lab would begin with a short presentation to provide guidance, followed by student data collection and analyses. Throughout the labs, the TA provides help with any difficulties encountered and addresses student questions.
Labs, office hours, marking, and course support.
Fall 2017.
PHYS 420/580 is a mixed undergraduate- and graduate-level course on advanced computational methods in physics. Optional weekly three-hour labs were held to provide the students with assistance and an open forum to ask questions and gain practice. The role of the TA was to host each lab, help the students, and mark their assignments (including their code).
Weekly tutorials and marking.
Fall 2018.
This course covers the first half of graduate-level quantum mechanics and included weekly tutorial sessions hosted by the TA. Due to the small size of the class, there was only one tutorial held per week, which was quite similar to the format of the PHYS 485 tutorials, except that the scope was generally broader as assignments in PHYS 511 also included computational work. Peer marking was done by the students for each assignment, which was subsequently verified by the TA and corrected if necessary. Weekly office hours were optional but still held.
Marking and course support.
Fall 2020.
As with the previously described course, my role as a TA for PHYS 472 was to mark the students' weekly assignment submissions and answer any questions they had about course content and practice problems.
Marking and course support.
Winter 2019.
In PHYS 372, my role as a TA was to mark the students' weekly assignment submissions and answer any questions they may have had about course material and practice problems.
Marking and course support.
Fall 2019.
As a TA for PHYS 415, my duties involved marking assignments and occasionally helping students learn the course material by answering any of their questions.
Tutoring.
Winter 2018; Fall 2018 and 2019.
The Physics Teaching and Learning Centre is a general help room open to undergraduate students during the week, with numerous physics TAs present at any given time to assist students with first-year physics problems and concepts on a first-come, first-served basis.