AY 375 (Ay300) - Fall 2013: Syllabus

Printed versions of this document may be out of date. The most up-to-date version of this syllabus is always available on the Course Website.

The discussion and practice of teaching techniques, as applied to physics and astronomy. Open to any graduate students who are presently teaching assistants or associates (though particular emphasis will be given to astronomy themed courses).

This course qualifies for the GSI Teaching and Resource Center's Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Garrett Keating will also contribute his expertise from time to time.
Website: http://badgrads.berkeley.edu/doku.php?id=astro300_f13

Office Hours: Feel free to stop by our cubes anytime. E-mail us to make a specific appointment.

Meeting Time and Place: Dwinelle 210, Wednesdays from 6-8pm

Course Materials: There is no official textbook for this course (though suggested texts are given on the wiki). The Ay375 wiki will serve as the course reader. There you will find links to all the assignments, readings, handouts, class lesson plans, and supplemental materials. The wiki is an evolving entity; be sure to check it regularly for updates.

This class is a 2-3 unit course graded on a Pass/No Pass basis. In order to recieve a 'Pass', you must:

1. Miss no more than two sections of class. Further absences should be compensated for by doing make-up assignments.
2. Complete all assignments, most which are outlined below. These include a teaching log, short weekly reading or writing assignments, and several one-time projects.

The intent is to have the weekly homework be a minimal burden and time commitment; you should never have to spend very much time on it and we would much rather you spend your time preparing for section. However, you are required to complete all of the weekly assignments ON TIME.

The goals of Ay 375 are:

• To pass on some pedagogical, as well as practical, words of wisdom regarding teaching (in particular teaching astronomy, especially to an audience of non-scientists).
• To facilitate an open forum where we can discuss and practice a wide range of teaching issues, both in theory and in practice.
• To provide resources for you, as astronomy teachers, that will help you both in the short term as GSIs of your sections as well as in the long term as professional teachers/researchers.
• To not waste anyone's time!

It is our hope that this class will be relaxed and relatively informal, but let's make sure to keep it civil and respectful in here. (We don't expect this to be an issue, but you never know.) A large part of this class will involve active participation by each of you, so when someone else is talking, please give them your undivided attention and let's try to keep it to one person talking at a time.

1. Students recap how their sections went
2. Discuss and collect homework assignment
3. Directed discussion on the day's topic
4. Activity
5. If time: Students plan their next sections

• What are the most important things for your students to take away from an intro-level or upper-level astronomy course? Although opinions differ from GSI to GSI and from professor to professor, determining your teaching priorities will help you provide consistent and coherent instruction for your students.

• There are many different types of activities and teaching styles that you can include in section (lectures, group work, individual work, demos, etc.). Getting feedback from your students early and often about what they find most useful and tailor your sections to their wants and needs.

• However, sometimes what students say they want is not always necessarily what's best for them. We want them to enjoy learning, but not at the expense of learning itself. On rare occasions GSIs may veer so far in order to make things fun/accessible that the material itself becomes trivialized.

• Your students are not you. They approach new concepts in different ways, have different strengths and weaknesses, and have very different opinions about what's (intellectually) fun, interesting, and exciting. They might also have a variety of pressures or concerns that you did not experience. Try to be aware of various issues Berkeley undergrads deal with.

• In the same regard, your favorite problem solving methods won't be helpful to some of your students. Be prepared to explain concepts in different ways and from different perspectives. In addition, keep alternative resources (other GSIs, TALC, etc.) in mind if your explanations run dry.

• Cheating happens. You should be able to recognize it and know the university's, department's, and class's policy for dealing with cheaters.

• You will encounter situations that demand judgment calls on your part. As you deal with them keep in mind, “Is my solution fair to all of my students?”

Below is a very rough outline of the topics we plan to cover. Please feel free to make suggestions as this schedule and list of topics is absolutely subject to change!!

We will be covering a wide variety of topics, including interactive learning techniques, group work utilization, test and quiz-writing, ethics, dealing with student anxieties, implementing demos, good boardwork habits, and more. The course wiki has all the lessons plans, reading material, and supplemental material. We will not repeat it here. As we go through this material, you will have many short projects and assignments to complete.

Each week everyone will design lesson plans for their sections. We would like you to design these lesson plans so that you can sketch some notes in the margins regarding how section went, what worked, what did not work, etc. These lesson plans will be checked on a semi-regular basis (announced in advance).

In addition to keeping notes on your week to week sections, you will also keep a teaching log about your teaching in general. There will a set of prompts that we will ask you to write a few paragraphs about every few weeks. In class, you will each eventually volunteer to discuss (for about 10 minutes) your response to one of the prompts on the following topics:

1. implementing group work and fostering group dynamics
2. presenting a demo
3. designing and using a worksheet
4. responses to student questions from homework or exams (board work and explanation)

There will occasionally be short readings or writing assignments that will be due at the beginning of the following class. The assignments will usually be used as a starting point for our directed discussions. The particular assignments will be posted on the wiki as the semester progresses. Optional readings will also be made available.

This will be broken into two parts:

1. About halfway through the semester, you will attend a section taught by one of your peers in AY 375. Afterwards, you will meet that GSI outside of class to discuss general impressions and ideas for extensions/improvement, and fill out a worksheet. We will discuss the results in class.
2. At some point during the semester you will be required to attend a lecture of a professor that you are not teaching for. After everyone has done this we'll take time in class to compare and contrast the teaching styles of the professors.

The instructors will videotape one of your sections once at the beginning of the semester and a second time at the end of the semester. After the first taping, you will be required to later watch the video and have a discussion with the instructor about your style of running section. After the second taping, you will be required to make a self assessment on the video. Whether you meet with one of the instructors after the second videotaping will be optional (but recommended: who doesn't love free advice?).

Closer to the end of the semester we will start covering topics that extend beyond discussion sections. One of those will be general course and section development, and you will get a chance to develop a ~15 minute lecture on a topic covered in the course you are teaching for. This should include you at the board and the implementation of a group activity, demo, or active learning strategy. We will provide more details about this project later in the semester.

By the end of the semester, you may have come up with clever lesson plans, effective worksheets, or something you would like to share with the rest of your fellow graduate instructors. If so, you may chose to upload your materials to the EBRB. You can alternatively upload a substantially improved version of a worksheet already on the EBRB. The EBRB usage page gives info on how to integrate new pages into the EBRB structure.

“It's been said that Astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character­ building experience.”
–­­Carl Sagan, American astronomer (1934­-1996)

“My aim in teaching is twofold: (a) to maximize my own enjoyment, and (b) they will tell their grandchildren about me.”
–Professor Chris Waltham, Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia - Killam Teaching Award Winner