Hi everyone,

Last week, I did not have any visitors to my office hours. I feel like more people are probably having trouble than are showing up to ask for help, but there isn't much that I can do about that. Maybe more people will show up this week.

Logan Case

Quiet Week

Hey all,

Well, for the first week ever I had literally not one person come in. I know a lot of students are struggling, however I guess they do not want to come for help. Not much I can do, oh well! More homework time for me. I'll be here if anyone wants help!

~Jessica

Last Week's office hours

Last week I had less people than usual attend my office hours- maybe around four or five students. We went over all the webassign problems, but I had the feeling they were very confused with new material. I will be holding additional hours the day before the test with the hope that more students will be able to come by and get clarification before the test.

Journal for the Week of March 24

No students came into my office hours this week. Probably because most of my office hours were after the exam. So future physics work was looked over as well as some personal work.

This week met my expectations

With the second exam for physics 2 being Thursday for Dr. Frolov's sections, I had expected no one to appear Friday. This turned out to be true, probably because the weather was really nice; meaning this was not the weather for physics. Wednesday, five students came in to the review sessions, and we had a very productive discussion on material ranging from capacitors to Lenz's law. I can't believe I only have a few weeks left as a UTA, the time is flying by.

The Nineth Week---------Same As Last Week

We were supposed to have the 4th exam today, but Professor Nero pushed back the exam to next Friday, which is definitely a good news for us. And my session this week welcomed three students in total, same number as last week. While waiting for the students to stop by in the room at CL, I found out another job. Taking photos for visitors. Sometimes, we also had a conversation go on: "Is this a class? I am sorry." "No, there is no student at this moment, please feel free to come in."

Another Week~

Hello All,

Hope you're all enjoying the super-nice weather today! Carpe Diem!

So, unfortunately I couldn't hold my hour Wednesday because the grad student I have been working with was doing his PhD defense at the *same* time, and there was no way I could miss that~ But my students emailed me for tips if they needed them and otherwise, I believe I sent them all to see Harry later in the day. So hopefully they were ready for their exam Thursday!

Happy weekend, everyone~

-Natalie

Lonely day at office hours...

I have had absolutely no students so far this afternoon. That's what happens the day after the exam, I suppose! Hoping more come next week!

Last Week's Session

Hey everyone, I hope you're all doing well. I myself am glad that the semester is nearly coming to a close (despite finals coming up). My session last week was the first relaxing one I've had this semester; about eight people came and it was small enough that I was able to let them work some problems out on their own without a lot of my assistance, which is definitely important when preparing for exams. I'm holding a session right now but so far no one has showed up, so I'm hoping to get some physics studying in of my own. Take care everyone; only about 30 days left in the semester!

-Mike

Not Much to Discuss ...

Hey everyone, I figured I would post an update even though I don't have much to report.  Prior to the last exam I had been meeting people (individually) for many hours a week and had packed office hours, but I haven't seen many people lately (although I expect this to change by next week, or I would hope it does anyhow haha).

Anyhow, beyond meeting with a few people 1 on 1, it has been pretty quiet in my hours.

Karl

Counting Down

Hello, everyone!

Thank you for posting so diligently to the site even if the days have been slow since midterms. I have been keeping up to date with your posts and I have a few things that I would like to mention as we near the end of the term.

• If you signed a delay credits contract with me, be sure to drop by 100 Allen Hall to make sure that you are enrolled for your credits for the coming term.
• Please pick a date and time in April that you would be interested in having a small celebration of the past term. 
• Tell me what your favorite cake flavor is! And any allergies you may have. I can bake pretty much around any limitation and there will be more than one option.
• Prepare to write two letters: one to me for changes you might want to make and one to future UTAs. These will be due at the end of the term.

As for the rest of the semester, keep up the good work! Your efforts to help translate the mysteries of physics from the classroom to the brain are appreciated by both students and professors, trust me on that.

Have a fantastic week,

Hannah Sweetser

After Third Exam and Spring Break---------8th week

Last week was the first week after the spring break and we just finished the third exam the week before the break, three students showed up in my three-hour session for the whole week. Other than the break and exam reasons, I guess it is also because we have done with the extra points stuff. Besides, what we are learning in class right now involves little logical thinking, basically all about using equations, students may feel less struggled about this part.

FB Group Update

I'm doubling down on posts this week, as I inadvertently neglected to leave a post last week - mostly due to the lack of activity (as mentioned in my last post).

However, I figured this would be a good time to talk about the FB group the UTA's & I created. Although it is not the hub of intellectual physics discussions as I was hoping it would be, there are plenty of good questions posted on a weekly basis and other members have taken the liberty to help their fellow students on tricky homework problems (I tend to stay away from those in order to let the students figure it out on their own before I add in anything).

The major problem I've had thus far is providing the information in a convenient and efficient medium. Typing up solutions step-by-step is clunky and difficult to follow. Word documents facilitate syntax, but suffer from similar hindrances. I also utilized photography/scanning of a piece of paper with the work written, which seemed to go well. My next venture is to create videos of me solving the problems uploaded to Youtube/Facebook; I think that would be a unique and very efficient way of getting the information across (especially compared to the prior alternatives). I'll let you know how that goes!

Best,
Ant

Second Exam Time

It's that time of the month again: our second exam is only a few days away. My office hours have not been very busy lately, but I'm sure it will pick up more this week. 

I'm extending my office hours this week so I can host a last-minute review session for any last-minute questions/concerns that might be going on.

Good luck to everyone else that's in the same boat!

Best,

Ant

Post Spring Break emptiness

So my past review session on the Tuesday returning from Spring Break was a complete abyss of students. For the first time this year, I had a grand total of 0 students come to my UTA session. I am guessing the reason for this is that they had a test right before break and that there was nothing immediately due within the days following the spring break. Hopefully, this week things get back on track and my regulars come back to class again. Sitting in the cathedral for 3 hours can be a little lonely, even if I do bring some work to do on the side.

Before and After Spring Break: Attendance Quintupled!

As the title suggests, the change in attendance is enormously high. However, the number of students may not sound impressive: one lone soul attended Wednesday's review session prior to break, and this week I had five students total. The topics covered were sundry, ranging from recent material regarding Lenz's law and induction to capacitors in order to prepare the students for next week's exam. As such, I expect many this Wednesday.

Week of 3/21

This week was rather uneventful, probably because people are just getting back from spring break. There was only one person that came into my office hours this week asking for help on one of the questions.
The week before spring break, nobody turned up to my office hours.

Week of March 17

One student came into my office hours this week with a question about Webassign. The problem was explained and a similar problem was worked through. She had no more questions and left content.

Week before exam 2

This is the countdown to exam #2, and I have been slowly getting more and more students, as expected based on the last exam. The material covered on this exam is actually my favorite (especially Kirchhoff's laws!) and so I am very excited for the rush of students that I'm sure I'll be getting on Tuesday! 

Back on Track

Sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks; I forgot to post for my last two sessions. The first went really well, as I had about thirty people show up (it was the last session before their third exam), but nobody came for the second because it was the day after their third exam, so I guess I saw both ends of the spectrum! I'm ready for my next session, which starts in about fifteen minutes, after a relaxing spring break. It's strange to think about, but this semester is nearly over; there's about five weeks left until the last day of finals! Oh how the time flies...I can't wait to see the turnout for my last session before the Physics 0110 final.

-Mike

Week of 3/17

Office hours were slow again this week. The few students who did visit were having the most trouble tying in the various spring equations with what they have already learned. When I first learned physics, I learned about elastic potential energy at the same time as gravitational potential and kinetic energy, and I'm happy I did. Because these units are separated in the textbook, some students may have trouble making the connection. I hope those students come visit me so I can help!

Yet Another Week

Hey guys,

So as usual, I had two people come in and ask questions. They were specifically on webassign, and I was able to help them with those problems and just the concepts as well. It's looking like the rest of the year will continue just like this, and I guess that is ok. 

Have a wonderful day!

~Jessica 

Week After Spring Break

Hey everyone,

The last couple of weeks have been relatively eventful, considering that earlier in the year no one was coming to office hours.  A student required help with some of her web assign homework, and was also looking to improve more on the theory behind particular phenomenon after having struggled with it on the first exam. I was able to explain the theory behind circuits to her, and this allowed her to move through her web assign more easily. Another student also required help with theory, however this time pertaining to magnetism. It seems that while students are able to 'plug and chug' on easier problems without learning the concepts, the more difficult problems become almost impossible without a good understanding of the theory. I am glad students are starting to utilize my office hours. Everything else is going great.

Week Before spring Break

Through the combination of the students having their test on Tuesday and it being the week before spring break, nobody came to my office hours this week. I trust that people will start to come back to my office hours after break. Enjoy your Spring Break everyone!

Logan

Yeah Spring break is tomorrow and nobody shows up so far. The Polish room is a little bit too warm for today and I cannot find a switch to turn the heat off. Maybe I will call it a day soon.

Happy Spring Break!

Although attendance was sparse (apparently a lot of people experienced that this week), it was actually a really good time!

I misexplained something last week to one of the students, but fortunately had her email address so I invited her to come back to my office hours so I could correct myself and clarify the concept.  To my surprise, she came to my Tuesday morning office hours (what?  No one shows up then!) and we spent the whole hour going over different questions that she had.  It was really enjoyable :)

On Wednesday I helped one student with a quick homework question, and on Thursday I spent a fair amount of time talking about torque due to magnetic fields with one student.

All in all, probably the best week I've had this semester!  Perfect feeling to head into Spring Break with!

Lonely week

Not very many students showed up to office hours this week. They're probably all excited for spring break!

Barely any people come.

This Week

This week I had only one visitor. This is not suprising, as there was a test today and spring break is right around the corner. I didn't expect many people to come. Hopefully, the test went well!

Last Week

Last week's attendance was greater yet than most of my previous ones. This is probably due to the test they had today. We worked through webassign and textbook questions together, and some recitation problems. I hope that it helped them do better on this test than the previous one, although I also received emails past midnight last night asking questions about the exam, which scares me a little bit.

A platitudinous week

Last week consisted of a doubling in attendance from the previous week: a total of 6 students made it to the review sessions. A solid crowd, but hopefully this means more people will attend. I guess this is the expected ebb and flow of review session attendance. Another productive week, getting through homework problems and lecture topics, albeit an ordinary, or platitudinous if you prefer, week.The topic's for this week include magnetic phenomena, so perhaps this will cause more people to attend this week's review sessions.

Journal for Week of February 24

Students came in on Friday with questions on homework. We worked though similar problems in the book and they understood. Other than that, there were no difficulties and later physics work was done.

Last Week before Break

It's the last week before break, and it appears to have drastically lowered the amount of attendance in my office hours. It may also be because this week's homework is relatively easy compared to weeks prior. Either way, it's allowing me some more time to prep up my Kirchoff's Law knowledge.

Last Week of February

I had a ton of students come to my office hours this past Tuesday, most likely around 30 kids which was a drastic increase from my usual 10-12. As this was a very nice surprise I quickly found out that they were mainly there not to learn physics, but to get their UTA sheet signed since the Extra credit opportunity ended at the end of the month. As this was disappointing, I could not hold it against them and since the extra credit opportunity stated that you just had to "visit" the UTA and not actually need to "learn", I felt obligated to sign there sheet if they just showed up. However, there were some students that were actually there to learn about physics which was very nice! We went over some hw problems and the recitation one too.

It's March!

Hey guys,

First of all, I just want everyone to remember that it is March, and it was also 3 degrees when I walked to physics this morning... unacceptable.

Anyway, I had only one student come to my session today; however she stayed for about 2 1/2 hours. We covered basically everything that will be on the test tomorrow and she left feeling extremely confident and was able to solve everything. I'm disappointed that I could not help more people with this! I really get the material and I know easy ways to explain it. Hopefully she does well!

~Jessica

Drastic Decrease in Attendees

Today I held my first office hours after the extra credit deadline had passed. Before today, I usually had somewhere between 15 and 20 students attend my sessions; however, only one student came to my hours today, seeking help on torque questions. I was expecting a drop in attendees, but regardless of my expectation I am still concerned for the students because they have an exam this week. Hopefully, I get a slightly larger turnout on Wednesday, which is the day of the exam.

Week of Exam

Hey everyone, figured I'd put up a post since I just held my office hours (since I had to adjust them from Tues. due to family issues).  Between skyping with a few students this weekend and some discussions today, one problem that came up a few times was tangental acceleration vs. centripetal acceleration vs. total acceleration (I think the concern is partly due to this being related to a recitation question this week).

The one thing I saw a few times I wanted to point out was more than one person simply took tangental acceleration and subtracted centripetal acceleration from it to get total acceleration (I have no idea where this idea came from).  I figured I would point that out so if you see anything like that in your hours this week you are not alone haha.

Anyhow, good luck with all your hours, I have a lot of individual meetings scheduled coming up to this exam so it should be an incredibly busy week!

Karl

In this weeks news...

Hello all~

So this week was interesting--I actually had students attend my office hours on Friday! But I think a few of them mentioned the reason being that they thought there was still extra credit possibilities. I'm sort of wondering why there isn't incentive beyond the first exam in 0175 for UTA hour attendance. I think extending that beyond could help the students immensely, since they'd be motivated to get some extra study/review time~
Just a thought!

-Natalie

Week before the exam

Despite the second exam for the class being on Tuesday, I only had one student stop by with questions for me this week. They had several questions about some of the webassign problems, and I think I was able to explain the concepts to them well enough that they understood it. At this point I feel like 1 or 2 students a week may be the norm for me for the remainder of the semester.

Logan