Ryan Tan Week 10

Ryan Tan
Physics 0175
Dytman TH 1100-1245

Similar to last exam, not many students showed up to the office hours after the exam. One student came and I worked through problems on RL circuits, electromagnetic inductance, and mutual inductance of two current carrying coils. When going through the problem on RL circuits, I found out that the student was not aware of an important equation. She told me that she knew the formula for the current through an inductor, but was not aware of the formula for the voltage drop across one. (V=L*dI/dt). I know that Professor Dytman doesn't like to derive equations, and I know that the formula for the current in an RL circuit is derived from the voltage formula so he may have skipped it for that reason but even so, I will bring this up when I meet with him this Monday.

Week 9 and 10

Everyone I have talked to seemed content with the upcoming test. The material seems harder, but the overall consensus has been that it will be the test that is dropped. They may have to review a lot for the final, though.

Week 10

This week I had no students come in again. The concepts (Static equilibrium) is not a very easy subject, which is why I am surprised I had no students attend my office hours. I hope to see more this week, as they have an exam next week.

Week 10

I had 3 students show up to my office hours last Friday. Two students were 2 that have been consistently coming to my office hours, and stayed the whole time doing homework and asking me questions when they ran in to problems with them. One student came in in the middle of my office hours and was struggling to understand one of the homework problems and the concept of Lenz's Law in general. I walked him through the homework concept, and we discussed the concept of Lenz's law some more before he left.

Although there has been low turnout, I'm glad to have at least a few student who are really dedicated to the subject.

Week 10

Only one student came to my office hour this week. She had come at the beginning of the semester and I was happy to see her again. We worked on three homework questions and I gave her some suggestions on the exam.

Ryan Tan Week 9

Ryan Tan
Physics 0175
Dytman TH 1100-1245

Several students showed up on Tuesday looking for review for the test on Thursday. They had a couple questions for me that I could not answer in the office hours. However, I went home and worked out the problems that night. The solutions were sent to the students via email. Again, no students on Wednesday.

Week 9

Nobody showed up to my office hours on Tuesday. However, one student came to my Wednesday session. He just wanted help with the homework problems. I helped him to understand the different ways to reason through the problems. He stayed for about half an hour. It was another pretty uneventful week.

Week 9

The semester is quickly coming to a close and students are becoming anxious for classes to end. This seems to be obvious based on the attendance I have had at office hours this week, but hopefully more students buckle down and give it their best for the rest of the year!

Week 9

Another week of low turnout. Only 1 student showed up. He stayed for the whole time, which was nice, and I helped him with some of the homework concepts he was struggling with. I informed my professor of the lower turnout and apparently he brought it up during lecture so we'll see what happens next week.

Week 9

Last Friday night, I had 2 students come visit me at my office hours. First, I answered a question they had on the exam they had just gotten back, and then they did homework. They asked me on any problems they were having. Since there were only 2 students it was a little like individual tutoring and I just went over any specific problems they had.

9th Week

This week was the week after a test.  Only one person came, but she had a homework question that apparently a lot of students had struggled with.  She did not have the correct answer with her, so I wasn't sure if I was doing it correctly either, but I asked Dr. Nero afterward and it turned out we were right.

Ally M
Phys 174
Nero 1pm

Week 9

This week I had no students on Tuesday, because they had an exam. However, on thursday I had one student show up. We went over homework problems. It was odd because they had a homework due that weekend, yet they didn't learn the topics until Thursday before the weekend. Most of my office hours were spent teaching unseen material.

Week 10

This week I had one student who is a regular at my office hours. I was surprised there was not more students because they have an exam on Friday.

Weeks 9 and 10

Nothing out of the ordinary during these two weeks, except for the fact that the students had an upcoming exam. I had my usual amount of students come to office hours, with Monday afternoon being the busiest followed by Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon respectively.

Weeks 6-10

Weeks 6-8

Nobody came during these 3 weeks to my office hours. I helped one person out of my hours several times though.

Week 9.

This was spring break

Week 10

One student who had come once in the beginning of the semester came again. He seemed like he understood the basic idea of torque but didn't know how to apply it to some of the webassign problems. It took us awhile to work through the problems, partially due to my own rustiness on the subject, but we were able to work through the problem together to explain the idea of torque and how to use it to solve some of the problems.

week 9

This week I helped one person.

This was a slightly hectic week for me. I was surprised by my parents over Spring Break with tickets to the march madness basketball games being held on Thursday in Pittsburgh. This created a conflict with my office hours, so I worked it out with Dr. Nero to have them moved. This turned out to be very beneficial because they had a test on Tuesday--I was able to move my hours to a time before the test rather than having them on Thursday when no one would have shown up. Although only one person came to my hours before the test, it was still better than I would have done.

Additionally, I met with a student outside of my office hours this week. This was a new experience for me, and it required an extra hour of my time. I was more than happy to give it up, though, because this student regularly came to my office hours and just wanted to run through a few things before the test.

Overall, it was a hectic week between having to switch my office hours and scramble to conform to the students. These are sacrifices that need to be made, though, and I was happy to make them.

Weeks 8, 9, and 10

During week 8 I saw one student on Monday and three on Wednesday. On Friday the lecture was cancelled due to a power outage and spring break was approaching so I was not surprised that no one came to my office hours.

Week 9 was spring break.

During week 10 I saw five students, one on Monday and four on Wednesday. I probably would have seen more on Friday but I had to cancel my office hours at the last minute. It makes me happy to see that more and more often when I arrive there will already be a student or two waiting to see me. Hopefully it is because I am helping them by doing something right and not just because I am the only person their schedule permits them to visit.

week 9

This week only one student came to my office hour. She was confused about moment of inertia and asked some homework questions related to it.  I hope to see more students next week because the exam is coming.

Weeks 7 and 8

Since extra credit is no longer provided for my sessions any more after their second exam, attendance has dropped considerably. I had 1 student show up the evening after their second exam to work on homework. Mostly she worked on homework and I helped her with problems if she had questions/wanted some help to solve the problems. The week after that was the Friday right before spring break. I wasn't surprised that no one showed up to that session, as most students had probably left campus already.

The 8th Week

This week, the class had an exam.  I had several people come in prior to go over the practice exam.  It seemed for the most part that the test went well for them all and they weren't too concerned about any specific topics.  After the test, my usual came back to do homework.  It took us a while this time because the questions were poorly worded, but I was still able to help.

Ally M
Phys 174
Nero 2pm

Week 8

We are finally getting to optics, which I think that students generally find to be the easiest material. I expect to get fewer questions about this unit. Hopefully this means that everyone will do great on the next exam!

Week 9

This week I had no students at my office hours. I was a little surprised, as there is an exam coming up, but I guess some people are still in a spring break mindset.

Week 8

So, after weeks of having anywhere between 10-30 students the well may beginning to dry up, so to speak. This is the first week where attendance doesn't go towards bonus points and I had 2 students show up for a bit. Now, it's the week after an exam and 2 days before break so I'm not going to jump to any conclusions just yet before I see what attendance is like the week back from break.

Week 8

So this past week has been a little more lively in some areas and less in others. Monday's group mainly required help on the written homework which relied on magnetics, electric fields, and simple mechanics. This last part through a few people off--I misread it myself--but we managed to come up with the appropriate answer.

I adjusted my office hours on Thursday, and likely received no visits because of this.

I did not hold any office hours on Saturday because spring (not yet) Break!

Ryan Tan Week 8

Ryan Tan
Physics 0175
Dytman TH 1100-1245

I have about 4-5 regulars show up for my Tuesday section. This week one student was unable to compute a cross product so maybe this is something to keep in mind, that not all students are comfortable with the mathematics required to succeed in this course. No students on Wednesday.

Week8

I had one person came and I helped him with few questions about lenses and mirrors.
It seemed that he was more confused with the concepts rather than how to solve problems.
After I explained him about the concepts, he understood them and he was be able to do lenses and mirrors problems.

Hyungjin Lim

Week 8

This week I had a new face in office hours. The student needed help on one of her Webassign questions. At first, I could tell she was just looking for answer. However, I had her work through it and I would give her tips to stimulate her thinking and get her on the right track. It was nice to have a new student in office hours, but I still feel like my office hours have been underused so far.

Week 8

Nobody showed up to my office hours this week.

Week 8

This week I had zero students show up either of the days. I suppose it is because break is next week. It was slow, but I was able to get work done during the office hours.

Week 7

I didn't have any students come to office hours this week. I helped a student outside of office hours who saw me in the library, but besides that it was a slow week.

Week 8

This was the week before break and they had a test the week before, so no one showed up. The material they are covering right now feels relatively straightforward. Once it gets closer to test time, I expect to have students come for help.

Week 8

This week I helped one person.

This was a very slow week for me. Being that is was the week before spring break, I think most people's minds were on home rather than physics help. The one person that did come is a regular at my office hours, so it was nice to help her with the few things she was unsure of. Overall, it was a relaxing week, and I got a lot of homework done.

Weeks 5, 6, 7, and 8

UTA Experiences Reflection
Weeks 5, 6, 7, 8

Daniel Sokolowski

        Hey, everybody. Sorry for yet another mass summary-- things were pretty hectic for me these last few weeks, due to midterm exams and projects for Engineering 0716. But, no more excuses, here's my report:


        Nobody showed up to my UTA hours during week 5. I just used my office hours to do some other work, such as completing a chemistry lab or studying for a calculus II quiz.

        On Tuesday of week 6, Vivian Feng showed up. She asked for assistance interpreting data and answering questions for her momentum, "runaway cart" extra credit lab. I did the best I could with what she gave me, talked over with her how to best view her collected graph data, and how to navigate confusing and seemingly repetitive questions (e.g.: "Why does it ask to calculate Cart A's momentum twice?"). She seemed pretty satisfied with my help.

        On Wednesday of week 6, Vivian showed up. She came asking about questions from the previous exam. About halfway through our session, Yijia Cui showed up for the same reason, wanting to know why she got wrong what she did on the previous exam. I did my best to accommodate the two of them, illustrating concepts like friction, pulley systems (a tricky and under-explained concept), work, power, etc. Fortunately, I had enough teaching savvy to take advantage of the situation and have them teach each other some of the concepts, asking Vivan to explain the equation for friction force to Yijia, asking Yijia to teach Vivian about free-body diagrams. It was a very effective strategy-- it took less pressure off of me (only having to intervene when neither of them knows an important concept), and it solidified their learning, by having them teach and re-learn concepts explained by a peer. Both were pretty satisfied and seemed to learn quite a bit.

        On Thursday, Vivian showed up again. She came to ask some questions about momentum, forces, and systems. I prodded her thinking, illuminated some misconceptions that she had, and eventually answered her questions. She then asked me to look over her work on some homework problems. Aside from some confusion over work from friction (Work = frictionforce*distance = mukinetic*normalforce*distance), there was not much to teach, as most of her errors were just calculator errors.

        On Tuesday of week 7, Vivian showed up. She came to do some practice problems out of the book while I supervised, intervening only whenever she needed guidance or her thinking needed corrected. I taught her quite a bit, I advised that she do further problems for practice, and she left about half an hour later.

        On Wednesday of week 7, Vivian showed up. We worked on questions about power, centripetal acceleration, and momentum. About ten minutes before the end of my hour, Khandaker showed up, asking about questions that were on the previous exam. I tried to answer his inquiries as best I could (and even got Vivian to help teach Khandaker), but time was quickly running out. So, I took a picture on my phone of the specific test question he was struggling with, promised him that I would look over them that night, and invited him to come back tomorrow.

        On Thursday, Khandaker returned. (Vivian did not return.) I showed him my work from that night. telling him about different ways that he might tackle the test question that was bothering him (i.e.: using the range equation, or two of the "Big Five" motion equations). He then asked me questions about work from springs and friction. It was at this point that Allan Yue arrived and asked me questions about the same topic. I did my best to equally divide my attention between the two of them, but Allan is very talkative, and unfortunately just would not stop talking to me when I was trying to teach Khandaker about work from friction and springs. (I couldn't just abruptly tell Allan to be quiet while I attended to Khandaker-- that would have been rude.) The worst part was that what Allan talked about was irrelevant to what I was trying to teach-- questions about the class grading system, the UTA system, which teachers are better than others, etc. After I finally managed to teach Khandaker what he needed to know, he thanked me and left. (I could tell that he appreciated my teaching, and he was sympathetic to my struggle, trying to teach him and break away from Allan, but all the same, I think it annoyed him that I would not give him more attention.) Allan continued talking to me (he did not need any more physics assistance) until my time was up. If a similar situation happens again, I am definitely going to have to put my foot down next time whenever someone tries to distract me from teaching.

        Nobody showed up to my UTA hours during week 8. (Allan came back on Thursday of that week, but it was to resolve confusion over attendance, signatures, and bonus point requirements, not because he needed physics help.)

WEEK 8

No one came to my office hours last week.

Week 7

This week was pretty slow, as it was another exam week. I had a few questions about PEC worksheets, which was an interesting change for me. Nice transition into a relaxing spring break!

Week 7

Nobody came to any of my office hours this week.

Week 7

This Week I had the most Ive had (6). I suppose it is because it was the last day of the month on Thursday. I had a great experience with extra people. I even asked external concept questions to try and enhance their understanding of the material. It was a good time. I hope to see more of them soon!

Weeks 6 and 7

Sorry for missing my post last week; it was a busy week.

Regardless, week 6 went smoothly. 25 students showed up. The high number can probably be attributed to the fact that the students need to show up to 3 UTA sessions by the second exam (day after week 7's office hours) for bonus and some were cramming. It was pretty much just like the last session (week 5) where some questions were raised at the start, but it was mostly just students asking either homework questions or questions about the upcoming exam.

Week 7 was a bit more hectic because 1) it was the day before their second exam and 2) it was the last chance they had to show up for the possibility of bonus points. Planning ahead for this, it was the first time I opted to have a sign-in sheet at the front instead of asking students their names when they walked in. In total, I had 36 students show up. Like with Week 3's review session, I went over the solutions to the practice questions that the professor posted. Once I had finished those, some students left but a good number stuck around to ask other general questions. I tried to reinforce some major concepts that I feel were easy to get confused with. Also, I made up a circuits problem on the spot that they had some trouble solving, but I think that when I went over it that it cleared up any issues they had.

7th Week

This week I only had 1 student show up.  The deadline for getting extra credit from UTAs has ended, so the demand seemed to die out.  I do have a new regular who comes in to work on the online homework, and so far I've been able to help him with all his questions.

They have a test on the Tuesday after spring break, so I will complete the practice exam ahead of time, as I expect a few people to come in during my Monday office hours.

Ally M
Phys 174
Nero 1pm

Ryan Tan Week 7

Ryan Tan
Physics 0175
Dytman TH 1100-1245

No students showed up this week. Even though Tuesdays are usually my busy days, no students came due to the inclement weather.

Week 7

Unfortunately, I was not able to hold office hours this week because I was traveling on all of the days that I normally have hours.  I'm set to resume my normal schedule after spring break.

Week 8

I had 1 student who is a regular show up to my office hours this week. We worked through some homework problems together. She says she is doing better in the class now and understands physics more. I'm glad I am able to help her.

Week 7

No one showed up to my office hours. Monday CL 151 3:00pm to 6:00pm.
I mean I expected because they just had their second midterm.
I do expect more students to show up next week, however.

Week 7

This week I helped six people.

This week was different from any other week I have had so far. I had all new people show up to my office hours, so I got a nice spread of new faces. I could tell that the period for extra credit was ending soon, though, because none of the questions asked were all that in depth. I was able to clear up some misconceptions some students had regarding new topics being learned, which was pretty straight forward. My explanations seemed to help.

Additionally, I got a lot of questions on the test they had taken the week before. The tests were returned in recitation during the week, so they had some things that needed to be explained. This was especially true for one student who came to my office hours on Thursday. He was extremely lost on one of the three long answer questions, but I was able to walk him through it step by step so that he knew what was going on. I had to repeat myself a lot, and I wasn't sure if it was because my explanations weren't clear or if he was just that lost on the topic. Regardless, I got the point across eventually and things were cleared up.

Now that the extra credit opportunity has passed for attending a uta's office hours, I expect a much smaller crowd to show up. This is kind of sad, because I enjoyed helping the large groups. All I can do is hope that people continue to show up.

The 6th Week

This was the week after a test which is usually quiet for UTA sessions.  However, I saw 6 people this week total, more than I ever had before.  I mostly answered homework questions.  A lot of the issue this time was being able to understand a problem and set it up correctly.  We used a lot of pictures to help with this. 

Ally M
Physics 174
Nero 2pm T/Th

Week 7

No one in office hours after the test, as expected. Talking to some of the kids in the class, it appears the test was harder than the last but people felt pretty confident with it. They are interested in how the class will be curved, which I am not sure about.

Week 6

This week went better than the past. The students had a test on Wednesday so I had two kids stay for at least an hour during my office hours. It seemed like the issues the two students were having revolved around the algebra and trig involved in answering the questions. Their physics knowledge was fairly solid, but I did have to help them with interpreting a few questions and how they can extract info embedded in the question and use it to plug into formulas. It helped a lot to use problems from the book and have the students solve them. If they started to get off track while solving, I would redirect them towards the correct method. Besides that I helped them review some trig since they were struggling with the angles. I personally feel they left the office hours better prepared for the exam than when they had first arrived.