Final Week

The last week of office hours I had no students show up.  This could have been due to all of the exams that happen this week.

Week of April 18th

I had one student come to my office hours the past week. She had questions from the textbook regarding the ideal spring model and pendulums. She mostly had trouble with relating kinetic and potential energy to a moving spring, and it was useful to remind her that kinetic energy reaches a maximum at its starting point, and the potential energy is measured in relation to that starting point. For the problems regarding pendulums, I helped her derived the equations for simple and physical pendulums, which helped show her that the time it takes for a pendulum to swing is independent of its mass.

Overall, I really enjoyed TA'ing for physics this semester. It was fun interacting with students of varying learning styles and background knowledge of physics, while also gaining insight into my own study habits and learning new ways to approach problems.

Joe Musiol
MWF 1:00-1:50PM

Week 13

Bhupinder Singh Professor Liu Tuesday Thursday 6pm-7:20pm This week no one came to office hours, which I was surprised by because it was the week before finals week. However, most students probably have other finals to worry about because Dr. Liu's final is on Thursday, so it's pretty late in the week. Hopefully, every student does well and it was a pleasure to have the opportunity once again to help students.

Week 13 + Final week

No students came to office hours the last two weeks of the semester however a couple students emailed me asking to meet. We went over some review problems for their final exam which is tonight. Hopefully they do well!

Overall the experience of being a TA this semester was very rewarding and I plan on doing it for semesters to come.

Nick Pelosi
Dr. Busche Phys 0110

Week of April 18th

Last week of office hours. I had one student come in and ask for help on homework problems. It's been a great semester. I hope I was able to help some students this semester and I hope their final goes well on Wednesday. Thanks everyone, have a great summer.

Last Week

I can't believe we are already at the last week of the semester. I had two kids come for help today. We went over some review problems before the final. They seemed to be on top of the material and just wanted a little review. I gave them some short cuts for solving problems, and I expect them to do well on the final exam.

It's been a great semester, good luck everyone!

Last Week

Danielle Newman
PHYS 0110 Broccio MWF 1:00-1:50 pm

I had two students come to office hours this week! One had a few homework problems, which I was able to help her through. The other had general concept questions in review for the final exam next week. He stayed for about 2 hours and I helped him as he continued to review after I answered his initial questions.

It's bittersweet to be done office hours for the semester. This experience has been a great one and I feel like I was able to help a lot of students throughout the short 15 weeks I had with them. I wish them all luck on the final exam and think they are prepared.

Week 12

Today was my final office hours for the semester. I had one student come in and we basically just reviewed for the final. We  went through his notes and I helped to explain any concepts that he felt shaky on. I used practice problems to help strengthen his understanding on these concepts. We also went through all of his old tests and I helped him do the questions that he got wrong.

It has been a great semester. Good luck on finals everyone!

Week 11

The same two students that regularly come to my office hours came again this week.  They had questions on the homework which I helped them work though.  We discussed some possible topics that might be on the exam and went over them.

Week 12

Tom Reynolds
Dr. Paolone
Physics 175 T TH 11:00

This week no one came for my office hours however one person came just seeking help from anyone.  She was struggling with an extra credit lab.  It was about waves and calculating the speed of sound in different media. There were a couple of obstacles with this.  The first was that she couldn't quite describe the experiment to me.  The second was that from the description of the experiment, the data didn't quite make sense.  So I helped her as best I could, mainly with answering the questions and analyzing her data.  The best help I could give was to explain more thoroughly what the questions were asking, including the physical principles behind them, and then asking her to answer them herself. She walked out with answers and maybe a better understanding of waves, even if the data didn't make much sense.

Week of April 11th

I had no students come into my office hours last week.

However, I expect some students this week with finals week quickly approaching.

Joe Musiol
Broccio MWF 1:00-1:50

Week 12

Bhupinder Singh Professor Liu Tuesday Thursday 6pm-7:20pm This week, I did not hold office hours. I was under the weather and couldn't make it to office hours. Other than that, no student emailed me any questions, so I'm assuming no one is struggling with the material thus far.

Week 13

I was not able to go to office hours this week due to medical complications. I will be in office hours next week and I expect students to come seeing as it is the week before finals.

Week of April 11th

I had a total of four students come into my office hours throughout the week. The students this week seemed to be in a bit of a rush (I presume because of the increased workload in other classes) and only wanted help with a select few homework problems. After helping them through the concepts of sound, waves, and linear superposition, the students seemed to solve the mathematical portion of the problems relatively easily.

Week of April 11

Danielle Newman
Phys 0110 Broccio 1:00-1:50pm MWF

I had one student come to office this week. She had questions about 3 homework problems that I helped her work through. I didn't expect many students this week, but I expect some more next week since the final exam is in a few weeks.

Week 11

This week I had two students come to office hours. These students had been to several office hours of mine previously and both have a pretty good grasp on the class concepts. We went over the recommended practice problems that they did not understand how to do themselves. I think that they left with a better understanding of how to complete problems that integrate concepts from different chapters.

Week 11

Bhupinder Singh Professor Liu Tuesday Thursday 6pm-7:20pm This week, no one came to my office hours. I was expecting a no show because the exam was on Tuesday, and Professor Liu hasn't delved into anything too difficult for students to get confused. However, these next two weeks I expect a surge of students coming because the final exam is approaching and most students generally kick it into full gear around this time. Hope I can be of help to any student who needs help.

Week of April 4th.

I had only 2 students attend my office hours this week, both on Monday. We went over how temperature and heat are different, and solved through some homework problems together involving energy transfers. I am assuming that many of the regulars did not show this week up due to the fact that they just had an exam last Friday.

Weeks of March 14th - April 4th

Weeks of March 14th and 21st
No one came to my office hours.
Week of March 28th
I had one student come to my office hours on Monday. She had a few questions on the video checkpoints that were due later that day. Her questions were mostly about the ideal spring model and simple harmonic motion. She had trouble interpreting graphs that showed the springs position, velocity, and acceleration. I found that it was helpful to remind her of previous concepts, like the conservation of energy, and how all of the springs kinetic energy is translated into potential energy, and this potential energy is measured relative to the resting position. We were able to work through several of these examples and even looked at a couple of similar examples from the textbook.
I had three students come to my office hours on Wednesday. They had trouble with problems from the homework dealing with static equilibrium. These questions included setting to net torque equal to zero, as well as the X and Y components of forces. I found that it was most helpful to draw out a free body diagram and help them label all of the forces present in the problem. Then, we discussed previous topics which helped them conceptualize the problem, such as, because the scenario is in equilibrium, the acceleration is zero, and all torques, X, and Y components of forces must sum to zero as a result. After we worked through one problem on the homework, the students were able to do similar problems from the homework on their own, which was excellent to see.
No one came on Friday after their third exam.
Week of April 4th
No one came to my office hours.

Joe Musiol
Broccio MWF 1-1:50

Week 12

No one came to my office hours this week. I expect people to start showing soon seeing as finals are fast approaching.

Week of April 4

Danielle Newman
Dr. Broccio MWF 1:00-1:50pm PHYS 0110

I had one student come to office hours to ask two homework questions, which I helped her with easily. I did not expect much traffic this week as the class just had an exam last Friday. I expect to see more students within the next few weeks in preparation for the final exam.

Week 12

Nobody showed up to office hours this week. In class we talked about fluid dynamics and started thermodynamics. With finals quickly approaching, I think more students will come to see me.

Nick Pelosi
Dr. Busche Phys 0110

Week 10

Bhupinder Singh Professor Liu Tuesday Thursday 6pm-7:20pm 2 students came to my office hours to get some help in preparation for the exam. They had some questions about magnetic fields and some webassign problems. Other than that, no one else came to my office hours. Hopefully everyone does well on the exam, so they don't have to worry too much about the final.

Week 10

This was the week of the exam so time was used to review those topics.  Both Tuesday and Thursday two students came to go over problems.  I let them take turns asking problems and if one of them was able to figure it out, I let them explain it to the other.  This helped the students understand the topics further.

Week 11

Tom Reynolds
Physics 175
Dr. Paolone T TH 11

This week someone came to my office hours.  She was looking for a different class but I was the only person in the room so I helped her out.  She had questions pertaining to centripetal motion.  She was specifically confused about addition of vectors and other things pertaining to the directions of certain quantities.  I was able to explain how addition of vectors works,  where the centripetal force pointed and why the velocity vector is always tangential.  I may not have been in her class but vector analysis is universal among physics classes so I was still qualified to help her.

Week 9-10

The past two weeks I've only had one student per week. Attendance seems to be slowing down towards the end of the semester. I am thinking of making another announcement during class to remind all the students that these office hours do exist. Hopefully attendance will pick up as finals week approaches.

Week 11

Nobody came to office hours this week. This was surprising as we started rotational kinematics in class and this topic can cause some confusion to students. I expect to see more in the upcoming weeks with finals approaching.

Nick Pelosi
Dr. Busche Phys 0110

Week 10

I had a group of four students come in on monday looking for help preparing for their exam on thursday.  They mainly asked about solving for current in multi-loop circuits and how to work with RC circuits.  I also helped to proctor the exam on thursday.

Week of March 28

Danielle Newman

Broccio MWF 1:00-1:50pm PHYS 0110

I had 4 people come to office hours this week and 36 come to a review session I held on March 31st. At my office hours and the session, I went over a practice exam I had from a previous semester. I also helped the girls who came to my office hours with homework problems and recommended book problems. I feel like I really helped the students understand what to expect on their third midterm.

Week of March 14

Danielle Newman
Broccio MWF 1:00-1:50pm PHYS 0110

I had one person come to office hours this week. I helped her with questions that Dr. Broccio recommends at the end of each module. I was able to help her a lot. I expect more people next week, as the class has an exam on April 1st.

Week of March 28th

Somewhat surprisingly, I only had two students come to office hours this week. The students came in looking for some conceptual help with rotational dynamics and simple harmonic motion/springs problems. I also met with a student outside of class on Thursday night who wanted to review for the Friday exam. The students seemed to struggle with the idea that simple harmonic motion is just a sin function, but they seemed to solve the problems much easier once that was cleared up.