Week of October 24th

This week was the first week that the students did not receive extra credit incentive to come to my office hours, so naturally attendance was lower than it has been in the past. No students showed up for my Tuesday office hours, but that was as expected one day after an exam. My Thursday office hours consisted of a few students coming in to get some help with the concept quiz due that night on rotational motion. I helped them go through the multiple choice problems by going through each choice and reasoning with them why it was either the right or wrong answer. I also put a stress on keeping track of units and how when doing rotational problems because otherwise it is easy to become confused. This seemed to really help a few of the students through the concept quiz.

Week of 10/24

No one came to my office hours this week. maybe they are taking a break since they just had an exam? or maybe they had other exams -- I'm not really sure.

week of 10/24

Last week the students had their exam so I was not surprised when I had only a few students show up to my office hours. Last Friday Professor Broccio held a meeting with the UTA's where we talked about the trends of when students show up. The other UTA's have witnessed the same trends I have.

Week of 10/24-10/28

I did not have many students come in because all of my office hours were held after their test(s) on Monday or Tuesday. However I was able to help a few students with kinetic energy problems as well as rotational kinematics problems. I am starting to see many of the same students every week and I am trying to help them out less and less and pushing them towards working independently. Many of these students are asking for reaffirmation and help with every step of every problem. I am going to consciously try to help them only when they are absolutely stuck with a problem, otherwise just guide them along.

Week of 24th

I did not have too many people at office hours this week. All of the questions were about the new material. People had trouble understanding the difference between impulse and momentum. This was difficult to explain because rhis was new material that students had not had time to understand the material. The easiest way for me to explain the concepts was to start with F=ma and derive the equations. This is not the best way to provide a good understanding of the concept but this is a good place to start. I think one way to help students is to provide real life examples of impulse like a ball hitting a baseball bat.

Week of 10/24

This week, I helped one student on Monday for about ten minutes. She seemed to already have a firm grasp of the concepts and only needed some help with algebra.

No other students came in on Monday or Friday.

Week of Oct 24

This week I only had one office this week due to a conflict with my schedule on Wednesday. On Monday I only had one student come to my office hour before her exam on Tuesday. She mostly had conceptual questions about elevators, friction and circular motion. After clarifying her questions and using free-body diagrams to show her, she understood the concepts better. I expected more students to show up before the exam, but hopefully this meant that they understood the material well enough not to have questions before their exam.

Week of October 24

This week I only had one girl come to my office hours. This is probably because they just had an exam on monday. I was asked a question about momentum and impulse. When I was trying to help the girl I realized that her problem was not that she didn't understand momentum concepts, but that she still was having problems adding vectors. She was having problems because she still hadn't mastered the material from the first unit of the class.

week of 10/17

This was a very busy week as students were preparing vigorously for their exam. I had to stay late a couple times this week, but I didn't mind and the students really appreciated it. I assume next week will be much slower due to the absence of an exam.

Journal (Week 10/25)

Being that the exam is tomorrow, and I did not have any hours last week, I figured that this week's office hours would have been pack with students. It was the exact opposite though. I had one student who needed a quick explanation of magnetic flux and to make sure that he had his unit conversions correct. It was a simple day to say the least. I am not sure why no one came, mainly because I feel that a good deal of this information is pretty confusing concepts. I guess that is just conceptually, though. Mathematically it is pretty straight forward, so as long as they can get that down, which is primarily what the professor tests on, then it should go well for them.

I personally think that the next couple chapters get easier so we will see if the amount of people coming to my office hours changes at all, or if they think it is also easier and do not need any help from a boring old UTA like myself. We shall find out.

Week of 10/17-10/21

This week I worked with many students on centripetal force, work, and power problems. Most were able to understand concepts for all of these when we were able to talk through them and work out practice problems together. The toughest question I received was regarding a homework tug of war question in which the total force of the team pushing against the ground was used to find the tension in the rope.

Week 9

This week I had a new student come to my office hours. We worked on homework problems and conservation of energy. We just went through some of the basics of energy and work and then applied that to the homework problems. The student had most of his homework done or at least attempted so it was pretty easy to go through the problems and just clarify a couple of things so that he could answer the problems.

25 October 2016

This week, I only had one student stop by at my office needing help with their momentum homework problems. What I've been noticing is that a lot of students come into office hours expecting me to pretty much do the problems for them, and today the student basically came in with none of their homework done, sat for an hour and a half, and did them there (wanting me to go through them). She didn't bring any previous work for the problems, so it proved difficult to help her discover the solutions solely by herself. Most of the time, this isn't an issue, but it becomes a burden to try and help a student who comes in with the idea that I'm just going to gives them the answers to their homework.

Week 8

This week I had one student come to office hours. This is the same student who always comes to my hours. We worked on homework and did a couple of practice problems on rotational motion.

Week 7

I didn't have anyone come to office hours this week, most likely due to the fact that they just had a test and didn't have questions on the new material yet.

Week of Oct 17

I helped 2 people in office hours this week. I'm surprised there weren't more people since I think the information is getting harder and there is an exam on Monday.

Week of 10/17/16

I only had 2 office hours last week because of Fall break. On both days the usual students showed up to ask questions about homework and a few people came in with book problems in preparation for the exam. We all had some problems with the homework problems but I was able to help with the textbook problems which helped everybody prepare for the exam.

Week of 10/17

I had one student come in during my office hours. She needed help with a vertical loop problem. It was important to reiterate how the normal force changes thoughout.

Week of 10/17

This week I only had sessions on Thursday and Friday. Thursday I had one person. Friday I had 5 people. One of the things I noticed that students were memorizing equations from the FBD for the slope and using these equations for a flat surface or for circular motion. The best way to get around this was to draw out the fbd's for the other scenarios and explain how to derive equations for applied forces or gravity. In addition, students had some understanding that the sum of the forces for uniform circular motion was (mv2/r). It was also important to explain that this was simply and extension to F=ma. 

Week of October 17th

This week was similar to the last week right before an exam in my office hours. My Tuesday hours consisted of helping students finish the last bit of homework they needed to do before the exam, and helping to build a better conceptual understanding of the relationship between energy and momentum. My Thursday office hours were all about helping students with the practice exam that Dr. Nero provide. I went through every problem on the exam multiple times, as each wave of students that came to my office hours had similar problems solving each question. I then gave the students my recommendation on what to put on their equation sheets, and told themwhat to expect in terms of difficulty for the upcoming exam.

Week of 10/17

On Monday, I helped one student who was working on book problems and asked for help only when she could not get it herself on the first or second try. The problems she had more difficulty with often had circular motion involved.

On Friday, one student came to my office hour, also asking for help with the recommended book problems. The problem we worked on dealt with the work-energy theorem.

The lack of students surprised me, since their exam is on Monday/Tuesday.

Week of October 17

This week, since there was no Tuesday, I only had 1 hour of my office hours. No body showed up. There usually aren't any students that come on Thursday mornings.

Week 7

This week I had 2 students come to me during office hours. They had questions concerning ideas expressed in class. That dealt with centripetal force and work.

Nick Pelosi
Dr. Broccio Phys 0110

Week 6

I had 3 students this week in office hours. 90% of what we went over was the homework problems as many students seemed to have trouble with this weeks homework. This homework included topics such as friction, normal force, and tension.

Nick Pelosi
Dr. Broccio Phys 0110

Week of Oct 18

On Tuesday I only had one student in office hours; we went over force and tension book problems. She pretty much didn't need any of my assistance, just asking occasional questions about the set up of her problems or her free-body diagrams. She grasped the concepts well and could pretty much do most of the problems on her own. 

On Wednesday I had my usual students during my office hours. I helped them with problems on momentum and energy, helping them understand the concepts of energy conservation and impulse. I helped them on their online homework problems along with another TA. The other TA focused on the T/TH homework set while I focused on the M/W/F homework set. Overall, the students were starting to understand energy, momentum, nonconservative forces and impulse questions better after drawing diagrams and further explanation. I wish them luck on their next exam next week! 

18 October 2016

All of my hours are on Tuesday, so I had none this week.

Week 7

There weren't many people in office hours this week, maybe because of Fall Break. I did help 2 students. They were confused about some concepts with circular motion. I think office hours will be busier this week with the next exam on Monday.

Journal (Week 10/18)

Because of the Fall "break" schedule, I will not be holding office hours this week. I did, however, mention to the class that if they need any help with anything that they can always email me and I will do my best to assist them in that manner.

Next week is their second exam so I am sure there will be plenty of people coming in to my office hours then, and plenty more to write in this journal about.

Week of 10/10

Last week was a slow week. I had a few people come in with homework problems and one girl came in with some book problems. The homework problems were pretty simple and the people who asked about it seemed to just need help with problem solving skills when looking at force problems. The book problems were a little more difficult and involved forces that went across several different axises, and I had to work together with the girl who came in to come up with a solution. All in all I think everybody left with a better understanding of force diagrams.

Week of 10/10

This week in office hours, I didn't have as many people come to my office as usual. The same students who show up every week were there but no one new. In class, the students just learned about work and energy, which is confusing at first, but I helped the students to understand it better.

Week of 10/10

Several students came in for assistance with homework. They needed help applying the concepts of work and energy to solve problems. The difference between conservative and non-conservative forces  had to be emphasized.

Week of 10/10

I had one student come to my office hours this week. Her question came from a homework problem dealing with centripetal force. She had a very good initial idea about how to start the problem, but was confused about the direction of forces acting on an object, and thus struggled to draw the free body diagram. Once I worked through the correct free body diagram with her, she was able to solve the problem and finish her homework.

Joe Musiol
Broccio TuTh 2:30-3:45

Week of 10/10

I was not able to conduct my office hours Thursday, and Monday I only had one student with a single homework question. On Friday, I had a few students who had question about homework. I had a few questions about forces but a lot of the focus was on circular motion. A lot of the questions were concept questions relating to acceleration and velocity. The best way to explain this concept is to draw the vectors of acceleration and velocity on a circle and determine how they during circular motion. This also helps explain in what cases an object is speeding up or slowing down. Students seem to be getting better at setting up the sum of the forces equations which has helped them solve more complicated force problems. 

Week of October 10th

This week was a bit unusual during my office hours. I actually had no students show up to my Tuesday office hours, which is strange because Dr. Nero sets the weekly homework due on Wednesday. My Thursday office hours were much different. Students came in with two main issues, they needed help with a problem on the homework involving a roller coaster, and help with conceptually understanding work. Conveniently, helping the students understand work and how conservative forces interact in a system seemed to really help them solve the roller coaster problem that everyone had so much trouble with. Once the students understood that when only conservative forces act on a system the total energy doesn't change, they were able to do the roller coaster problem with relative ease.

Week of 10/10

On Monday I had two students who came into my office hours; one student was working on tension problems and was getting confused drawing the free body diagrams. We worked through a couple of the hard book problems and were able to get the correct answers with the help of another TA.

On Wednesday, I had my usual students and we worked on the online homework problems. I had the students in the T/TH class and the other TA had the M/W/F problems, since the homework differed. I introduced my students to the concepts of centripetal force and angular velocity, as well as friction in a circular motion. Since they didn't really cover this in lecture, I was able to give them some equations to use on their homework, and they both were able to do the problems on their own.

Week of 10/10

On Monday, I worked solely with one student on homework that was already due. She struggled with parts of almost every problem, so I worked on the basics of drawing free-body diagrams and setting up a system of equations with net force. By the end of my office hours, she was almost to the point of being able to solve problems by herself.

No students came to my office hours on Friday.

Week of October 10th

This week I have one girl come to my Tuesday office hours and three girls come on Thursday. The one girl just wanted clarification on the problem from recitation. The other girls came to get homework help. The biggest problem is always drawing the force diagrams and setting up force equations on ramp problems.

11 October 2016

No students came to my office hours this week.

Journal (Week 10-11)

I am starting to see some familiar faces in my office hours. I only had two students come in for help this week and both of them happened to need help with the same questions, so it worked out well. It is always nice when someone has an issue that someone else had earlier because I have already talked someone else through it, so now on the second time around I know how to even better explain the topic.

I have noticed that the students have typically already answered the questions correctly, but are unsure why the answer they put was correct to begin with. I guess it is a good thing in a way though. I find it easier to show them why using the equation they did, or why applying the rule that they chose, was the correct method to work with. I think that when it is in that situation, they already have a basic understanding of the topic at hand, and then with my explanation they connect everything together and they understand it completely.

Just like in past weeks, it is the little things that they seem to be missing, and as soon as you point it out to them they become pros at the concept. They have an exam coming up in two weeks so I am sure office hours will get a little busier in the coming weeks, but we shall see. The exam average for the last test was not all that high so I suspect there to be more students this time around than last.

Week of October 3rd

This week was all about homework at my office hours. Tuesday was very typical, many students came in looking for help with the tricky problems on their homework involving rotational motion and tension. I went over some concepts of rotational motion and systems of equations, and helped the students get on the right track for their homework problems. Thursday this week was a bit unusual. This week there were a lot of students who had not finished the homework who came in seeking help completing it even after it was due. Because of this, my Thursday office hours were very similar to my Tuesday hours. I helped the students to understand the basic concepts of the section, and then set them on the right track to solve the problems they need help with.

Week 6

This week my class had their first test. I mostly answered questions before or after class or via email. I actually did not have any students come for help which surprised me, but I assume it was because they were studying.

Week 6

My office hours were busy on Friday. My office hours get much busier as the week goes on because the homework is due over the weekend. In class, not as many students raise their hand for help as I would imagine. The material is becoming more challenging and I am finding that I'm having to refresh my memory before class and office hours.

Week of 10/03/16

Last week I had several students come in with homework problems on both Monday and Wednesday. Most of the students seemed to grasp the general concepts, they were just having difficulty interpreting what the questions were asking for for the most part. I worked with the other UTAs to help these students figure out the methods for solving the problems.

Week of 10/2

This week I had one student on Monday and one on Thursday. On Friday I had around five people. The questions are still mostly about homework. They are mostly about forces. People understand what forces are with regards to gravity and normal force, but they still have trouble solving problems. The best way for me to help students is to tell them to practice free body diagrams for different scenarios. This is the best place to start, but it also takes practice to get good at setting these up. Once that is completed, writing the sum of the forces is the next step. I have told students to do these two steps to solve problems and I think it has helped in office hours. I have not had as many concept questions, but as the test approaches students will most likely ask more of these questions. 

Week 6

this week I had one student stop by. She needed some help with homework problems dealing with forces. I found it important to explain how forces like tension and friction come about.

Week of 10/3

On Monday, I helped three or four different students for 90 minutes non-stop. Questions varied, from conceptual questions (pertaining to the extra credit lab assignments) to homework problems. Most students are still trying to wrap their heads around how certain forces affect the system, and drawing free body diagrams seem to be best for helping them see what forces cancel out and how forces affect one another.

On Friday I had similar experiences with two more students. Mass on an incline questions were also a common type of problem that students had difficulty with.

4 October 2016

This week, I had two students come into my office hours. Both of them were having trouble with problems involving force: how to set up diagrams, how to derive equations from them, and how to use the equations to solve for acceleration, or tension, or whatever was specific to a given problem. One of the students was having particular trouble with problems involving blocks on ramps, so I gave her a mini-lesson showing her the basics of these types of problems. All in all, everyone seems to have a good grasp of the material. I've yet to have a student from my section come to my office hours, however.

Week of 10/3

Many of these students did pretty well with forces and had a fairly good grasp on them. There were however a few very difficult homework questions that even I was struggling with. I think that some of these homework questions might be unrealistic in a 50 minute setting but nonetheless are great practice.

Week 6

There weren't many people in office hours this week. I helped only 2 or 3 over 3 days and they were mostly the same people who always come. I continue to tutor one student outside office hours for extra help.

Week of Oct 3

This week I had a lot of people at my office hours. On Monday, I had a lot of questions on the homework, mostly dealing with material not covered in lecture yet. I explained how to do tension problems, where the tension is the same. In a stationary system, the vector components in the x and y directions of the tension forces are equal to each other. We also reviewed the basics of force.

On Wednesday, another TA and I helped students on the online homework. I showed the students how to draw the free-body diagram of an object on an inclined plane, and many of them found this very useful because it has not been covered in lecture yet. I also explained the differences between static and kinetic friction, and in what scenarios to use which value. These explanations helped them on their homework. It was a very successful week in office hours.

Week of October 3rd

This week I didn't have any students come to my office hours. During class I had a few students ask me questions about the problems that were up on the board. Most of them were related to forces, and when there should be a net force of zero and when there shouldn't be. Another point of confusion was with centripetal acceleration and how there can be a net force, but a constant speed with a changing direction.

Weeks of 9/19 and 9/26

Week of 9/19

I had two students come into my office hours this week. My first student had questions from the Exam 1 recommended book problems. He had trouble drawing vectors and finding their components in order to find a resultant vector. I walked him through head-to-tail addition and showed him how to use trigonometry to find all of the x-components and y-components separately. This was slightly concerning as this was a topic we had covered the second week of class, and lecture material had since moved on to motion with constant velocity and acceleration. He was able to work through a few similar problems under my supervision, and I noted a few more problems in the book he could do on his own as practice.

Another student came with a question about that week’s homework set, specifically about a problem concerned with free fall. She had just come from Dr. Broccio’s office hours, so she had a pretty good understanding of the homework and which equations to use, however she was having trouble finding the correct answer. I checked her work and found that her direction was incorrect, and told her that a objecting falling will fall in the negative y-direction, and therefore will have a negative value. I reminded her to keep track of positive and negative direction and this seemed to help her complete the rest of the homework.

Week of 9/26

I had one student visit my office hours the day of his first exam. He had a question about a problem that was worked out during lecture. The problem dealt with projectile motion and combining two equations in order to find time of flight. I worked through this problem with him and made sure to point out that the x and y-components of motion are independent of each other, and this helped him tremendously in conceptually understanding the problem. And then in order to combine two equations, I worked through solving both equations for one variable, and then setting those two equations equal to each other. He was also confused about when to apply the projectile motion equations, so we discussed the specific conditions under which those equations would be applicable.

Joe Musiol

Broccio TuTh 2:30-3:45

Weeks 4-5

Last week I saw the a new pair of students during my wednesday office hours, the mainly had issues drawing for diagrams and setting up equations based off the diagram. After an hour both students seemed to grasp the concept a lot better and could do problems on their own. It's week 5 and I haven't had a visit to office hours which is odd due to it being the week of the first exam. Mainly i've had emails of just basic questions about the format or rules of their alloted equation sheet. I have had 1-2 students come up to me in the library for quick help outside of my office hours. Once the exams are graded I am curious to see how the class is doing as a whole.

Week 4 (9/26 - 9/30)

Last week went pretty well, but not nearly as many people showed up as they have in previous weeks. I believe this is because their class (Physics 1 w/ Broccio MWF) had their first exam on Monday, and it's likely the students also had other exams that week to study for.

The biggest takeaway from last week, however, is the few returnees who did show up. These are mostly students that didn't do well on the last exam because they thought they were prepared but instead were surprised. I'm glad they aren't giving up hope, and hopefully now they realize how much commitment it will take from them to learn physics properly. My advice to any UTA who has a new student come to their hours is to ask them how they did on their last test. If they did poorly, ask them if they have a plan for how to do better next time, and if they don't, help them make one based on what you did when you were in physics.

Journal (Week 10/4)

I had one person stop into my office hours this week. They are now learning Chapter 20, which is dealing with circuits, and that information is pretty straightforward so I don't think many students needed help with it. The one student that did stop in was asking more about notes that confused him. It turns out that there was a minor slip up in equation derivation, but we got it sorted out and I am going to bring it to the professors attention next lecture. 

No one showed up for the other UTA's office hours either, so I could not chime in on physics 0110 this week. It was a pretty slow Tuesday afternoon to say the least. The information is about to pick back up in difficulty though, so come next week I am sure there will be a bigger turn out of students to office hours. Until then, I will keep up to speed on their lectures and preparing for Tuesday of next week, which is already the second week in October! Crazy!

Week of 9/26

Monday was somewhat busy with two or three students asking for help, but I anticipated many more since they had their exam on Tuesday. Questions were primarily conceptual, and a few students were still confused about sign notation and direction.

No one came in for help on Friday.

Week 5

Only 1 student came to my office hours this week. This wasn't unusual as the students had an exam the prior week. We went over some homework problems that needed to be addressed.

Nick Pelosi
Dr. Broccio Phys 0110

Week 5

The students had their exam on Monday of this week. That being said, my office hours were very busy on Monday, but almost no one showed up to my office hours later in the week. I make sure to do the homework every week because students only come to me with questions about the homework.

Week of 9/26

This past week I only had one student come in for help on Wednesday and no one came in for help on Thursday. I was able to talk through two forces problems and one kinematics problem with the student with relatively no trouble. She understood the concepts after about five minutes of discussion and explanation.

Week 5

I'm getting used to seeing the same students every week. At my Friday office hours, I had three girls who had a lot of the same questions, so it was interesting teaching them together. They were also able to teach each other and I think it went well since they were all good communicators. I have met a few students who more-or-less know what they're doing but confuse others when they try to help. I try to slow them down to break down concepts, but it's a bit difficult to deal with when they often confuse other students.

Week of 9/26

This week I had one person come in at the end of my Monday office hours. She had one question and it was about homework. I was surprised, because I thought students would show up the day before the test. I had two students on Thursday and two on Friday. Most of the questions about the homework. It seemed like students had a basic understanding of what forces are and they were able to draw free body diagrams. Students had some trouble with problems that required the use of kinematic equations and then required students to use force concepts. The best way to deal with these problem is to break it up into the two physics concepts first and do each part separately.