Final Week

For the last week of classes we just helped with clicker questions. No one really came to my office hours which was surprising considering a lot of people didn't understand the new wave topics. Overall this was a very fun experience. I definitely enjoyed UTAing for Physics and will love to do so again in the future. 

Week of 12/4 Final Week

This week was difficult in that I was not as comfortable with the wave equation as I should have been. However, I was able to help the students who came to office hours. Not many asked about the final. Just as a last reflection, the same people attend office hours every week, UTAs should make a point to learn names.
This experience has been great. I got to take a leadership position and help people with information I found to be interesting. I got to learn not only how to teach, but to evaluate. Grading homework gave me a new outlook on how time consuming and frustrating it can be. Lastly, I am much more comfortable with the course at the end of this experience. I would recommend this to someone who is looking for the above.

11/20

I did not attend lecture, grade, or have office hours, as this is the week of Thanksgiving recess.

Week of 11/13

This week there were not many people in office hours this week, which is surprising because the midterm was this week. I believe students come to UTAs for homework rather than deep understanding of the physics. Proctoring the test was fine, no issues.

Week 11/27.

There were about 6 students in office hours today, and they asked typical homework related questions. I find it easy after the whole semester of office hours to address common issues everyone seems to have. Also, I find having them work together sometimes generates the correct answer or at least correct thinking. It was a slower week because it is the first week back from break.

Week of 12/4

In the final week of office hours, I once again had no one come. In class, we just did review problems that incorporated a variety of concepts into specific problems.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time as a TA. Despite not having many people to tutor, I appreciated being able to strengthen my understanding of the course material by attending the class and helping the few students that did come in for help.

last week

its been a pleasure to UTA for Dr. Broccio again. and thank all the student and other UTAs. it was a lovely semester! and good luck to all the student on their final! and have a lovely break and Christmas!

12/5

Nothing to comment on this week.

11/27

People were generally in the room but didn't have questions.

Week of 12/4: Last week, fast week!

This past week seemed to have passed by the quickest so far. The VR setup continued to attract students to come in and work on the labs. Also I stayed a bit extra on both days to give the kids time to work on the VR labs. I understand how important it is to max out the extra credit, and it has never bothered me to stick around for a little while longer.

Overall I'm really glad that I was a UTA this semester. It gave me the opportunity to realize effective tutoring methods. One thing that I found very interesting was the ability to sit in lectures as a spectator. Having gone through the same class last year (except for the slight change in curriculum), it gave me a chance to fortify my understandings of the aspects that I didn't quite grasp the first time around.

Week of 12/4

On Wednesday, three students came to office hours. Most of the questions involved waves, since that is the newest topic the students learned. We had to find the position, velocity, and acceleration of a cart on a spring as well as similar questions for a simple pendulum.

Overall, I enjoyed being a UTA. Sometimes it felt like going to lecture was a waste, because usually students do not want to ask questions. Office hours were my favorite part because you get to directly help students with problems. It was also nice to relearn some of the material I have not worked with in a while and get better at problems I used to have trouble with. Good luck on finals everyone!

Week of 12/4- last week

No one came to my office hours this week, was hoping to see more people come and ask questions. I did not expect so few people come to my office hours this semester but hopefully I will have a different experience next semester.

Overall it was a fun semester helping the people I did with physics and it was nice to have a refresher on the concepts in physics. I hope to gain even more out my experience as a UTA next semester with Dr. Broccio and hope to gain an even better understanding on the subject! Happy holidays :)

Week of Dec. 4th + Finishing Up

This was the final week of classes for students, so I expected a few students to show up for some extra help. No one showed up, making my grand total for the semester zero. I don't know why there wasn't any students who came to my office hours, but its in the past now. The class continue its discussion on sound waves this week. 

Overall, this was not a very fun experience. I spent a lot of my time going to lecture and office hours to help not a single student. I supposed that since this was a first year class, and the office hours of other TA's and the professor where online, is the reason why I didn't receive anyone. I hope that the students from the class use the resources the university has given them to improve, for the class averages were below the 70 mark. But, I did like Roger Mong's teaching style and I highly recommend him, compared to the other physics professors I've had in the past. I wish that I had a bigger effect on the class as a whole and wish them luck in their upcoming finals. 

Week of 12/4 and reflection

This week was the week before finals and I had less people come to office hours than usual.  Those who did come typically came to complete the VR lab for extra credit.  The few questions I did get were rarely about concepts but more about how they should study for the final.  Based on how nervous some of the students seemed for the final I was surprised that more did not show up.

Overall I had fun being a UTA this semester.  Being a UTA not only allowed me to help students struggling to learn the information, but it also helped me.  Many of my current classes still rely heavily on material from physics I so this class worked as a good review.  Even at the end however I was surprised by how few students still came to office hours.  Being that this is typically a first year class I think some students are just skeptical about going to somebody for help.  I don't know how this can be improved.  The people who did come seemed to enjoy using UTAs as a resource and many came regularly to office hours.

Week of 12/4 + Thoughts

Week before final, had no students come to office hours.

Strangely I expected a lot more people to come to office hours. I know many friends who while taking physics I or II ask me questions constantly, so I can't imagine it's solely in my friend group that kids are confused about physics. This content is challenging and confusing, and even for me there are questions that stump me once in a while, even after taking this course once and sitting through lectures a second time around.

I'm excited to TA next term [I know so many people who are about to take physics II so I'm expecting a LOT more in terms of office hours attendance], but I wonder how to get the struggling students who are uncomfortable asking for help - help. Clearly they don't come to office hours when they don't personally know the TA, which I guess makes sense, it's strange to ask someone you don't know for help, especially if you're inherently a quieter person.

Hopefully I'll be able to tackle this problem as I continue onwards as a TA [and if any other TAs have had successful ideas about this, please do share!]

It's been a great term

#Perk Out

Week of 12/4 & Reflection

This past week I had a few students come to office hours to talk about their past exams and what they should gear their studying towards for the final. I answered their previous questions and encouraged them to take a holistic approach to studying, focusing on the concepts and problem-solving techniques rather than specific details of each problem. In lecture, I answered students' questions about waves and interference; the final topics of the year.

I enjoyed being a UTA this semester and can't believe the term is already over. Overall, the experience was rewarding and fulfilling. I learned a lot by participating in this program and I'm excited to be participating again next semester. Good luck to everyone on their finals and have a great break!

Week of 12/6

This is my final week UTAing for the semester! This semester went extremely fast. Overall, UTAing was an extremely rewarding experience, and I learned a lot from it. I was not expecting it to be as enjoyable, gratifying, and intense (at times) as it was. This week, no one came to my office hours once again, but I was definitely able to help out in lecture as usual. I am really hoping I'll be able to return next semester.

Week of 11/27

No one has really been showing up to my office hours lately. I have a feeling it's because it's finals season, and they are busy focusing on studying for exams and writing papers. However, I was able to help a bunch of students in lecture with clicker questions. One question tricked most of the UTAs, including myself, so we steered some students in the wrong direction. Luckily, Dr. Broccio did not count this question. Other than that, it was a successful week.

Weeks of 11/13,11/20,11/27

Sorry for the update drought, went through a bit of a slump coupled with exams and essays, and the week of 11/20 has nothing to say because there was one lecture and nobody visited my office hours that week.

It's remarkable how often the contents of the course that students are learning overlap with what I'm learning/reviewing as a computer engineer.  Right now, the class is finishing series RLC circuits and is moving on into light, the final unit.  Students were coming in to ask me how to do phasor arithmetic right after the circuits lecture where I learned it!  A similar instance happened earlier in the year when one of their homework assignments on basic circuit analysis introduced Thevenin equivalent circuits.

This term has really made me conscious about the importance of discussing course materials with the professor you're UTA'ing for.  I had Dr. Nero when I took 0175, and although the course content is more or less the same, the teaching style and the style of the work is immensely different.  Most of these times I'm able to adapt to helping with the new work just fine by parsing my Nero notes for relevant equations and derivations, but almost every week there'd be some new homework question that even stumped me, because I'd have no precedent for it.  Fortunately, I've never been stumped to the point where I absolutely couldn't help anybody with it, but it's made me very conscious of the work that I need to take on my part to be sure I can help people out, instead of just showing up to the UTA room and learning what the homework is the first time a student asks me how to do a part.  I'm hoping that I can get assigned to Nero's 0175 course this Spring so I'm a bit more familiar with the content and more effective in that regard.

As for lecture presence, I still feel as though the UTAs are fairly underutilized.  I feel like an average attendance of 2 or 3 UTAs out of 6 is suitable, but I don't feel like we're being used much in the lecture.  When I was a student in Nero's flipped course, it seemed like UTAs were more utilized because the lecture was mostly clicker questions.  But since Hong's course is non-flipped, most of the lecture is derivations, and only once or twice per lecture do we have clicker questions to help with.  And since assignments are handed out online and handed back in recitations, there's not really much use for extra hands in the lecture itself.  So perhaps outside of flipped courses, UTA lecture presence is overvalued?  There really isn't much for us to help with.

Week of 12/5

This week two students came in, I prepared a final exam review but we didn't have time so I just emailed it to them. This week was nice but I thought way more people would come in. I like having a small number of people though, because then I can focus on giving more instructive help than a quick suggestion. I think one of the most effective ways of communicating ideas is through pictures, especially if you're trying to convey something really abstract like friction force, which only resists motion and is 0 when there is no other force to resist. Today I explained how friction force only matches the force being applied up to the max value of µ*Fn and I tried a couple ways of explaining it, but drawing seemed to work the best. Not only drawing it once but redrawing it in steps also seemed to help for when µs became µk and how motion affects friction.

Overall, I had a really great semester and even though I was only able to help a few people out, I think I was able to make a difference and that is exactly what my goal was. I really enjoyed getting to meet new people, think about problems in new ways, and give help to those who needed it. I wish more people would have come in but I am still happy with the work I did and I look forward to taking this experience and applying it to other things throughout the course of my life. I am truly grateful for the opportunity and I wish anyone reading this good luck with the rest of the semester and happy holidays!

Week of Nov. 28

This week was a little better than last week, one student came in. This student comes in almost every week and is the only student that has come in more than once. I really like him and as I mentioned in a previous post, I think I am really helping him out, since he comes in regularly to talk about his homework. He doesn't immediately ask for help but instead looks at his problems and asks for help when the solution to one of the problems isn't clear to him, which I really enjoy because I can try to help and solve things along with him, but he doesn't need every step explained. I appreciate peoples' struggles and I always want to help, but sometimes it is a little frustrating when every step is unclear, as most teachers try to make their problems related to things they've gone over in class. If I did come across a student like that I guess I could still learn a little more about my patience by working with them, but thankfully no student has come in without some idea of what they are doing so far.

Week of Nov. 26th

Second to last week of classes and yet still no one showed up at my office hours. Its looking like I will have no one show up at all. The class learned about sound waves this week.

Week of 11/26

Tom Reynolds
Physics 175
Dr. Hong

This week I had one student come on Wednesday and around 10 on Thursday.  It was a manageable amount of people and I was pretty easily able to answer all their questions. The homework is a bit ahead of the lecture so it's been a while since I've seen this material but it all came back once they started asking me questions.  It's weird that next week is the last one. I've gotten pretty good at helping these students with their homework.  It's always the same students who come every week.

Week of 11/27

This week we continued our discussion of waves in lecture. We are quickly coming to the end of the semester and students should be preparing for their finals. Unfortunately, no one came to my office hours again this week, so I have not had the chance to help any students with their questions. With next week being the last office hours I will hold, I am really hoping someone comes in so that I can help them prepare for the final.

Nov 27 - Dec 1

Office hours were relatively crowded this week; went over some help regarding properties of waves and simple harmonic motion as well. Reviewed the homework due previously on fluid and pressure with one student, largely covering basics and foundations. Some of the students asked the best way to study for the final exam, which I told them in my opinion is to cover foundations extensively (aka know the modules/checkpoints/lectures notes inside and out). I've always found that to be the best way to prepare for the exams, as well as doing challenge textbook problems for additional review.

Week of 11/27

This week I did not have anyone come to office hours, I helped some kids outside of class with the homework regrading mirrors, they were having trouble figuring out how to manipulate the lens equation to derive the object distance. Hopefully people are beginning to prepare for their final!

Week of 11/27

On Wednesday, I had five students come to office hours due to the homework being pretty difficult.
The main problem that had questions was finding the acceleration of a cart, a hoop, and a disk rolling down a ramp. This had to be done symbolically with a lot of substitutions from other equations.

Another difficult problem involved a cable holding up a metal beam. The students were required to find the tension in the cable, and the force the hinge was exerting on the metal beam.

On Thursday, a student from a different class needed help involving the tuning of a guitar. You needed to find the diameter of a string that would change the mass per length enough to give the guitar a new frequency.

On Friday, a student came in trying to get a head start on the homework due next week. We talked through the first two problems and came up with solutions for them.

week of 11/27

I do not get any student this week. on the third exam, surprisingly, the average lower than we expected. even the Multiple choices, which we were thinking is easier, actually get lower than normal. I personally talked to my friend and about the exam, she said MC is definitely easier. but she did not know why people do badly either.

Week of 11/27

This week I had a few students attend office hours asking questions about previous exams in preparation for the final exam. I also answered several questions about waves, period, and frequency in lecture. As we're reaching the end of the semester, the students are solidifying their understanding of the material and asking relevant questions that incorporate multiple concepts from previous sections. I hope they continue to work hard and come in with their questions, because it'll definitely help their performance on the final exam.

Week of 11/27

This week I did not have many people come into office hours. The majority of the people that did come, came to do the VR labs.  I was not asked to many conceptual questions, or to help anybody with homework problems or studying.  Most people who did have questions just wanted to know how they should begin studying for finals.  I expect to see more people and get more questions next week once people begin to study.

Week of 11/27

No one came this week to office hours either. I do sometimes receive emailed questions about the homework, but office hours have been quite anticlimactic this term.

Week of 11/27

On Tuesday, one girl who usually comes to my office hours came in for help. We're working on simple harmonic motion and she had some questions about the sapling homework. Also on Tuesday Dr. Nero came in to work on setting up the VR labs.
On Thursday, the VR station was set up and I had around 5 students come in to work on them. I tried the VR headset out and I thought it was pretty cool. They seemed to understand everything and were able to work through it. I stayed a little bit extra and signed off on their lab sheets.

11/20

No office Hours this week due to the break

11/13

There were people in the room but I didn’t get many questions.

11/6

we has the exam this week and my office hours were after it so nobobdy came in.

10/30

This was the week of Halloween I didn’t get a ton of people.

10/23

Im sorry these are coming all at once I’ve been very busy these past couple weeks and forgot to do these. This week wasn’t very busy I did some work with capacitors,

Week of 11/21

This week I suspected that nobody would come in and nobody did. I just did work for other classes, and I do not have anything major to share or discuss this time unfortunately.

Week of Nov. 13th

Nothing special happened this week due to it being the last week before the break. Dampened Springs were covered this week, with quite a few questions from the students. Expecting a few to show up at office hours, I got no one to come.

Week of 11/13

This week was pretty stressful for myself too because I had a huge Neuroscience exam on Friday and the students had a Physics exam on Friday as well. However, I was able to hold a review session with fellow UTA's on Tuesday and from the review session, I was able to help out a freshman with a few questions. Also when I was studying in the library Thursday night, that same freshman found me in the library asked to study next to me. Thus, while I was studying for my exam, another UTA and I, who also nearby were able to help her with questions. Hopefully, the exam went well for all the students.  

Week of 11/13

I had an exam this friday so for once I wasn't too disappointed when no students came to office hours so that I could continue studying my own stuff.

I wonder if students will come when their final is approaching? I guess we'll find out soon enough

week of 11/13

This week my office hours were very busy as all of professor Nero's students were preparing for their third midterm.  On Wednesday my office hours were so busy that not everyone could fit in the room at the same time.  I expect things to die off for a while mow until we get a little closer to finals week.

Week of 11/13

No one came to my office hours again this week. In class, we began our discussion on fluids. Fluids were not taught in my physics 1 class so I will need to spend some time looking over this content before next week's office hours in order to be able to help any students who may come. Students also got their second midterms last week. The average was around 60%, so I am hoping students will come to office hours more in order to prepare for the final.

week of 11/13

this week I had a student came in my office hour, asking me for ladder question, I explain thoroughly and he is glad that he gets it. they have the third exam on Friday, I quickly skim through the questions, they are fair, and not too hard, which means is doable if people have good knowledge and right concept! get a nice break and have fun!

Week of 11/13

This week was one of the more busy ones that I have had. I had people waiting for me as soon as I got there each day, and also I stayed after about an hour each time. The material is getting into some of the harder stuff, things that we didn't do last year; however I look up the material beforehand and check out Nero's work to prepare. I feel that the students respond to my teaching well. The nice thing about having a bunch of students at once is that they can help each other sometimes as much as I can help them.

Week of 11/13

Did not see any students in office hours this week but was able to help a few students outside of office hours with their homework and the exam retry they had assigned for their second exam. Hopefully they are understanding the concepts more since Dr. Clark is giving them a second try in understanding and answering the problems!

Week of 11/13

No students came to my office hours this week, even though they had an exam. Hopefully it went well

Week of 11/13

On Monday, I held a review session for the students' third exam of the semester. With the exam coming up on Friday, office hours have been busy each day and I've seen several students who had questions on torque, springs, and buoyancy. I was able to answer their questions and help them solve problems. I also went over several conceptual problems with the students so they had a solid foundation going into the exam. In lecture, I answered questions regarding the new material we are learning, but most students would pull me aside to ask about an exam question they had. I hope everyone does well tomorrow and their hard work pays off.

Weeks of 10/30 and 11/6

Another exam week so not much to say.  I had to proctor the exam, which involved passing out exams and scantrons and fielding questions to graduate TAs as appropriate.  Dr. Hong was originally not supposed to be there that morning but showed up eventually, which certainly made the process easier.
As for course content, I'm still in the same spot as previously when it comes to helping students in that I can reliably field most questions.  However, there have been a few online homework questions where I consulted my old notes, checked and re-derived formulae, and still could not come to a correct answer.  Thankfully, I don't get the blame most of the time, and most kids just say they'll ask one of the graduate TAs.  Aside from those rare cases, though, I've still been able to help most kids out just fine, and office hours are pretty heavily weighed towards Thursdays as usual.  I had a student email me a problem but I didn't see the email until the morning of a lecture where the exact same problem was explained on the board, so I lucked out in that regard.
As for lecture presence, I've made it a goal to attend more often since being singled out to help proctor the exam.  Last Friday, I showed up late and was the only UTA there, which I imagine must have been pretty frustrating for Hong.  It's hard to find motivation to go, though; I feel as though UTAs are pretty underutilized.  I feel like I spend about 5 minutes max per lecture going around and helping with clicker questions, and even then it's rare I get called on.  Hong also seems to be relegating explaining clicker questions to student volunteers instead of UTAs, even though it was one of the few things we actually did in lecture except show up.  All in all, hard to find motivation to wake up hours earlier than my first actual class to attend the lecture and spend only a few minutes actually doing my job.

Week of 11/6

This week, the homework of the class I am working with concerned rotation. The fact that you can pick any fulcrum in as system seems to be a tricky concept for students. Also, they aren't seeming to grasp what a moment of inertia is intuitively. I am predicting that there will also be trouble distinguishing between angular and linear values. However, the similar properties of torque and forces (and the laws the go with them) seem to be intuitive. The test is next week and all of the students seem to be a bit nervous for it. However, I think this test will have a higher average than the first one.

Nov 13 - Nov 17

Office hours this week largely focused on conceptual questions. I don't think there was any homework assigned for Saturday night, which explains why people that usually come in for problem set help don't seem to need it this week.

That being said people are definitely stressed for this exam. Some of the students had many conceptual questions dating back to the early exam 3 material that should have been covered a long time ago. Overall it's been lively and I hope that some of the sessions this week help these students perform well come Friday. The review sessions will surely be of help

Nov 6 - Nov 10

Relatively slow week in terms of people coming in for office hours. Only had a handful of students throughout the week, which is weird considering that the exam is Friday 11/15. The questions that were asked in session were largely conceptually based ones on springs and harmonic motion.

It's definitely notable that this week is a very very busy week for science majors - as a neuro major myself, I've heard that many of the core science courses are having midterms this week. Even I have 2, but some people I know have up to 4. It's very possible people are putting off physics until next week, since they have until Friday

week of 10/30

About 10 people came to office hours this week. Much of this time was dedicated to how energy is conserved in collisions. This seems to be a common issue for the students. Also, using momentum as a vector tends to be an issue. Everyone in Dr. Kuo's class is starting to prepare for their test in a couple weeks, so we went over some studying techniques in office hours. Lecture was as usual, however more people are approaching me with questions as I get to know everyone better.

Week of Nov. 5th

This week was the same as the last, as no one showed up for my office hours. Its becoming redundant at this point writing these reviews. The class worked on the Gravitational Constant (G) and the Force of Gravity.

Week of 11/13

Since there is an exam this Friday, I was expecting to get more students at my office hours. However, once again I didn't get any. I think it was because there isn't any homework due this week. I ran a review session by myself on Monday, which I was a little worried about because I did not have any backup if I couldn't answer a question. It ended up going smoothly, though. I think most students had a relatively good understanding of the problems we did by the end of it.

Week of 11/6

This was a really laid back week. I didn't get anybody at my office hours. However, students are definitely getting more comfortable raising their hands in class and asking questions. I was able to help a bunch of students throughout the week with in-class clicker questions, which is always rewarding.

Week of 11/5

Tom Reynolds
Physics 175
Dr. Hong

This week one person came on Wednesday as usual but no one came on Thursday.  It was the first Thursday all semester that no one came.  It was kind of strange.  There was an exam during class on Wednesday and as a result there was no written homework.  There was online homework but he pushed it back until next week.  I guess it was just the perfect storm of events to get no one to come.  Next week I'll be back at it but this was a nice break.

Week of 11/5

This week only one person came in again. I was able to help him right until the end, when we started getting into torques. Rotational kinetmatics was my kryptonite last semester and I really do not want it to be anyone else's simply because I had a hard time with it. Currently I am reviewing all my notes in order to be prepared for the next time someone comes in, that way I am able to actually help instead of just aimlessy write down equations that may or may not be useful. I think there is some good that has come out of it though, since I showed the student good practices for attacking a problem that you do not remember how to do. Eventually, we did get it, but now I know that I need to be more prepared next time.

Week of 11/5

This week I had a few more people start to come into office hours again.  This was probably because they got their grades back on their last test and they are beginning to prepare for the third one.  I even have students bringing in more than just the homework problems for clarification.  On Thursday I had students doing book problems in my office hours and they had me there just to help them whenever they got stuck.  I thought this was a really good idea because it forced them to see what they knew before I helped them at all.  I am expecting to have a lot of students visit next week since they have an exam on Friday.

Week of 11/5

Helped a couple kids before class on wednesday with some last minute questions. No one came to office hours on wednesday or friday.

Maybe after this test people will start coming but we'll see.

Week of 11/6

I'm getting some students who are regularly coming to office hours. Tuesday I had some students come have questions about angular momentum.
Thursday was pretty much the same thing, I think that the students who are coming to hours are really improving their abilities to grasp the physics concepts.

week of 11/6

this week, I had a student came in with questions, which is homework. I was able to try to explain the concept and worked through with her. beside this, is still a quiet week. their exam is on next Friday! study hard! and Ace it! it will be the hardest of all (personal opinion). try your best, and have a good break!

Week of 11/6

This week my class had their second midterm, which covered up to angular momentum. The following class we began our discussion on waves and the professor offered a basic introduction to the chapter. No one came to my office hours again this week, likely because they just had an exam. I'm surprised more students are not coming to office hours since the material that was just covered and what we are about to cover is often considered very confusing to students.

Week of 11/6

One person came to my office hours on Monday to start reviewing a few topics for the exam coming up next week (kudos to her for starting so early!) On Friday, I had two girls come in to go over a few homework problems. It's been the same as usual but next week I hold a review session with another UTA to help students prepare for their exam. 

Week of 11/6

Four students came to my office hours on Wednesday. They mostly had questions regarding a really difficult problem on the homework. It asked how high a block would slide up a ramp if they were both on a frictionless surface, and the block was originally traveling at some velocity, v. The problem was difficult because the ramp would start to move as soon as the block hit it, making the calculations more difficult. We broke the problem into different parts and ended up making sense of it.

No students came to office hours Thursday or Friday. The class has an exam on Wednesday, so hopefully everyone does well!

Week of 11/6

Did not see anybody in office hours this week, Monday or Friday. I helped some students outside of office hours with homework, regarding Ampere's Law. Hope to see more people come in as the final approaches and more homework is due!

Week of 11/6

During the past week, we discussed fluid motion in lecture. Several students asked me questions during lecture and in office hours regarding this material. There seemed to be some confusion regarding the use of the formula for buoyant force and Bernoulli's equation. I answered their questions and they were able to handle the in-class problems. I also saw some students in office hours regarding previous homework assignments. I explained the concepts to them, mostly concerning angular momentum and torque. Next week we will be holding review sessions in preparation for the upcoming exam on Friday. I will be working on practice problems that will be used by the UTA's during the review sessions.

Week of Oct. 30th

Sorry this blog is a bit late, but nothing new has occurred. The students received their 2nd test grades, and it looked about normal for a Phys class, with an average of roughly 65%. The class is working on topics of equilibrium, including stable and unstable objects and center of mass. No one showed up to my office hours this week.

Week of 10/30

This was the week after an exam, Tuesday was very slow as nobody came into office hours. Thursday however I had a student come in to ask conceptual questions.
There is an exam very soon (next week), so I do expect that my office hours will get busier in the 2 weeks to come.

Oct 30 - Nov 3

There were a decent number of students this week. On Monday I spent some time helping some students with springs and energy but they weren't from the Broccio section, I found out halfway through they were engineers when they asked me how to integrate. Either way I helped them solve the problems algebraically, but they should probably ask UTAs from their own course on the best method to solve their problem sets since we don't do calc based - I don't want to mislead them.

There were two students on Tuesday that came in for general help on concepts, which didn't take too long. Glad to see more people coming in to ask for help. Expect numbers to ramp up as the next exam approaches

Week of 10/30

Once again I had a very quiet week, with no students coming into my office hours. Our next exam is this Wednesday, so I do not expect that to change soon. Hopefully, I can expect more people as we approach finals, which are just over a month away.

Week of 10/30

On Wednesday, three students came to office hours. One student had never been there before, and it was nice to see a new face this far into the semester. I helped them as they worked through the homework and came across questions. The most notable involved finding the center of mass of two metal bars that have been welded together, and a system where two people were standing on a platform. One was holding a football which he threw to the other, and the students needed to find how the center of mass changed and the velocity of the platform using conservation of momentum.

week of 10/30

there still no one comes to my office hour, I guess my hour just confront with most of the student's schedules! hope they do well on the third test! the material is getting a bit harder and harder to visualize, and comprehend! so good luck! keep up the hard work!

Week of 10/30

This was a pretty typical week. However, the in-class clicker questions are definitely getting more challenging. I had to work them out on paper prior to class to ensure I could answer questions. The same student as usual came to my Wednesday's office hours, and we went over some homework problems together. Overall, I think I was able to successfully help some students out.

Week of 10/30

Things slowed down in office hours this week.  I still had a few students walk in for help, but there were no large groups like last week.  This was probably because they just had a test.  I expect to see more students next week as they struggle through torque problems and their third test gets closer.  I have noticed the students do feel much more comfortable coming to me for help now then they did at the beginning of the year.

Week of 10/30

This week one person came to office hours, we went over ways to study for the exam that is coming up on Monday. I suggested to do many book problems since the exam questions stem from book problems, and so does the homework. Nice to see people are concerned and want to learn new ways to study for the class! See you next week.

Week of 10/30

This week went by pretty fast. The students learned about torque and springs this week and one individual came to my Monday office hours to go over a few topics about torque. Since this class is a flipped class, I was unable to see the way they were taught the topic but I used my lecture notes from when I took the class to better explain these tougher concepts. Friday was the usual where the same group of girls came to get their homework done. Overall, this week was pretty normal and nothing out of the ordinary happened. 

Week of 10/30

Exam next monday... Only 1 person came on friday... to do physics lab work.

Not much else to write. See you next week for probably a very similar update.

Week of 10/30

I had a pretty quiet week in office hours, with only one student coming in. We went over some homework problems and some questions he had about our most recent exam. In lecture, I answered students' questions about concepts and problems we were working on. Overall, it was a quiet week and hopefully next week is busier. Test 3 is coming up soon before break and we'll host a review session for that, so I'm hoping to see more students prior to the exam.

week 10/23

This week's content concerned collisions. Because some collisions "break" the conservation of energy "rule" they just learned, I can see this being confusing. Additionally, based off the students that came to office hours, they are struggling to know what a system is. I believe center of mass discussions will help clear this up. The professor we work for compared and contrasted energy and momentum, which was a good move, because I saw many people equating those when grading homework. In two weeks, they have an exam, so I expect many people in office hours soon.

week 10/16

This week was slow. Students seem to prefer energy to kinematics, however some of them treat energy and force synchronously. Another issue that is common, is that they break energy down into components. Only about 6-10 people came to office hours this week, which surprises me because the class is getting harder. Grading is going fine, most people do well, usually one person per recitation gets a poor score.

Weeks of 10/16 and 10/23

Again, apologies for the double-post, first week's post slipped my mind entirely.
Now that we're well into second-exam material, I've noticed the course content is getting significantly more sophisticated.  Most notably, circuit analysis and magnetic fields.  The former I'm able to help with very well, since I'm taking circuits right now, but magnetic fields haven't come back to me as easily as the other concepts.  For the first time, I've actually had to look back in my old notes and re-learn the concepts myself!  A lot of the time, enough students come to my office hours at once that they like to collaborate with each other while I'm helping one out, but it's slightly humiliating trying to work out an answer for a concept you don't fully remember and then getting the wrong answer anyway.  I'm definitely reaching a point as a UTA where I'm going to have to put in more effort than just showing up to class, grading, and office hours if I want to make sure I'm not as equally lost as the students coming into my hours.
Grading and lecture attendance has been going as usual.  I haven't been able to make some lectures on account of interviews, but I do consistently make Friday lectures.  It's certainly getting harder to find the motivation to wake up and get to a lecture 2-3 hours before my next class when I only answer maybe 1 or 2 clicker questions per lecture.  Perhaps there's a better way to utilize UTAs in this regard?

-Jeffrey Socash

Week of Halloween 10/31

This week was not particularly busy, which is always kind of a bummer, but at least I was able to get some work done for other classes. A student who regularly comes in came in today which was nice, and I was able to help him out. I think I'm making a good impact on him, because he is trying to figure out more of the problems on his own before asking for help. This feels really good because I haven't really felt useful or helpful these past few weeks and now I am helping at least one person. This is the sort of thing I was expecting when I signed up for being a UTA and it makes me excited to come to office hours. 

Week of 10/23

This week only two people came in, which is much better than the last few weeks. I was able to help with their problems and it didn't seem like they were too lost in class, just looking to verify their answers. One of the students was from Physics 2, which I do not normally TA for, but nobody else was in and I am currently in a Linear Circuits class that helped me answer her circuit questions, so I was grateful I knew what I was doing and able to help.

Week of Oct. 23

New week, same thing. No one came to my office hours, so once again I had very little to do this week. My UTA position is starting to bore me a lot, and this experience has definitely made me not want to do it again.

Week of 10/23

This week I had the same student come to my office hours that I've been getting every week. I helped her out with physics, and we bonded over our hatred for organic chemistry. The clicker questions in class are definitely taking more thought lately, but all in all things are going smoothly.

Week of 10/23

On Wednesday, three students came to office hours. They all had questions about a problem where a bomb is 80m in the air and explodes. They needed to find the velocity of one of the fragments, how far apart the fragments land, and the energy given off by the explosion. I think the hardest part was finding how far apart they land, because you needed to use a combination of energy and kinematics.

On Friday, a student from Physics 2 came to office hours. She had questions regarding circuits. The first was regarding a voltage source with an internal resistance, and the second was regarding a circuit with two capacitors. I had forgotten some of the equations needed, but after working through the problems together for a few minutes we found the solutions.

week of 10/23

there is not any student came over my office hour, they just had an exam on Monday, and the average is 75, it is not too bad! and it's already over half of the semester, we are getting there! good luck everyone! keep up the hard work!

Week of 10/23

No one came to office hours this week, but I did help some people before class with homework problems! Hope to see more people coming as the exam date comes closer.

Week of 10/23

Instigated by the upcoming exam and the incentive to come see me at office hours, I received a plethora of students seeking my assistance.

On Tuesday, my 2 hour block, I had kids coming in mainly asking about the sappling homework. There was a rocket problem that most people were confused about, and it really was a difficult problem. In order to solve you had to use an integration, one that they won't learn until the end of calc 2. I was able to derive an equation for them and they understood pretty well. I stayed for a while after to help them out with everything that they needed.

On Thursday again many students came. This time I mostly received requests for problems involving centripetal forces, and how they calculate the normal force/tension on an object in circular motion at the bottom of the circle. Also popular were problems involving aspects of energy conservation. Again I stayed after to address all concerns.

Week of 10/23

This week Professor Nero's class had a test.  Due to this I had a large amount of students come to my office hours.  I mostly just helped them through the study guide.  Some students came in the day before the exam to ask for study tips.  I gave them a few tips, but if they were really struggling they should have come into office hours earlier.

Week of 10/23

One person came to office hours to ask about a Lon Papa questions regarding 2 capacitors in series. We worked through it successfully! I also received multiple texts from friends in this class who were also struggling with this same problem, so I'm surprised only one person came to office hours to discuss it.

Week of 10/23

This week, I once again had no one come to my office hours. We started rotational motion last week so I was really expecting people to come in with questions. I hope more students start coming to office hours so they can get their questions answered in time for their next exam in two weeks.

Week of 10/23

The students had their second exam on Monday and I hope they did well. The rest of the week was pretty quiet, as a result. I helped a few students during lecture, answering questions on the new material we had just begun. I had 2 students come to office hours and ask about homework that was past due, which they did not understand. I was able to explain the concepts to them and clear up any lingering doubts. As the students get back into the swing of things post-exam, I hope to see more of them in office hours with questions.

Week of 10/16

This week was a bit busier, I finally got students from Dr. Nero's class who came. He set up an extra credit incentive but the kids who visited didn't even ask about it so I think that they just genuinely came for help with the physics. I think that now the material is getting a bit harder so people will continue coming for office hours.

Week of 10/16

I had one person come to my office hours Monday and we went over all her doubts for the exam for the full two hours. She came with a list of conceptual questions and I used her lecture notes as well as my lecture notes from when I took the class to help her out. Another UTA and I held a review session Thursday which went well and we had ten students show up. The review session consisted of practice problems as well as going over conceptual topics. Once again, I had the same group of girls come to my office hours on Friday and we went over homework that was due on Saturday rather than doing exam review. The students had an exam on Monday and I hope it went well for all of them!

10/16

I don't have anything to comment on this week for office hours.

10/9

This week I answered many questions about capacitance as it had not been taught yet in the class. I helped show people how to work out certain types of true or false questions.

10/2

Week of the midterm the class still had homework so I proctored the room but didn't get a ton of questions. It was mostly people working together in the room.

9/25

Due to multiple midterms my blog posts have declined but now they're back and more that full strength. During this week I didn't get many homework questions. One guy came in on my friday hours to ask questions about the upcoming midterm.

Week of Oct. 15th

Classes this week were strange since two of them had to be in a different location. Not much has happened during my office hours since I have yet to have any one student stop by. I do not know why this is, but my guess is maybe the time of my office hours isn't very useful. Would love to know how I could get more involved with the students in my class.

Week of 10/15

Tom Reynolds
Physics 175 Hong

This week I had a few students come to my office hours.  This homework was on Thevenin equivalent circuits which can be tricky if you've never seen them before.  In my circuits class we did these for days but this class did them in a fraction of a lecture.  So I expected a large crowd.  Fewer students, however, meant I could explain things in more depth.  There was a ton of algebra and I spent a lot of time just working through students' math because people kept screwing up.  Overall not a bad week.

Week of 10/16

This week we had very few visitors for office hours. On Wednesday, most people who attended my office hours did not have many, if any questions, for me but wanted to work together with other members of Professor Kuo's class to figure out a few homework questions. Some students were stuck and required my help because they did not understand that there is still potential energy when the spring is compressed. On Thursday, nobody attended office hours.

Week of 10/16

This week I had a lot of people stop by my office hours.  This was largely because extra credit was offered to them by the professor if they came.  Most of the students admitted that they came largely for the extra credit, but they still had questions ready to ask.  Hopefully they will continue to come now that they see that I can help them through some of the topics they are struggling with.  I expect to see a lot of students next week before their second exam.  The material is also beginning to get a little less intuitive, so I expect to get a lot more questions from students soon.

Week of 10/16

This week no one came to office hours, really hoping to see more people stop by for questions. I also did not see many students come to lecture either due to the location being changed for this week. Hopefully we are back on track next week with everything and people have more questions. Circuits are coming up, hopefully this drives people to come and ask questions :)

Week of 10/16

Students from Professor Kuo's class only came to office hours on Wednesday this week. There were two students who needed help on two of the homework problems. The first was a problem that mixed energy and kinematics. You needed to find the final velocity of a box at the top of a ramp, given that it had energy from a compressed spring. Then you needed to use the final velocity to see how far it would travel before landing.

The second question involved a cart that rolled downhill, back uphill higher than it started, and then landed on a frictional surface. You needed to use energy conservation to find out how far it traveled on the frictional surface before stopping.

Week of 10/16

This week I had almost no one come to my office hours. There was a few physics 2 students when I first got there, so I tried to help them with their material, but I do not think I was able to explain it very clearly. In class we are beginning rotational motion, which tends to be very confusing for students, so I assume people will be coming to office hours more for questions they have about this material.

Week of 10/16

No one came. If people aren't coming by now I doubt that they will, shame, because the test average was around a 70, so there are kids who just don't care enough to learn apparently. Overall, quite a boring experience as a UTA.

Week of 10/16

The past week was rather busy with student questions in lecture and office hours. I had several students come to me for homework help during office hours and I was able to answer their questions. In lecture, we talked about work-energy theorem and conservation of momentum, which raised a few questions. However, after going through some concepts and practice problems, students were better able to understand the material. There is an exam this coming Monday, so I held a review session to help the students prepare for it. I covered some problems regarding work, kinetic & potential energy, Newton's Second Law, and conservation of momentum. The students seemed to struggle most with drawing free-body diagrams, so I went over those in detail, as knowledge of these diagrams is essential to the course. All in all, it was a busy week and I felt quite useful. Good luck to the students on their next exam!

Week of 10/9

This week I only had one student come to my office hours. It was the same student who came last week for homework help. He tried to rely on me a lot for this assignment he was working on and would try asking me questions that would essentially give him the answer. I did my best not to just give him the information he needed and asked him question that would help him come to the conclusion on his own.

Week 10/9

Office hours were busy this week, with about 15-20 students. They are having trouble differentiating work from force. Also, sign is messing them up consistently across all problems. The fact that energy problems deal with change in energy seems to be a confusing concept. Lastly, it seems to be difficult to the students that energy doesn't care about what happens in the middle of the problem (it only matters how it starts and how it ends). I believe conservative forces need to be explained, and I also believe advice on the negative side, i.e. stay consistent/use smart coordinate systems, needs to be given.

Week of 10/16

This week, I had the same student come to my office hours as last week. I spent the full two hours working through homework problems with her, and we were eventually successful with all of them. I only had a few questions in lecture but was able to help those few people out too.

The Chronicles of UTA Ted: Week 3 - 6 - Hazy Days

Ok so I've been slacking on these blog posts, but rest assured the wait is finally over. I do not have a photographic memory so bare with me as I try to recollect every exhilarating detail that has happened in OEH 304 the past few weeks. So without further a due...

3 weeks ago...

Overcast skies was the weather report for today, an ominous sign that it was going to be a very boring day. Pittsburgh was finally showing it's true fall colors and I couldn't be more pleased with the start of sweater weather (well minus the rain).  It was just an average Tuesday with everything seemingly going as expected. I scrolled through my phone on the way to office hours grimacing at the unsightly record that has stained my fantasy team 2 and 1...

The dream was over before it even really started, I had gotten all worked up after the first two weeks thinking that maybe, just maybe, this year would be the year in which I break an unprecedented barrier that man have theorized to be impossible... To have the perfect season in fantasy. But atlas reality came barreling in before my hopes could actually materialize and I was left with the taste of disgust and anguish. What made it even worse was it came from a source close to me, another fellow UTA. Not gonna name any names, but he has an unyielding command over the rest of the UTAs and has been given the honorific of "head."

Although the prefect season was gone I was still motivated to lead my team to the promise land. But first I had to fulfill my obligation of UTA and help a few kids with their physics homework. 

---

2 weeks ago...

3 - 1 
Physics test!!!
Students?
Nope.

That is all. 

---

1 week ago...

You would think that I'd have the clearest memory of what happened the week before but since it was the fall break, I didn't have my office hours on Tuesday and Thursday was uneventful. So I'm just gonna leave you guys with this: 

the field mouse is quick but the owl sees at night

Week of 10/16

This week was quiet, only one student came in so far and it was for homework help. I suppose that most of the students did well on the first exam, which is good. I've said this before, but I really wish more people would come. I don't know how to advertise my office hours any more than putting it up on the course's CourseWeb, except for telling students to tell their friends. I might prepare more extensive reviews for the students that do come in so that they are interested in coming, but honestly I don't think it will be *that* enticing and I don't know if they'd be willing to do more work on top of their homework. I have yet to talk with the professor since he is currently quite busy, but once I do meet with him I will ask him if there's a way to get more students into the office hours. I just feel like I am pretty much useless right now and I want to be coming to office hours for a reason, not just to sit and do work.

Week of 10/9

This week, we only had a few members of Professor Kuo's Physics 1 class visit on Wednesday. Almost everyone who came in asked about question 4 because they were confused on the wording. It was unclear to some of the students why the change in kinetic energy of mass 2 was not equal to the change in potential energy of mass 2 if energy is always conserved. We had to explain that some of the potential energy was converted to kinetic energy for mass 1 even though mass 1 did not lose any potential energy. On Thursday I did not have any students visit for office hours.

October 9-13

This week Tuesday classes were cancelled due to fall break, so there were no office hours for that day. Instead, Monday classes were set for Tuesday - my research lab however did not have a schedule switch, and so I was unable to host my normal Monday 11am office hours.

During the only office hour I was able to teach at this week, I only had one student come in for a few homework problems. The gravitron problem is something that apparently a lot of students struggled with, as I received multiple texts from different students asking about it as well. Dr. Broccio went over it later in lecture, so hopefully most students ended up on the same page regarding that question.

Week of 10/9

Tom Reynolds

Physics 175 Hong 

Last week there was an exam on Wednesday but still homework so I had way more students than expected at my Thursday hours.  Homework was pretty straightforward so I was able to solve it and help the students. 

This week there was no written homework this week so I did not have many students. Just one came with questions about the online homework.  It was actually really nice to have just one student as opposed to the usual 15.  That way I was able to work with him individually and it was a lot more relaxed. It definitely benefitted him more and it was a lot easier for me.  

Week of 10/9

For this week's office hours, I had no one come into office hours but Monday but once again had several people come to my office hours Friday. This time, I did most of the hard problems before Friday so I was able to go through 5 long homework problems during my hour to help people with their homework. I see the same group of girls come into my office hours on Friday so I'm glad that they think my help is actually useful and find the motivation to come every week. 

Week of Oct. 9th

This week was the first week of new material for exam 2. Our class went over collisions and momentum. On Thursday during my office hours I had no one come to me for any questions. I have yet to have any students come to my office hours, but I believe that is because there are 3 other TA's working for Mong.

Weeks of 10/2 and 10/9

Class: Phys 0175 - Hong

Apologies for neglecting to post last week!  Fall break turned my brain off for a little bit.  Fortunately between an exam last week and a shorter week this week, these two weeks are fine to double up on.

Lectures went fine as usual.  I did not attend the Wednesday 10/4 because it was an exam day and I was not assigned to proctor the exam.  I also did not attend Tuesday 10/10, but every other lecture I attended.  I feel as though us Physics 2 UTAs have to work out a solid schedule for attendance, though, as I usually show up slightly late under the assumption at least one other UTA is there.  This Friday wasn't the case, though, as the other UTA who is usually there with me didn't show, and I walked in late as the only UTA there.  Sorry, Dr. Hong! At least I found a quicker way to get from upper campus to Alumni Hall!  It didn't seem to be a huge deal (we were spared the reprimanding tmhong email we usually get in those cases), but it would probably be good to discuss specified lecture attendance with the other UTAs to avoid these things from happening again.

As for grading, this week's grading session was cancelled due to adjusted Fall break hours.  However, the homework that was typically due was also moved back due to the exam, so that should balance out this upcoming Tuesday.  Aside from that, grading is going as smoothly as ever.

Finally, office hours.  Again, boring Tuesdays and hectic Thursdays.  I was surprised nobody visited my Tuesday hours last week since the exam was that Wednesday.  Hong ended up moving homework due the Friday after the exam back to Tuesday on account of Fall break, but not before the usual ~6 students came to me all at once on Thursday to explain capacitance despite it not being taught yet in lecture.  I think I managed it fine, though.

-Jeffrey Socash

week of 10/9

few people came in for homework help, the thing is getting difficult! in order to do it and know it well, definitely need some effort. never being lazy to go to class without watching videos. it will get lost super fast if you have no idea what the concept is.

Week of 10/9

On Wednesday, three students came to office hours. They had questions pertaining to energy since they just started learning it. One problem involved a cart rolling down a ramp, where you needed to find its final velocity. Another problem involved two masses connected by a string hanging over a pulley. These problems compared using kinematics and forces to using energy, and we found that in many of these cases thinking about the problem using energy is easier.

On Friday, one student from Physics II came to office hours. He had some questions about the exam they just took and LonCapa problems. They mostly involved dielectrics and finding the electric field from multiple point charges.

Week of 10/9

This week was rather quiet, I assume as a result of Fall Break on Monday. I only had office hours once this week, but a few students did come in asking for help with homework problems. We started discussing conservation of energy in class, so I explained some concepts regarding potential and kinetic energy that would help with the homework. During lecture, we went over conceptual problems and several students asked for help. I was able to answer questions and I'm glad that students are asking questions right away, rather than waiting for the day before the test. All in all, it was a pretty quiet week, but hopefully next week will be busier.

Week of 10/9

My predictions were right.  I had a few more people attend office hours this week once they saw their scores on the first exam.  I think that my point of view having been a student in this class just a year ago was very beneficial to these students because I was able to tell them directly what it took to be successful in this class.  This is a unique and beneficial point of view to the students because I have experienced the same challenges trying to study and balance the same schedules that they currently have.  I'm looking forward to helping more people in the future.

week of 10/9

No one came to any of the office hours, on Monday or Friday. Hopefully once the circuits are explored more in depth, I hope to see students come in for more clarification.  :)

Week of 10/10

I wonder why so few students come to office hours? Clearly it's not just an issue I face, most other the other UTA's note this as well. I doubt its because the general population of Pitt students are significantly more comfortable with physics than they are with biology (which office hours for that are usually quite full).

Maybe more students will come in the future, although trend wise it's not looking so hot.

At least I get a couple more hours in studying for my other classes

Week of 10/9

My office hours were cancelled this week so I don't really have anything new to say from my previous post. I look forward to seeing students at my office hours and helping them through their problems. My guess is that next week will not have many students at all, if any, just because there's a new chapter that was just started and I don't know if anyone would have questions at this point. I am excited to see what next week brings.

Week of 10/11

I finally got a student at my office hours this week. She actually spent the full two hours there asking homework questions. I was able to successfully help her out with all of them. I also got a lot of questions about clicker problems in class and was able to lead a bunch of people on the right track. Overall it was a pretty productive week of UTAing.

Week of 10/2

This week I did not have any visitors during either day for office hours. Students did not have any homework and the exam was the class period before so students did not need any help from me.

Week of 9/25

This week was a busy week with the exam coming up. Most people still only had questions on the homework problems, but a few students asked us for some more general physics advice on how to approach questions on the exam. Thursday, no students attended my office hours.

Week of 10/2

This week the students did not have homework due to an exam, so no one came to office hours except one student who decided to get ahead on next weeks homework. The students thought the test was hard and they are supposed to get it back next week.

Week of 10/2

Office hours were a lot more difficult this week, especially on Friday, because a lot of students came with SEVERAL homework problems. I usually try to look at the homework problems before my office hours on Friday but this week I had no time to do so. Turns out, I should have looked them over because it was very difficult to answer 3-4 different homework problems fully in a span of fifty minutes. Monday office hours were easy as only one student came regarding the lecture material presented that day. 

Week of Oct. 2

First week after the first exam, and office hours were the same as usual, empty. I don't know how to get more attendance to my office hours since the hours are posted in class. On Friday (day after my OH) the students got back their exam grades, so I am hoping that this will push students into taking the time to come visit OH for help to understand the material. The topics that the class is currently working on is energy, work, and springs.

Week of 10/2

Nobody came to office hours this week. I think this this is due the fact that it is the first week after the exam. We're getting into harder material, so I am hoping to get more visitors in the following sessions.

Week of 10/2

No students came in Monday or Friday, hopefully there will be more people coming in as the electricity unit progresses to clear up confusions about circuits, potential, etc.

Week of 10/2

This week I only had one person come to my office hours. However, I ended up helping him for almost the entire three-hour block. He was going home this week and was trying to complete the homework, but it covered content that had not yet been discussed in class. I did my best to help him without holding his hand through the entire process, which was difficult since he was not yet fully familiar with the content. This week my class also got their midterms back, and the results were not very good. I imagine those who did not do very well will start coming to office hours more to prepare for the next exam they have.

week of 10/2

this week, I only got a student came in and ask me about homework questions. in my perspective, its harder than theexpertTA, but really utilize the concept and knowledge! I will say the students who did those by "their own" did a hell of a job and continue on this hard work, they will succeed in class! and people who are struggling, not to worry too much, but hopefully, they can come to our office hour and search for help!

Week of 10/2

This week I had nobody visit my office hours.  This was expected because they had just taken a test last week and had not yet received grades for it yet.  Once the students get grades back and start their studying for the second exam I expect to see more people in my office hours.  I still had people asking questions in lecture, so I do expect to see more people soon in my office hours.

Week of 10/2

No one from Professor Kuo's class came to office hours this week, probably because there was an exam on Monday and no homework due.

On Friday, I helped two students work through a problem involving two men pulling a sled. There was an angle of elevation as well as an angle between each of their ropes, which made the problem especially difficult.

I also helped a Physics II student understand the difference between high and low potential, as well as why work is negative in some situations when a point charge moves through a potential. After the explanation, he worked through several examples on his own and understood the topic a lot better.

Week of 10/2

I had a pretty good turnout during office hours this week. A couple students came in on both days to discuss some homework problems and conceptual examples from class. We're currently discussing Newton's Laws of Motion and easing our way into centripetal force and angular motion. The students seem to struggle with vectors and trigonometry, particularly in drawing free-body diagrams. I went over different examples to help explain how to set up free body diagrams and how to use Newton's Second Law to solve for net force, acceleration, or mass. There were plenty of questions during lecture too, so all in all, I kept busy this week answering all variety of questions and concerns. When I first thought of being a TA, I imagined it would be busy like this most of the time. So I'm happy with the increased curiosity and volume of questions I'm receiving.

Hopefully, this trend continues in the coming weeks!

Week of 10/2

Two students came to office hours this week (!). We discussed electric potential and the exam.

In class Dr. Clark has begun the electricity unit (#hype). I expect more students to come as the information gets tougher and now that the first exam has come back.

Week of 10/2

My office hours were even less popular than last week's unfortunately. I think either the first test was really easy, or the students have sought help from the teacher or the other TAs/UTAs. I really hope that all the students did well on the class and that they do need help, but I feel like I am missing out on opportunities to improve my abilities with physics and explaining concepts, so it is bittersweet. Looking back at my freshman physics year I remember not going to office hours at all until the third test, so it might be that everyone will come down around then or maybe around the second test. In any case, I look forward to seeing if anyone comes to my next office hours.

Week of 9/25

Despite being only a day before the test, only one person showed up to my office hours, and it was not related to studying for the test at all. If I had to offer test studying advice, it would be to construct and test out an equation sheet, regardless of whether the students are allowed one, because it really helps find holes in your knowledge when you attempt to tackle problems with all the equations from just your memory. It was disappointing that I couldn't be much help this week but it's not too discouraging, I am hoping that the students will show up next week to ask questions about the test afterwards, once they see what kind of questions they had trouble with. I am looking forward to seeing what the next week holds and preparing myself. 

Week of 10/2

In class this week, I did not receive any questions regarding actual physics issues. However, I did have a student ask me how to do well on Dr. Broccio's exams since she failed the first one. I assured her that she still has a shot at a good grade in the class if she does well on the rest the exams and does all the extra credit. I also suggested doing all of the assigned practice problems to help prepare for future exams. I had no one come to my office hours.

Week of 9//28

This week was the same as past week. About 10 people arrived during office hours. They asked not only for homework help but for test tips for next week. I am interested to see what they say about the test and how proctoring a test is.

Week of 9/25

On Wednesday, three people came to office hours. They had questions regarding a problem where a cart was traveling up a ramp with a speed Vo, and you needed to find the max distance it could travel. The problem was difficult because no values were given, meaning that you needed to solve everything symbolically. Also, this was one of the first problems where the students had to break gravity into components due to the angle of the ramp.

On Thursday and Friday, no one came to office hours. I was surprised, due to the fact that there is an exam on Monday.

Week of Sept. 25th

I once again had a total of zero students come into my office hours on Thursday. The students had a test on Wednesday, so maybe office hours right after a test weren't that helpful. I'm starting to think that my office hours are pretty useless because of the class having three TA's who host office hours and are better teachers than me. Not sure what to do about it.

week of 9/25

I did not have any student for this week. and class average for the first test is 78, it is not bad. and hope they can keep their hard work!

Week of 9/25

Tuesday office hour had no activity as usual (and I'm thankful, because I was just starting to recover from a nasty cold I got over the weekend). I had to reschedule my Thursday office hour to Friday on account of the co-op fair, so I missed the rush that I usually get.  However, I did have some students come in with homework questions even though the homework had just been due, so hopefully I was able to help people out who were still struggling with the questions.
Due to the aforementioned sickness, I decided to skip the grading session this week. No amount of hand sanitizer could have stopped me from infecting everyone in the flurry of papers that probably ensued that night.
Despite my sickness, I managed to make it to every morning lecture, even if I showed up late to most of them. I was one of two UTAs to show up Friday, so I may start attending primarily Fridays and only filling in other lectures if people can't show up.
Aside from sickness and rescheduling, this was a fairly ordinary week. Unfortunately I don't have much else to say.

-Jeffrey Socash

Week of 9/25

Office hours were definitely quieter than usual. I had no one come in Monday which was expected because the students just had their first Physics exam earlier in the day. I had two students come into my office hours Friday to go over homework problems due in a few days. In class, students are struggling to understand the different gravitational components when an object (usually a block) is on a ramp. Thus, I got several questions during the lecture about the different force components and how to apply them to the specific problem.

Week of 9/25

This week, no one came to my office hours. This is probably because many Physics 1 classes, including mine, just had a midterm and do not have much new material they need to review. I'm sure that I will have more students to review material with as we get closer to the next midterm.

Week of 9/25

This is the week before the exam and only one person showed up to office hours on Monday. I helped her with the homework and mainly cleared up the confusion on electric charges and thermodynamics (signs of work and heat).

 I am hoping everyone is not doing last minute studying for the first exam and waiting till the weekend! 

Week of 9/25

A student came into office hours on Tuesday. She was someone that I had worked with before when the previous TA and I switched shifts. Her concerns were about friction and when the coordinate grid was rotated because of a ramp. We worked through it and I feel that she understood it much better.
Nobody came into office hours on Thursday despite the exam on Friday.

September 25-29

Given that there was an exam this Monday, I figure people were pretty burnt out from cramming physics the past few days. This would explain the fact that office hours this week were pretty much empty. OEH 304 was essentially a ghost town for the hours I used it, save for one tenacious student that apparently loves physics enough to come in and ask for help on the next homework right after the test. I expect things will go back to normal next week when we cover forces and friction, which are pretty tricky subjects in my opinion.

Week of 9/25

This was the week of the first exam for my class.  Because of this I had a few more people come into office hours, but still not as many as I expected.  Hopefully I will get a few more in the future. Hopefully it will not just be because of their first exam scores.

Week of 9/25

One person came to office hours on Wednesday. We discussed Gas Laws and thermodynamics. At least, I am getting a lot of studying for other classes done while sitting quietly in hillman waiting for students, so I guess that's a plus :D

I wonder if more people will start coming after this first exam (?).

Week of 9/25

We had our first exam of the semester this Monday. I got to the classroom earlier than usual this week and was immediately greeted by several students with last minute questions. After answering them, I handed out scantrons and helped the students settle in. I got a look at the exam questions, which seemed fair and similar to the problems we had gone over in class and office hours. Hopefully, the students thought so too.

Office hours were quiet this week, but as we moved forward with new lecture material, I received several questions in class. There seemed to be some general confusion regarding Newton's Laws and their conceptual applications. I've been trying my best to explain the conceptual bases of the Laws, but I hope that in time, with practice problems that apply the conceptual framework, students will be able to better grasp the ideas with less confusion. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to next week's topics and hope to see more students in office hours.

Week of 9/15

I only got one student at my office hours today, but it was a student in engineering physics. Even so, I think I was able to set her on the right track. I wasn't expecting too many people since it was right after the first exam. With the introduction of Newton's laws in lecture, I got a lot of questions about concept checks. I'm expecting more people at next week's office hours.

Week of 9/18

Tom Reynolds
Dr. Tae Min Hong
Physics 175 MWF 9

This week I had a whole bunch of people come to my office hours.  There was written homework and online homework and no one knew how to do any of it.  The written homework was very involved and required knowledge of physics as well as a bit of excel coding.  The trickiest part of all this was splitting my attention between 15 people. I kind of just rotated through the room and answered as many questions as possible in quick bursts.
When I was leaving at the end of my hour on Thursday, someone yelled "please don't leave!" so that was probably the highlight of the day.

Week of 9/18

On thursday I got a bunch of people that needed help with an excel based assignment involving lines of charge which I helped them understand. Friday I got no one

Week of 9/18

This week was forunately a little better than the previous ones, a few students came to office hours and I was able to sort out their problems. One thing that I thought was an important skill that the students had trouble with is identfying the proper equations to apply based on the variables that were given. I think part of the problem is that kinematics uses a lot of equations that all include v, t, x , etc. and it can be hard to figure out which one will get you most directly to the correct answer. One suggestion which seemed to help the students was to break down a big problem into a smaller example, for example when working with a projectile it can be easier to first find the component velocities, then find the time until the projectile hits the ground, and so on until the problem is complete, rather than smushing a lot of equations into one giant one that looks confusing and is hard to follow.

Week of 9/11

This week was not any more interesting than last week unfortunately, nobody showed up again for this session, but I did get a chance to review some of the materials the professor was giving out so I could get acquainted with what the students were learning. I really hope that the students decide to come more often next week. One thing I was thinking about was what I did when I was in Physics 1 and I think I did not come to office hours until the week before the first test, so that is probably when I will get more students coming to office hours.

September 18-22

This week was much more hectic in terms of people coming in for office hours. Many people had questions regarding not only the homework for two-dimensional motion but also earlier topics in preparation for the upcoming exam. A lot of people specifically had questions about what I thought might be on the test, as well as study tips.

Another thing I found to be a bit overwhelming was the number of people that kept texting my cell phone asking for help on how to do problems and if I could meet them at the library to help. I do personally know a bunch of people in the class, so they already had my contact info going into it - I didn't mind helping people out at the library this week but only because my schedule is relatively lukewarm test-wise these couple days. On a more stressful week, this probably would have driven me up a wall lol

Anyway, I expect things will die down next week with the conclusion of unit one. The review session went pretty well, as me and Juhi had 18 students at our session. They asked a lot of questions and I feel that we made it through the more important of the questions I had drawn up without losing too many people during explanations. Hopefully it makes a difference in their grades.

Week of 9/18

There were equally as many people in office hours (about 20) before the weekly homework is due. However, they had less questions and seemed to be understanding the content better than last week. I think they are grasping the way of thinking physics requires and also the teaching style of the professor. The first midterm is next week so I am expecting this week will be busy.

Week of 9/18

This week, 8 students came to office hours on Wednesday. Unlike last week, the students had very specific questions and understood the material much better than last week. Most students were able to come in to office hours and leave within 15 minutes because they grasped the concepts well. Two or three students stayed the duration of office hours but were generally able to answer any questions they had amongst themselves.
On Thursday, nobody came in for Physics 1. I did help a few students if they had a simple question that I could answer for Physics 2.

Week of 9/18

Nobody came to office hours this week. I spoke with the TA who has hours right before me on Tuesday. He said that he also has yet to have a visit from a student in Dr. Nero's class, yet he always has students from other teachers when I take over. I think that maybe one or more of the other professors assign harder written homework, while all of Nero's is done through sapling. However, I do provide a lot of help answering questions in the lectures. I'm hoping that I get some people to drop by in preparation for the exam this Friday.

Week of Sept. 18th

Last week was no different then the other weeks I have experienced so far. I once again had no one come into my office hours, which makes me think that maybe the time of my office hours isn't the greatest for my students. My class has a test next Wed. making me think that there may be new students who come to me during OH for help after the test. Otherwise, I don't know how to make myself more open to my students.

week of 9/18

only 3 students came in my office hour, mostly about homework and end chapter questions. they are okay, just struggle with the algebra mostly, the concept is clear. good luck on the exam everyone!

Week of 9/18

On Wednesday, two people came, who had the same questions as students the week before. In one problem you needed to solve for the acceleration of a runner, and in another problem you had to find the starting height of an acorn given that it passed a meter stick in exactly one second. Once again, the problems seemed pretty difficult at first, but after going through each of the steps needed to find the solution the students seemed to understand them a lot better.

On Thursday, two people needed help with a tension question where two blocks are attached by a rope and hung over two pulleys. After explaining that the blocks accelerations are the same, and that they need two equations to solve for the tension, they understood the problem.

On Friday, no one from my Physics I class came, but I helped one student with a true/false Lon Capa question.

Week of 9/18

I did not have any students drop by my office hours on Monday or Friday, usually there are people on Friday that come by for last minute homework questions!  I hope to see more people next week as they are exposed to some material that they may not be used to dealing with like charges, electricity, etc.

Week of 9/18

Class: PHYS 0175 (Hong)

This week was a fairly ordinary one. As usual, I try to attend lectures as often as I can. I made all three lectures this week. Hong decided to shorten the time on clicker questions after I brought up some student feedback during the grading session, so I saw less patrolling the room to field questions (I didn't even get up once during the Friday lecture).  UTA lecture seems to diminish as the week progresses, so I prioritize attending Friday lectures the most.

As for the grading sessions, the TAs and UTAs reached a consensus that the quantitative problems Hong assigns make for frustrating grading experiences, as including numbers results in many plug-and-chug techniques that make discerning a full-credit answer difficult (particularly when grading in a short time period is a concern). Hong said he will try to assign problems with strictly variables in the upcoming homeworks, so hopefully grading will be less frustrating.

I was assigned to patrol the CourseWeb homework discussion board this week, but it got absolutely no traffic so I didn't post anything. Hong has actually noticed this as well, and has posted that he might close down the board if it doesn't get any use.

My office hours are seeing the same pattern again: perhaps one or two students showing up on Tuesday (if it all), and then a massive influx of students on Thursday right before the work is due. I even had one of my former floormates text me asking for help during my evening lab monitor shift. Of course it's expected that a lot of people will delay in starting their work until close to the due date, but I feel like consistently having to rotate between helping anywhere from 5-8 students at once on Thursday is a bit excessive. Fortunately another UTA for Hong comes in right after so it's an easy matter of passing the torch to him once my hours are finished. Still, it's sometimes very frustrating having to deal with so many people unable to understand homework at once, and I'm not sure if it's just students being students or a problem with how homework is written and assigned.

Again, a regular week. Office hour attendance is definitely getting larger as each week progresses, though. I only expect it to increase even further as the first midterm approaches. I'm sure it'll be busy but I have confidence I'll be able to be of help to the class.

-Jeffrey Socash

Week of 9/18

Now that we have moved into forces and more complicated applications, I am having many more students come to my office hours. For the most part, students were struggling with understanding how forces are applied on inclined planes and required a thorough explanation before they understood how they should solve these types of problems. I went through several different lon-capa problems step-by-step and tried to explain the concepts behind each step as I went. I am expecting the number of students coming to office hours to increase dramatically now that midterms are starting and they need more help understanding the concepts they are about to be tested on.

Week of 9/18

Mark Vrabel

Physics 0175

Dr. Hong

This week, I had two students come to my Wednesday office hours, and three students come to my Thursday hours.  In both sessions, we worked mainly on the written homework.  In the first session I was able to help them answer the first few parts of the first problem, but we got stuck on parts C and D.  I wasn't able to figure these parts out until my Thursday office hours, but I hope the Wednesday students were able to figure it out as they said they would visit Dr. Hong to clear things up.

Week of 9/18

This Week we moved onto forces.  The students seemed to pick up the introductory concepts with this pretty quickly so I did not have many people attend office hours.  I did still get a few questions during lecture that I was able to help with.  I expect to see a lot more people in office hours next week when they are preparing for their test.

Week of 9/18

This week I had more students show up to my office hours. On Monday, I was going over the old HW problems that three individuals had missed and still did not know how to do. Though Dr. Broccio went over this one question during class, the students still had questions regarding that problem so I spent more time going over it. On Friday, I had a group of students come in with the same question. As a result, I ended up doing the problem on the whiteboard and basically taught the problem to the whole group because everyone was confused about how to set up and start the particular problem. Also, I held my first group recitation yesterday with another UTA and it went really well. We went over four problems which included vectors, kinematics, and free-fall problems. It was a very rewarding experience because the students felt more prepared for the exam as a result of the session. There are several students who are repeatedly seeking help and using all the resources offered for this class which reassures me that the UTA office hours are truly helping. 

Week of 9-18

This week we began electricity in Physics 2 (!!! onwards to the cool stuff). Since these are pretty basic concepts I didn't expect too many people to show up, and unsurprisingly, no one showed up for Wednesday office hours. On Friday however, with the homework being due in a couple hours, I did have a couple students drop by.

The first exam is quickly approaching, I expect more people to come by next week in preparation for it.

Week of 9/18

This week was quieter than last week, in terms of office hours. I had one student come in and ask about projectile motion and vector addition. I was fairly surprised at the lack of questions, considering there's an exam next Monday.

On a positive note though, another UTA and I held a review session yesterday and we had a great turnout. There were at least 35 students that came with questions about the exam. We also went through some additional practice problems dealing with vectors and free-fall problems. The students seem to be preparing well for the exam and I wish them the best of luck next week.

Week of 9/18

No one came to my office hours this week, which was pretty shocking considering there's an exam next week. However, I got several questions in class when we started projectile motion. Students are just getting used to the concept of objects falling from the same height hitting the ground at the same time, regardless of one being launched at an angle. Also, Dr. Broccio decided to try out UTA review sessions for the first exam. Tomorrow I will be holding a one hour session with another UTA. I'm curious to see whether people will actually show up or not.

September 11-15

This week's office hours were still relatively quiet, but still a big step up from last week's! And by big step up I mean 2 more people came in than last week, for a grand total of 2 students this week. The questions were largely the tricky homework questions for the homework, including one about a marathon racer accelerating partway through his circuit. I had some trouble with that one but we figured it out eventually. Overall, we made some significant progress with the two students that came in.

The Chronicles of UTA Ted: Week 2 - Humble Beginnings

First I would like to apologize to all my avid readers about the delayed blog post. Rest assure that I am safe and in good health. I merely have just been busy last week and the task of writing a blog post about my 2nd exciting week UTAing just eluded my mind. But without further delay...

Tuesday 3 P.M. - 

From what I can remember the weather was just peachy. Really beginning to think that this UTA room needs some windows. And like what's with all these half circle desks. Who even decided that this was a good design to have? But I'm beginning to rant, but the room can be quite claustrophobic at times. For the first hour of Tuesday, it was just me and another UTA idly awaiting curious students. One student finally came, bad news is it was for the other UTA. Good news is I'm 1 - 0 in fantasy.

Wednesday 11 A.M. - 

So due to some issues with conflicting office hours I had to change it to Wednesdays at 11 now (Gonna have to change it again... But that juicy bit is for next week's blog post). Finally! The drought ended and I got my first student to help, freshman too, but not from my class. Eh, whatever, I don't discriminate between the type of physics. I helped him out with a projectile motion problem as well as a centripetal motion problem and he thanked me for my time and -got the fuc- and left.

From my observation there were a lot of students from mechanics that needed help. I still have yet to get a student from the class I UTA for, but I'm still hopeful that I remain undefeated in fantasy (2-0 btw).

Week of 9/11

This week 10 people came into office hours on Wednesday. There was a general confusion on how to complete constant acceleration problems that involved angles. For example, question 4 of the homework provided some trouble for many of the students who came in for help. Many students did not understand how to break the velocity vector into vertical and horizontal components in order to complete the problem or forgot that the vertical and horizontal components could be treated completely separate from each other. By helping to break each problem into steps, the students were able to complete the problem on their own and understand how to apply the lessons we learned in the vector part of the course to kinematics.

On Thursday, only one person came in who was not from Professor Kuo's class. He needed help understanding how to proceed on a Lon Capa problem with 2 balls shot upward at different times with the same velocity and wanted to find the time when the 2 balls were at the same height. I advised the student to break the problem into 2 parts, one when only 1 ball was in the air to the moment the second one is shot, and one part when both balls are in the air. Using this advice, the student was able to find the time when the 2 balls reached the same height.

Week of 9/11

This week was much busier than last. On office hours Wednesday, nearly 20 people arrived. I believe some of them believe their pre-lecture videos they have to watch are a bit confusing. It makes sense that we see this surge of attendance the day homework is due. It is helpful to ask what in particular was confusing about the lecture.

Week of 9/11

Mark Vrabel
Dr. Hong
Physics 175 MWF 9

This week I changed my office hours from Friday (after the homework was due) to Wednesday and Thursday.  Even with early office hours at 8 a.m. Thursday, I still had three students show up with questions on both the written and online homework.  I worked with them in a group and we spent most of the time going over a problem about a semi-circular distribution of charge, which required an integral.  I showed them a general strategy to solve electric field problems involving integrals.

week of 9/11

Tom Reynolds
Dr. Hong
Physics 175 MWF 9

This week I had ~5 people to my office hours.  It was a manageable number of people.  They were mostly just asking about the same few questions which involved distributions of charge.  I wanted to stress how to set up the integral because that is the real point of confusion and they will likely need to set up integrals in the future. Plus they are generally capable of working through the math on their own.  I really only need to check it and give them tips every now and then.

Week of 9/11

This week I had one student come to office hours Tuesday for a kinematic problem. He was from a different class but stayed after from he previous TA. He was pretty much able to solve it himself, he was just really confused with the equations because he didn't take physics in high school. No one came to office hours on Thursday.