Weeks of 3/19 and 3/26

Class: PHYS 0175
Prof: Dr. Nero

Again, sorry for doubling up.  Busy week!

Monday, March 26 was an exam day.  This exam was also the cutoff set by Dr. Nero for visiting a UTA to receive extra credit.  I had 3 office hours the Friday before that exam.  To no surprise, it was a busy office hours session.  I recorded 17 individual visitors during that whole time period!  That's 2 more than the total amount of visitors I had from the start of the term up until then!  Some were obviously just in it for the credit (and to be fair, I included them because they did put in at least some effort to come in and ask questions), but there was also a fair amount of test questions (though it was definitely influenced by the extra credit deadline, since I hadn't had anywhere near that amount of visitors for the previous two midterms).

Since my Friday office hours for the week of 3/19 were right before an exam, and many people showed up, it became an impromptu group study session.  I was fielding questions from homework and practice exams and doing them on the board for up to 8 or 9 people at once.  I actually recognized the practice exam problems from the exam I took last spring!  There was a bit of pressure involved with doing problems on the board for a large group, since I usually deal with only one or two students at a time, but I was able to resolve all the questions asked (I had office hours the day before homework was due in Hong's 0175 course this fall, so I was used to having to address a bunch of last-minute questions at once).

Quite contrary to that week, the next week's office hours (on the Friday immediately following the exam) were totally empty, so nothing to write about there.  I was surprised, since the 3rd midterm last year was sort of my wake-up call for the final.  I assume people will start coming soon, though, once Nero gets to EM Waves and Light.

Lectures went as usual; nothing special to comment.

-Jeffrey Socash

week of 3/26

still.....no students came

Week of 3/26

Monday was the busiest day I've had so far. Nero's classes had their last midterm, so I had a lot of people come to my office hours. It was a little difficult to manage because I'm not used to that many people. but I think I managed it well. For the rest of the week the class was pretty normal and should be for the next few weeks.

Week of 3/26

I was able to help students with some homework problems during my office hours. During lecture, I helped students with concepts and helped them work through the in-class clicker questions. This week we started working on fluids and fluid dynamics.

Week of 3/26

This week we discussed torque concepts in greater detail, while also beginning our next module on fluids. I answered students' questions in office hours regarding buoyant force, fluid flow, and older homework questions. Other than that, the week was pretty quiet but things will likely get more intense as the exam approaches next week.

week of 3/26

This week I had no students in my office hours. I did help a student with a clicker question during lecture. The question was about the force on a wire running through a solenoid. It was a very easy problem. The student was just struggling conceptual with it and I believe that I was able to understand it better.

Week of 3/19

Actually had someone come in for office hours during my wednesday slot surprisingly. Unfortunately an hour isn't enough time to get through a substantial amount of problems and to fully understand them. Don't know if it's better to just show them how to do more problems or to make sure they fully understand less problems. I generally lean toward the latter seeming as they can always come to another office hours. And the usual suspects came to my friday office hours. Nothing else to report there.

Week of 3/19/18

This past week of lecture covered topics such as induced currents and induced electric fields associated with loops of wire as well as self-inductance.  A few in-class demonstrations were presented to help students grasp the concept of induction.  In addition, I had 29 students visit my office hours throughout the week for me to explain difficult homework concepts, to go over old quiz and exam questions, and to review material in preparation for the next exam.

Week of 3/18

No one came to my office hours Wednesday. I had to cancel my office hours Thursday and Friday since I had to travel back home due to personal matters. 

Week of 3/18

One student came to my office hours to go over class material.

Week of 3/19

Not many students came to office hours this week. The two who did had a few questions regarding torque and moment of inertia but I managed to help clear them up. Hopefully more students come next week.

Sam

Week of 3/19

Hey all, Exam 2 was conducted this week. As always, no one came to my office hours, but interestingly I helped a decent amount of my friends and roommates at Hillman Library, Benedum Hall and at my Dorm. Some had questions about current and voltage in a circuit in Kirchoff's laws. Some had questions with RC circuits and some had about Hall Effect and the relation of the magnetic field with charges.

Week of 3/19

This week was pretty normal - a few more people than usual came due to it being the week before a test. I'm expecting to have a solid amount of visitors for my office hours right before the test, so I am planning on walking through the study guide that Dr. Nero posted. I will try to structure my block of office hours more as a review session than help with specific questions so the students can get the most out of it.

Weeks of 3/12 and 3/19

Hello all,

I have been having a couple students consistently show up to my office hours and they both say that I have been really helpful in making sense of the material on Torque and momentum among other topics. In my opinion, I have been effective in communicating the key concepts during the in-class questions to students who had trouble making sense of questions.

Thanks for reading!

Kind regards,
Mahmoud O. 

Week of 3/19

I did not have any students come in during my office hours this week. However, I was able to help students with in-class clicker questions during lecture. This week we worked on spring force and elastic potential energy.

week of 3/19

no student came in.

Week of 3/19

Attendance at my office hours continues to remain low since spring break.  I thought that the exam next week would boost my numbers back up to what they were before, but apparently not.  I helped the one student who did show up this week with some confusion regarding the different methods of doing the right hand rule.  Having begun current-induced magnetic fields, a different form of the RHR than previously used is easier to use now.  This physical tool is much better explained through example in a setting such as UTA office hours than in a big lecture hall.

Week of 3/19

This week several students came to my office hours to go over questions from their exams, as well as from lecture material. We are covering torque and spring motion, which are confusing topics that have brought up a lot of questions the past few semesters. I was able to answer the students' questions regarding their exams, as well as their questions about springs. In lecture, I also helped clear students' doubts about clicker questions. The next few topics are rather difficult so I expect to see more students in office hours for help.

Week of 3/11

This week one student came to on office hours for help before the exam.

Week of 3/19

This week I had three students come to my office hours on Tuesday before they had their exam on Wednesday. They had questions about about circuits and loop rules. I went through an example on that and then talked them through some of the concepts. I also spoke to one student about the concept of a velocity selector. From what I heard the exam was hard but the students seemed to be better prepared.

Week of 3/12

Welcome back from spring break, a week late. This past week I only had a couple students attend office hours. This was likely due to the fact that midterm 2 was the Friday before spring break and many students probably tried to take a short break from physics material. The students who did attend office hours were the most confused about the concept of torque. We were able to rectify some of the issues by drawing out physical diagrams of the problems.

week of 3/19/18

Totally swamped at office hours lately. More people have come in this last week than the rest of the semester. Busy, but still a lot of fun to help other students.

Week of 3/12/18

This past week of lecture covered more material regarding derivations and expressions for magnetic fields.  The last lecture of the week also introduced the concepts of magnetic flux and induction.  After students were highly encouraged to attend office hours and were incentivized with extra credit by the instructor, I had 21 students come to my office hours throughout the week.  Most students seemed to have similar questions about how to approach different homework, quiz, and exam problems.

Week of 3/12

I had lower-than-usual attendance last week.  Coming back from spring break, everyone is still slowly getting back into the swing of things.  I went over the basics of the material that one student missed the lecture for.  I have not had much to do in the lectures, though my office hours had been well attended up until this point.

week of 3/12

First week back from spring break. Students took an exam prior to break so i did not have many people come to my office hours. Only one student came to clarify a topic from Exam 2. Looking forward to seeing exam grades the following week as well as having more students come to office hours.

Sam

Week of 3/12

No one came to office hours but the review session got many people since they had an exam on Friday!

Week of 3/12

In class we are about to finish Magnetism and induction. The students are eager in class. Sadly, none showed up for office hours this week.

Week of 3/12

No one came to office hours this week. They had an exam Friday.

week of 3/12

there is no one came to my office hour, and they got exam this Friday, I looked over briefly, it is doable, and really test the concept than math skills

Week of 3/12

The first week back from break wasn't very busy. I only had a few visitors at my office hours for the VR labs. In class, Dr. Nero has been giving more conceptual clicker questions, so I've been able to refresh myself on the topics covered during class. I think the students have their third exam in the coming weeks, so I am beginning to prepare for that.

Week of 3/12

None came my office hours this week. Professor Clark explained concepts in Magnetism in wires and different wire orientations of infinite wire, circular loop, a few meters from a current carrying circular loop and how it acts as a magnetic dipole. Other than that, I've helped my friends outside my office hours to help them understand how a current carrying behaves under the influence of a magnetic field using the righthand rule.

Week of 3/12 + Recap of missed weeks

First, apologies for the long delay in updates.  I've been keeping along with office hours, lecture attendance, and flipped lecture questions as usual, but unfortunately between other assignments, projects, and exams, I lost the discipline to keep up with weekly posts.  Hopefully, the week after spring break is a good time to resume updating without needing to explain all the previous weeks.

Since my last update, there was a second midterm exam.  As usual, because the exams are on Mondays and my hours are on Friday, I got a lot of students on that particular day.  There has been a general increase in the number of attendees since Nero announced that visiting UTA office hours would result in extra credit.  Now, I get roughly 2-4 visitors during my office hours as opposed to the 1-2 I got before extra credit was offered, including visitors for the VR labs.  Guess it goes to show how a little incentive can go a long way in increasing student turnout.

That has been the biggest change since my last post, so hopefully the lack of previous updates hasn't lost too much information.  As for this week,  I had a higher attendance than previously expected; 5 students came in for the VR lab, while 4 came in asking about topics discussed in lecture.  Surprisingly, none of the students asking for help understanding topics had specific homework problems they were asking about; usually, they ask about a problem or two on Sapling and I base most of my explanations on this.  This week, I had to essentially re-explain the lectures on Ampere's Law impromptu, going through derivations as I remembered them.  Fortunately, it seemed to work out.  What was particularly interesting was that between all the students that came in at different times, they all seemed to have the exact same question about the topic.  I might have to bring that up with Dr. Nero when discussing review plans.

Finally, I had one student who came in for a lab ask me a couple of questions about being a UTA.  It's nice to see someone expressing interest; I had someone come to my office hours regularly last term end up becoming one.  Hopefully someone can take up the Physics 2 UTA torch while I'm away on co-op.

-Jeffrey Socash

Week of 3/12

I did not have any students come in during office hours, but I was able to assist students with in-class clicker questions. This week we mostly worked on the concepts of rotational motion, torque and moment of inertia. 

Week of 3/12

This week was very interesting. As more people came to my office hours  I began to get more and more questions that asked about fundamental aspects of electromagnetism. I learn a lot from these students because I get to cement concepts that surround the fundamentals of physics. One question asked how electric fields and magnetic fields relate to each other and I was able to illustrate how they were actually two aspects of looking at the same phenomena- through Lorentz transformations. I really think that students can gain a lot from hearing from other students so I try my best to explain how I learned the topics in the class and explain misconceptions in a way that will stay with the students so they do better on later exams and get something valuable from the class.

Week of 3/12

Like usual nobody attended my wednesday office hours. People did attend my friday office hours. We got through some problems but unfortunately this time my explanations did not make sense to him. He kept thinking you needed a mass for an external force when the force was already given and he couldn't make sense of it. Other than that problem he was fine with all the other ones. The other person who came in we were able to get through 2 of her three problems and I set her up on solving the third one.

week of 3/12

I had one student come to my office hours on Tuesday. She had questions about magnetic fields and torque on a dipole. I was able to help her work through the logic of the concept and it seemed like she grasped the concept. In lecture I helped multiple students with clicker questions. They revolved around magnetic fields and the use of the right hand rule. The clicker questions were not that difficult this week as compared to previous weeks. 

week of 3/12

A few people from the review session came to office hours.
We discussed flux and current.

Week of 2/26

Nobody showed up to my office hours. Didn't really expect anybody to show with spring break coming.

week of 2/26

The past week was very slow for me as a UTA. I had a couple of questions during lecture questions but other than that no one came to my office hours. I am surprised more people didn't come in after the exam which the students did not perform extremely well on. I hope that more students will use me as a resource before the next exam.

Week of 2/26/18

This past week of lecture consisted of an introduction to magnets and magnetic fields.  There were also a number of clicker questions and a couple of in-class demonstrations presented to help students grasp the conceptual material.  No students attended my office hours.

week of 2/19 and 2/26

I didn't post for the past two weeks because I hoped the situation would get a bit better. However, it hasn't. I haven't had any new students come in for office hours. notably, this is true for the other TAs that I had office hours with. Maybe Tuesday is a slow day. Regardless, I sincerely hope more students will come to office hours; I look forward to seeing them. In class, everyone still remains very pro-active and its nice to see.

Week of 2/26

This week no one came to office hours.

Week of 2/19 & 2/26

It seems I completely forgot to post last week, so I'll be making up for that here. The last two weeks have actually been pretty busy as we were preparing for our second exam this past Friday. I had students during each of my office hours and we spent plenty of time going over difficult problems and concepts that were confusing. We went over everything from homework problems to lecture notes, and I was able to clear up most of their doubts. In class, I answered questions related to clicker questions, confusing subject material, and problem-solving. As the semester progresses, the material is starting to get more difficult and I believe this why I'm seeing more students in office hours. I hope everyone was able to put it all together for the exam on Friday and they can continue to work hard, as the last exam will likely be harder than the previous two. Best of luck to them and hope you all have a wonderful spring break!

Week of 2/19 and 2/26

Hello everyone,

The past couple weeks I have been getting the same consistent 4-5 students come to office hours in preparation of the second Physics 1 exam on forces and work-energy theorem.

I believe these students I was helping were prepared for their Friday exam before spring break.

I am excited to hear how they did!

Best,
Mahmoud

Week of 2/26

As Usual no one came to my office hours this week. I helped my classmates and my roommates in their physics 2 to make them understand some concepts like potential, voltage division in a circuit, and complex resistor combinations.

Week of 2/26

I had two office hours on Monday, right before the students had their second exam. The previous weekend, I worked on their study guide and brought my old physics notes and exams to office hours. I had visitors the entire time, so I was able to structure my time more. I think structuring the time was very useful, as the students were able to ask questions and I could follow a topic list, more or less.

2/26/18

No one came to office hours this week. Some students seem to have issues with magnetic flux (how area has a direction component) and the direction of the induced magnetic field as a result of the induced current.

week of 2/26

no one came

Week of 2/19/2018

Was an average week. Only one came in. Same old same old. helped him with his problems then he left and nobody else came. Thought more people would be coming with spring break around the corner and midterms. Not much to report.