This final week of lectures covered material such as refraction, interfering waves, Young's Two-Slit Interference, and diffraction. I also had 22 students visit my office hours during the week to review in-class clicker questions, homework, and more conceptual topics. I will also be holding last-minute office hours during finals week to give students the chance to review material and prepare for their final.
Overall, I really enjoyed being a Physics 0175 UTA this past semester and will definitely take up this opportunity again in the future, given that my schedule lends the time for it. My advice for prospective Physics 0175 UTA's, which may seem obvious, is to really keep up with and stay engaged during your class's lectures. Sometimes lectures may seem slow since, as a UTA, you have already learned and become competent in the subject; however, it is important to put yourself in the students' shoes to understand the difficulties that they may have in grasping the subject. The more engaged you stay in class, the easier it will be to understand the confusions that students have.
In terms of office hours, I found that it is best to structure them openly to allow for questions and discussion as opposed to having a scheduled review each session since students will always have different questions about different material. I also found that students really benefited from the weekly review sheets I would type up after lectures since the reviews would outline the important information and include easy-to-understand explanations for things such as derivations.
Being a Physics 0175 UTA this past semester was a really unique and rewarding experience, and I would gladly take on such a position again, given the opportunity.
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