Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Issues And Proposed Solutions To Team Based Assessment In University Physics Labs, Manqoba Q. Hlatshwayo

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

Many education experts considers peer-to-peer education as the most effective way for students to learn (Peersdom, 2014). Western Michigan University (WMU) physics laboratories embraces this philosophy and has designed the assessment to be based on the team report. The assumption is that every team member contributed (not necessarily equally) to the work submitted by the team hence every team member should receive the same grade. This is a ubiquitous assessment philosophy in education, and some forms of additional individual assessment in team projects are strongly discouraged (David Boud et al, 1999).

There is no doubt on the effectiveness of peer-to-peer …

Improving Lab Experience For Students In Phys2080, Khushi Bhatt

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

University Physics II (PHYS 2080) deals with providing hands-on experience with the experiments of electricity and magnetism. It aids students to develop computational thinking in physics through analysis of experimental and theoretical data using python programming language.

In Fall-2019, I taught the newly designed PHYS2080 class for the first time as per the requirements. During Spring-2020, I implemented some subtle changes using the skills that I gained through various teaching training. These changes are described in Methodology section. Data clearly shows improvement that was observed without lowering the expectations or changing the curriculum of the class.

What A Career In Teaching Could Look Like For Me: My Journey Of Self-Reflection And Self-Discovery, Jashaun D. Bottoms

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

I started the STEM Instructional Program the summer before my first teaching experience as a graduate student at WMU, and I saw it as a great training opportunity for the upcoming school year. As a General Chemistry II lab instructor, I would encounter students from various majors and backgrounds, with different learning styles and attitudes toward chemistry and math.

In order to effectively engage these students in a pre-lab lecture and to prepare them to complete the experiments, I needed to learn how to keep their attention, clearly explain and relay information in an interesting way, check their understanding, and …

Fostering Computational Thinking In An Introductory Physics Lab, Diana Sachmpazidi

STEM Instructional Graduate Teaching Assistant Posters

•Thinking computationally means conceptualizing a problem and formulating it in a way that a computer can solve it (Wing, 2010). •Computational Thinking (CT) is the third pillar of the scientific method along with theory and experimentation and is a fundamental skill that K-12 students and undergraduates should be equipped with (Wing, 2016; 2006). •Research on CT has only been active the last 10 years and most studies are still at the stage of ideas (Kalelioglu et al., 2016). •The integration of CT aspects in instruction is a widely expanding phenomenon in physics classrooms in the context of higher education, and …