INTRODUCTION TO LABORATORY INSTRUCTION Home Page - FALL 2011 1 Credit, Pass-Fail 8:00 - 9:15 AM Tuesday, 205 Brown Laboratory |
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Graduate teaching
assistants have a unique and significant impact on undergraduate
science education at the University of Delaware. Thus, it is essential
that new teaching assistants be prepared and supported so that they can
fulfill their responsibilities fully. Introduction to Laboratory
Instruction is part of that mission. This web-site will be up dated
frequently as a resource for graduate teaching
assistants in Biology and Chemistry. Please consult it frequently. An article
in the November 2009 HHMI Bulletin
discusses this course and other TA preparation courses at MIT and
Oregon State University. Linked to the article is a five minute slide
show "Meet
Your TA" featuring a UD TA.
Instructor: Prof. Hal White
(Chemistry and
Biochemistry) Office: 203 Brown Laboratory Phone: 831-2908 E-mail: halwhite at udel.edu |
Prof. Seung Hong (Biological Sciences) 028 McKinly Laoratory 831-2898 smhong at udel.edu |
Brief
Course Description:
Being a new Teaching
Assistant (TA) in a biology or chemistry laboratory of 20
undergraduates requires preparation not only in the subject matter but
also in methods of instruction. Introduction to Laboratory
Instruction is not a course devoted to biology or chemistry
content. Rather, it focuses on teaching and especially learning.
It is dedicated to preparing first-time TAs to fulfill their
roles in undergraduate teaching laboratories. Issues relating to
specific laboratory exercises and course content are the responsibility
of the various course instructors. Among the topics and issues
addressed are:
In addition, many
graduate
students serve unofficially as research mentors to undergraduate
students
in research laboratories. Starting in the Fall 2005, several sessions
in
the later half of this course will address issues of mentoring research
students
in line with the HHMI publication, Entering
Mentoring.
Who
should take this course:
All new Chemistry and
Biology graduate
students who are first-time teaching assistants must take Introduction
to Laboratory Instruction. Because this course has a
significant in-service component, new graduate students who are not
teaching, should defer taking the course to when they become a TA.
Background:
Financial support and
incentives for initiating this course come from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
and their four-year
Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Grant to the University
of Delaware.
The HHMI Undergraduate Program at the University of Delaware is
dedicated
to "stimulating attitudes of inquiry" in the classroom and in the
laboratory, and among students and faculty at all levels. Traditional
methods of instruction (e. g. "cookbook laboratories") focus on
transmission of information rather than cultivating curiosity and
conceptual understanding. One of the goals of this course is to
catalyze a shift in the perception of a teacher's
role from the being source of all knowledge to being a facilitator of
student learning.