CHEM 601 (Section 10) and BISC 667 (Section 10)
INTRODUCTION TO LABORATORY INSTRUCTION
Home Page - FALL 2011 
1 Credit, Pass-Fail
8:00 - 9:15 AM Tuesday,  205 Brown Laboratory



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.


Course Syllabus About the Instructors Center for Teaching and Learning
Tentative Schedule Web Resources for TAs Annual TA Conference
Grad Student Humor
TA Tales - What Do I Do Now?
Course Evaluations: 2005 Numerical & Narrative,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011,

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.


Return to: Chemistry Department Home Page, Biology Department Home Page, or Course Syllabus
Created 26 July 2002, Last updated 4 January 2012 by Hal White [halwhite at udel.edu]
Copyright 2011, Harold B. White, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716