Phys 131, Reminders from 1/29/2016 TA Training (Lab 1, Part 1) 

for the week of 2/01....

0) Email notice to students:

I have sent a notice to all 131 students reminding them to bring their laptops to lab, to bring a flash-drive for file-saving between weeks, and to READ the lab documents before coming to class.  I have also informed them of the MEGS/MAX surveys in the Course Center this week, as well as of the Course Center schedule ( Course Center Schedule, Spring 2016 ).  Students will be expecting to see you in Course Center starting THIS week!

1) Recitation: How Big is a Worm?

Link: http://umdberg.pbworks.com/w/page/42294962/How%20big%20is%20a%20worm

(Please encourage the students to work collaboratively, using the whiteboards and markers. The recitation papers are on the printer table at the back of the room.)

Students should NOT write on the "room copies" of the recitation paper.  Please collect the room copies between recitation and lab.  If supplies are running low, email Lead TA Kim ASAP.

TAs and LAs: Please remember that the general goals of recitation are group discussion, communication of ideas/logic, and reconciliation of individual perspectives.  We'd love for the students to get the "right" answer, but that is less important than the exchange of ideas and negotiation of meaning among group members.  Please encourage the students to think deeply about what they are doing, rather than rushing through the worksheet and stressing about how "correct" their answers are.  Themes that appear all over these recitations (as well as in the Labs, HWs, and Lecture) are: Multiple Representations, Modeling, Reconciling Perspectives, Interdisciplinary Thinking, and Epistemic Games.

TAs: Don't forget the wrap-up/summary at the end of recitation!

2) Lab 1, Part 1: Motion of an Amoeba and Intro to Excel

Link to Student & TA documents: http://umdberg.pbworks.com/w/page/68933700/NEXUS%20Physics%20Labs%2C%202013-2014

* You should be attending your OWN lab sections as well as the lab sections you are covering with another TA (as a "Helper").  For a reminder of those times, see here: Spring 2016 Phys131 LA Teaching Assignments .

** If the computer is "logged out" for some reason, please reboot the computer and it will automatically log-in.

*** I will be gathering data on how the students perceive and interact with the curriculum.  To that end, I would like to SCAN the work that students submit to you.  When you have reached the end of your lab sections, please bring their lab report/work to me (room 1322) and I will scan it and return it to you (either the next day or by Friday's lab training).

a) There are no "roles"/"jobs" for this one week of lab.  I do suggest that the student in the group most afraid of Excel be the student primarily in charge of using it.

b) There is ONE "amoeba track" sheet per group--do not exceed this or there will not be enough materials for all labs.  This paper they can write on and keep.  All other lab papers are "do not write on/do not remove."  Please collect and neatly stack the lab papers at the end of lab, and put them on the back table by the printer.

c) Please talk with the student to model the kinds of thinking (e.g., reasoned justification for their experimental design and data collection choices) they will need to engage in for writing the lab reports next week in Lab 1, Part 2.

d) Please help the students to learn Excel (show them if they are stuck), but please let students struggle with the physics (correct them if their expressions are incorrect, but do not do the physics for them).

e) Something I warned you of in our training that is worth re-iterating here....  At this stage in their learning, it is common for students to calculate speed as position divided by time (rather than change in position divided by change in time).  Keep a look-out for this common error and help them think past it to the correct idea!

f) TAs should collect one set of graphs and data tables from each group, along with short sentences describing the meaning of the data and features of the graphs and the biological implications.  These should be scored out of 15 points and recorded in ELMS, with special attention paid to the conventions/features/formatting in representation of the data table and graphs (as described in the Technical Document introducing Excel).  (Please leave the assignment in ELMS "Muted."  If you need help with ELMS, bring your scores to our next TA meeting and I will help you.)  When you are grading, try not to use red ink.  Please have this work graded by next week's lab, as you want the feedback to students to inform their work in the Lab 1, Part 2 lab report.

3) Other Logistics:

*** Course Center starts this week!!  Be sure to attend your times! ( Course Center Schedule, Spring 2016 ) 

a) Please let Kim know if recitation/lab papers are running low in quantity.  (There are about 36 copies--which should be sufficient for a classroom set of 24 students, provided papers are not written on or taken away.)

b) Please straighten up the room between recitation and lab and following lab.  Collect, sort, and stack student documents.  Make sure each table has the appropriate equipment (for this week, two rulers), etc.

c) Do not erase the blackboard at the front of the room.  Feel free to add to it, if you think important information is missing, but don't erase it!  If you need space to communicate information to your students, use the extra white boards at the front of the room.

d) If a student "logs out" of the Lab computers, you will need to RE-BOOT the computer (and it will automatically "log in").  We do not have the passwords for these computers.

e) In case you missed it, here are the instructions that Mark wrote out for the on-paper surveys in the Course Center.  You need to know how to handle the MEGS & MAX for Phys 131 students and the FMCE for Phys 132 students.

Hi TAs,

Students who haven't yet taken the pre-course surveys (FMCE for 132, MEGS and MAX for 131) can take them in the course center any time it is open between Monday, February 1 and Wednesday, February 10. This means you should be familiar with both classes' surveys, since students from either class may come to the course center during your hours.

The surveys are on the back left table. The front side of the table (closer to the door) is for 132. It has a box for completed surveys, a pile of empty scantrons, and a pile of FMCE tests. There is a sign indicating that this set of piles is for 132.

The back side of the table (against the back wall, furthest from the door) is for 131. There are two rows of three piles of paper each for 131. One row is for the MEGS and the other is for the MAX. Each row has the test booklet, empty scantrons, and a box for completed scantrons. There is a sign indicating that this is for 131.

There are scrap paper and some pencils on the table as well.

TAs in the course center should:

- make sure they know which tests are for 131 and 132 

- direct students who want to take the surveys to the appropriate surveys

- ask students not to write on the booklets

- ask students to write and bubble in their names, UIDs, and section number (as a "Special Code", e.g., "0201")

- answer any questions while students take the surveys

- when students are done, confirm that they bubbled the appropriate fields in

- when students are done, return their test booklet to the pile (unless they wrote on it, in which case throw it out) and put their scantron in the appropriate pile of completed scantrons, with the same orientation as the other scantrons already there

131 students may use a calculator on the MEGS if they want to; it is not required. They should not use any other outside sources. 132 students should use no outside sources at all. Students may use scrap paper if they want.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns. mark.d.eichenlaub@gmail.com

Thank you,

Mark Eichenlaub, UMD physics graduate student

Good luck!

~KIM