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Table of Contents
Astro 300 (Fall 2008)
Class is held: Mondays, 5-7pm, 501 Campbell
Instructors: Jeffrey Silverman (JSilverman@astro) and Peter Williams (pwilliams@astro)
Advising Professor: James Graham (jgraham@astro)
You should make sure to read the syllabus.
Frequently Updated Pages
Course Calendar
The calendar on a standalone page can be retrieved here.
The calendar is now dead.
Other Important Stuff
An important resource for GSIs is the Electronic Big Red Binder and, to a lesser extent, its hard copy equivalent, the Big Red Binder (located in the seventh floor library in Campbell) . Reuse and modification of any and all of the materials in these resources is highly encouraged! So is contribution back to the EBRB of your improved materials!
Astronomy in the News - A list of interesting astro-related news articles and websites (usually with more of an emphasis on pop-culture type stuff). Everyone in the class should update this on occasion.
An after-action summary of what went down in this edition of the class.
Ay 300 Lesson Plans
| Class Number | Date | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | 8/24 | Intro / administrivia / course goals; teaching at Berkeley and the role of section; section structures; lecturing & boardwork |
| Class 2 | 8/25 | Group / peer learning; planning sections; your first section; TALC; worksheets (if there's time) |
| Class 3 | 9/3 | Worksheets; ethics & cheating; Q&A / classroom interaction |
| Class 4 | 9/8 | Continue classroom interaction / roleplaying; mock lecture activity; demos; homework assignments |
| Class 5 | 9/15 | Continue mock lecture activity; quizzes; grading; more on demos |
| Class 6 | 9/22 | Finish mock lecture activity; exams; Design-A-Demo initial presentations |
| Class 7 | 9/29 | Review sessions; mock rev. session activity; finish Design-A-Demo initial presentations |
| X | 10/6 | Class canceled for C10 midterm grading |
| Class 8 | 10/13 | Midsemester evaluations; continue mock rev. session activity; Design-A-Demo final presentations |
| Class 9 | 10/20 | Briefly mention teaching for advanced classes; finish mock rev. session activity; finish Design-A-Demo final presentations; planning a course unit: teaching stars |
| Class 10 | 10/27 | Discuss midsemester evaluation results; check teaching logs; lay out section videotaping and AER report assignments |
| X | 11/3 | Class canceled for C10 midterm grading |
| Class 11 | 11/10 | Continue midsemester evaluation results; begin AER reports; experts vs. novices |
| Class 12 | 11/17 | Alex visit (5pm); continue AER reports; assign Peer Visit project |
| Class 13 | 11/24 | Geoff visit (5:30pm – C12 and Ay 7A); teaching for advanced classes; compare & contrast profs' teaching styles; discuss videotaped sections; discuss TALC viewings; continue AER reports |
| Class 14 | 12/1 | Briefly discuss teaching cosmology; teaching in the community; discuss Peer Visits; finish AER reports |
| Class 15 | 12/8 | Teaching your own course (guest lecture) - summer Ay 10 and others; teaching portfolios / philosophy (guest lecture) |
Handouts
Ay 300-specific and general pedagogy
- Syllabus - outline of the course
- GSI Basics - getting started as a GSI (some basic ground rules)
- Assignments - required weekly assignments
- Designing a Demo Project - further info on the Design a Demo assignment
- AER Article assignment - description and organizational info for AER article presentation
- Peer Visitation assignment - worksheet to fill out for the Peer Visitation assignment
- Teaching Resources - quite extensive list of teaching resources
- Mid-semester Evaluation. The .tex source is here.
- Mid-Semester Evaluations - how and why to write them
- Supplementary Final Evaluation - for improving this class next year. LaTeX source here.
Ay 10 (and 7)-specific
- Your First Section - tips and suggestions for your very first section
- TALC - information about The Astronomy Learning Center (TALC)
- Teaching Effectiveness Essay - JohnJohn's winning Teaching Effectiveness Essay on TALC
- Academic Honesty and Cheating Policies - information regarding both the University and Department policies
- Writing Homework Assignments - tips and suggestions for writing good homework assignments
- Writing Quizzes and Exams - tips and suggestions for writing good quizzes and exams
- Grading Student Work - guidelines and suggestions about grading homeworks, quizzes, and exams as well as calculating grades for discussion section and overall course grades
Samples
Sample syllabi and first section lesson plans can be found on this page of the EBRB.
Sample mid-semester evaluations can be found on this page of the EBRB.
Cool Teaching Links
- Astronomy Education Review - Awesome e-journal on astronomy education published a couple times a year; quite a few readings will be pulled from here.
- NASA's Center for Astronomy Education - NASA's portal for the teaching of introductory astronomy to nonscientists. Lots of stuff, updated frequently.
- Teaching Discussion Group - A page by Jennifer Hoffman (a former Berkeley Astro postdoc) on teaching with resources for current and future teachers.
- Reaching the Second Tier: Learning and Teaching Styles in College Science Education - Interesting essay on learning styles and how to improve teaching styles.
- Berkeley TEA Essays - UC Berkeley gives Teaching Effectiveness Awards yearly to GSIs who have implemented new teaching techniques in their classrooms. This page links to essays by the GSIs describing their innovations.
- Heavenly Errors - A list of >1700 astronomy misconceptions compiled by Neal F. Comins at the University of Maine.
GSI Assignments
C10 (Filippenko/Shiode)
- Matt George
- Aaron Lee
- Mike McCourt
- Yookyung Noh
- Andrew Siemion
- Vince Viscomi
- Jonathan Pober
- Sarah Newman
- Danica Roth
- Don Pan
Ay 10 (Stahler/Converse)
- Adam Morgan
- Chris Klein
Ay 7A (Marcy/Miller)
- Chat Hull
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