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astro300_f16:day6 [2016/09/20 21:21] – jwang | astro300_f16:day6 [2016/09/21 19:02] (current) – [Midsemester Evals (15 minutes)] ccheng | ||
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Diffraction grating demo (12 min) - a 7A/120 combo demo. The purpose is to visualize how diffraction/ | Diffraction grating demo (12 min) - a 7A/120 combo demo. The purpose is to visualize how diffraction/ | ||
* How a spectrometer works (5 min) - spectrometer in 120 lab is a black box. Now we can look into the box to see what goes on | * How a spectrometer works (5 min) - spectrometer in 120 lab is a black box. Now we can look into the box to see what goes on | ||
- | * Laser pointer (red) + diffraction grating + point at wall (2 volunteers) | + | * Laser pointer (red) + diffraction grating + point at white board (2 volunteers: laser and grating (need to hold still)) |
* Identify orders | * Identify orders | ||
* Grating equation (simpler one) | * Grating equation (simpler one) | ||
* Grating is created by etching in opaque lines periodically. Which way are the lines oriented? | * Grating is created by etching in opaque lines periodically. Which way are the lines oriented? | ||
- | * What is the spacing of the lines? Need volunteer to measure things | + | * What is the spacing of the lines? Need volunteer to mark on the white board and measure things |
- | * Add a green laser (another volunteer). | + | * Add/change to a green laser (another volunteer). |
* Explain how this allows us to separate wavelengths so that a spatial location corresponds to light at a given wavelength | * Explain how this allows us to separate wavelengths so that a spatial location corresponds to light at a given wavelength | ||
* Explain nuances: spectrometers usually used ruled rather than holographic gratings (better efficiency). Using although reflective rather than transmissive (more compact) | * Explain nuances: spectrometers usually used ruled rather than holographic gratings (better efficiency). Using although reflective rather than transmissive (more compact) | ||
- | * More of a general diffraction demo: width of a human hair (3 min) | + | * More of a general diffraction demo: width of a human hair (4 min) |
* Volunteer to supply and hold hair in front of laser pointer | * Volunteer to supply and hold hair in front of laser pointer | ||
* See the ensuing diffraction pattern. Can anyone explain what we're seeing? | * See the ensuing diffraction pattern. Can anyone explain what we're seeing? | ||
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* How does this compare with the diffraction grating? | * How does this compare with the diffraction grating? | ||
* Can you use this to explain why it can be desirable to want bigger telescopes? | * Can you use this to explain why it can be desirable to want bigger telescopes? | ||
- | * Pass out diffraction gratings to class (2 min) | + | * Pass out diffraction gratings to class (4 min) |
- | * These can be borrowed from the Physics demo room (72 Le Conte - in the basement). | + | * These can be borrowed from the Physics demo room (72 Le Conte - in the basement). C10 also has a bunch in the storage room cabinet on the 1st floor (used for arclamp demo). |
* What else can we look at with the diffraction gratings? | * What else can we look at with the diffraction gratings? | ||
Meta Discussion of this Demo (5 min) | Meta Discussion of this Demo (5 min) | ||
* Demos are great to illustrate phenomena, especially ones that aren't easy to understand. Diffraction is often explained on the board using waves and interference.. seeing it can help build physical intuition of it. (For programming, | * Demos are great to illustrate phenomena, especially ones that aren't easy to understand. Diffraction is often explained on the board using waves and interference.. seeing it can help build physical intuition of it. (For programming, | ||
- | * Can be fun alternative way to cover a top rather than a worksheet | + | * Can be fun alternative way to cover a topic rather than a worksheet |
* As a class on the board: Thinking about the demo we just did and previous demos you have done, what makes a good demo and a bad demo: | * As a class on the board: Thinking about the demo we just did and previous demos you have done, what makes a good demo and a bad demo: | ||
- | * What makes a good demo? | + | * What makes a good demo? (with e.g.'s connecting it back to the diffraction demo) |
- | * Illustrating difficult physical concept(s) | + | * Illustrating difficult physical concept(s) (e.g. diffraction is not intuitive) |
- | * Interactive: | + | * Interactive: |
- | * A springboard to new topics | + | * A springboard to new topics |
- | * Straightforward: | + | * Straightforward: |
- | * Demo actually illustrates concept in question | + | * Demo actually illustrates concept in question |
* When demos go wrong: | * When demos go wrong: | ||
- | * Demos **can and sometimes do** FAIL! | + | * Demos **can and sometimes do** FAIL! (e.g. backups, explain what they should see, test your demo!) |
- | * Sometimes, especially in astronomy, they can confuse students more than help them or oversimplify a concept. Both overly complex and overly simplified | + | * Sometimes, especially in astronomy, they can confuse students more than help them or oversimplify a concept. Both overly complex and overly simplified |
- | * Materials may be missing or broken, so CHECK IN ADVANCE! | + | * Materials may be missing or broken, so CHECK IN ADVANCE! |
* Collect diffraction gratings from class | * Collect diffraction gratings from class | ||
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Group discussion - you've probably been doing this but making it more explicit: | Group discussion - you've probably been doing this but making it more explicit: | ||
- | * (3 min) General office hour/email experiences so far (if not yet discussed). | + | * (15 min) Handling Student Questions |
- | * Have there been people coming? | + | * When you get questions |
- | * What kind of questions | + | * We don't generally want to just tell them how to do the problem |
- | * How are you handling | + | * We don't want the reason they did something to be: "The GSI told me to do it this way" |
- | * Specially for lab courses where the course is focused on implementation/ | + | * In groups |
- | * (8 min) When you get questions from students on homework questions, how do/should you handle them? | + | * Go over as a class (8 minutes) |
* General strategy: Identify where the confusion is and address it | * General strategy: Identify where the confusion is and address it | ||
* Identifying the confusion: ask them to explain the problem to you as best as they can and see where they run into trouble | * Identifying the confusion: ask them to explain the problem to you as best as they can and see where they run into trouble | ||
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* e.g. Where do you think it is? What did your brain just do to try to figure out where it is? How could I put that in mathematical/ | * e.g. Where do you think it is? What did your brain just do to try to figure out where it is? How could I put that in mathematical/ | ||
* Learning how to problem solve and get to the answer are skills we want to teach | * Learning how to problem solve and get to the answer are skills we want to teach | ||
- | * We don't want the reason they did something to be: "The GSI told me to do it this way" | ||
- | * (3 min) Debugging (specific to lab/python) | ||
- | * How to handle debugging issues? Ask for opinions | ||
- | * When do you help them? | ||
- | * Avoid spiral of debugging everyone' | ||
- | * General rule for Astrolab: because the class does not explicitly prereq coding, especially at the beginning, help them debug but also use it to teach them how to debug (print statements, pdb, how to use IDEs, how to use Google) | ||
- | * (2 min) When should you just give them the answer? | ||
- | * Things that do not really contribute to the learning objectives | ||
- | * Math errors: 1+1=3? (Exception: equations in wrong units) | ||
- | * Coding API questions (how do I make an array in numpy, what is the argument to do...) | ||
- | * Things that take a long time to figure out how to get, but don't have very much benefit to learning (examples?) | ||
+ | * Debugging (specific to lab/python) | ||
+ | * How to handle debugging issues? Ask for opinions | ||
+ | * When do you help them? | ||
+ | * Avoid spiral of debugging everyone' | ||
+ | * General rule for Astrolab: because the class does not explicitly prereq coding, especially at the beginning, help them debug but also use it to teach them how to debug (print statements, pdb, how to use IDEs, how to use Google) | ||
+ | * When should you just give them the answer? | ||
+ | * Things that do not really contribute to the learning objectives | ||
+ | * Math errors: 1+1=3? (Exception: equations in wrong units) | ||
+ | * Coding API questions (how do I make an array in numpy, what is the argument to do...) | ||
+ | * Things that take a long time to figure out how to get, but don't have very much benefit to learning (examples?, position of maxima of interference pattern when putting a hair in front of a laser (need to find maxima of sinc^2(x))) | ||
===== Midsemester Evals (15 minutes) ===== | ===== Midsemester Evals (15 minutes) ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Why do we do mid-semester evals (1 min) | ||
+ | * There is a department wide, official end of semester eval, but by then it's too late to fix things for your current students. | ||
+ | * The point of student feedback at mid-semester is to allow you to adjust your section and teaching style as necessary to match your current students' | ||
+ | * However, take the responses with a grain of salt; Ay 10 student don't always know what's best for them! | ||
+ | * General overview of mid-semester evals (1 min) | ||
* These questions should cover things you want feedback on. Be explicit about what you want to know whenever possible. | * These questions should cover things you want feedback on. Be explicit about what you want to know whenever possible. | ||
* There should be room for some free response (e.g., if there' | * There should be room for some free response (e.g., if there' | ||
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* If you have quantitative questions, this might include averages, or distributions. | * If you have quantitative questions, this might include averages, or distributions. | ||
* You should make sure they are able to fill them out anonymously. | * You should make sure they are able to fill them out anonymously. | ||
- | + | | |
- | | + | * Going over Aaron' |
- | * Discuss the wisdom from past GSIs and Slater & Adams chapter 9: | + | * Your mid-semester should be short (1 sided to 2 sided max). This one is just super long to give you different examples on how to approach it. You should feel free to take what you like |
- | * Assigning a combination of " | + | * Going over Carina' |
- | * In addition, | + | * Question 1: Useful to know how serious to take the evaluation comments |
- | * Use different colored highlighters for positive and negative comments that merit further review. | + | * Question 2: Free response allows students to express themselves. |
- | * Four categories of " | + | * Question 3: Take it with a grain of salt, because most students |
- | | + | * Question 4: Another free response. |
- | | + | * Questions 5-8: Useful |
- | | + | * Questions 9-10: Fun, extra questions. Pros: makes the evaluation less formal and fun to read. Cons: can get some inappropriate responses |
- | | + | * After the eval is filled out: (1 min) |
- | * Why do we do mid-semester evals | + | * It's a good idea to read through them all twice: once to just read every answer and the second time to see if you can spot some trends and consistencies (based on the assumption that if a majority of students agrees on something, then it might actually be a valid point or an accurate assessment). |
- | * There is a department wide, official end of semester eval, but by then it' | + | * Arguably the most important part of evals is responding to the criticisms (both positive and negative) publicly in front of the class and addressing at least some of their concerns (Slater & Adams call this ' |
- | * The point of student feedback at mid-semester | + | * **We will ask you to compile a short summary report: |
- | * However, take the responses with a grain of salt; Ay 10 student don't always know what's best for them! | + | |
- | * Mid-semester | + | |
- | * They should be done about half-way through the semester | + | |
- | * They should be anonymous (however you might want to ask for their section number so you can compare your multiple sections). | + | |
- | * Sometimes this is done during the last 10 mins of a section, but you get less accurate responses this way since many students will rush through it just to leave early. | + | |
- | * Consider doing it in the middle of section (maybe right after your initial lecture review/ | + | |
- | * The GSI will usually step out of the room during this time or //at least// turn their back to the class. | + | |
- | * Have a student collect all of the evals and put them in an envelope. **DO NOT** open the envelope until way later (//i.e.// after you've left Evans and there are no students around you at all). | + | |
- | * **Always** be sure to give students way more than enough room to write. You don't want them to limit responses simply because they feel they don't have enough room. You might even consider printing the evals one-sided and make a note at the beginning of the eval saying that if the student needs more room to write that they should feel free to use the back of the page. | + | |
- | * Here' | + | |
- | - Section structure (lecture review, Q&A, worksheets, demos, group work, //etc.//) | + | |
- | - GSI' | + | |
- | - Section content (which topics are covered and how long is spent on each) | + | |
- | - Stuff besides section or lecture | + | |
- | - Course content (which topics are covered and how long is spent on each) | + | |
- | - Course structure (order of topics, demos during lecture, audience participation during lecture, grading, //etc.//) | + | |
- | - Prof's skills (board skills, student interaction skills, lecture skills, //etc.//) | + | |
- | * Types of questions: | + | |
- | * Open ended (good because | + | |
- | -Describe three things you like about this section. | + | |
- | -What does your GSI need to do less of in section? | + | |
- | -Put any additional comments. | + | |
- | * Quick answer (very directed or short answer questions are good for students who don't want/ | + | |
- | | + | |
- | -Give the section | + | |
- | -Circle MORE, LESS, or THE SAME for the amount of time (relative | + | |
- | * Humorous | + | |
- | -Draw a face that best describes how you feel about this class. | + | |
- | * Humorous (just for fun). //E.g.//: | + | |
- | | + | |
- | * Humorous | + | |
- | * Put a variety of types of questions so that all types of students can give accurate feedback | + | |
- | * After the eval is filled out: | + | |
- | | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | * **We will ask you to compile a short summary report | + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | * Food for thought: In addition to turning it in to us for this class, the summary report could be sent to the Head GSI and/or prof (as opposed to having them read all of the evals). | + | |
- | * Arguably the most important part of evals is responding to the criticisms (both positive and negative) publicly in front of the class and addressing at least some of their concerns (Slater & Adams call this ' | + | |
- | * Different profs have different opinions of students responses on the evals: some ignore them completely and assume that the students have no idea what's best for them, some ignore them because the prof teaches the way they teach and that's that and it won't change, and some actually read through them (or at least read their GSIs' summaries of the evals). | + | |
- | * Sample ones on the [[private: | + | |
- | * Handout the [[astro300_f09: | + | |
- | + | ||
=====Homework===== | =====Homework===== | ||
- | - Write a midsemester evaluation and administer them in your sections next week (9/26-9/30). After reviewing your students' | + | - Write a midsemester evaluation and administer them in your sections |
- If you haven' | - If you haven' | ||