Astro 375 / Astro 300 (Fall 2016)

Astro 375 / Astro 300 (Fall 2016)

This course qualifies for the GSI Teaching and Resource Center's Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Basics

Class is held: Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm, Campbell 131

The Bootcamp is held: Monday, Aug 22 and Tuesday, Aug 23 from 2-4pm in Campbell 121

Faculty Instructor: Eugene Chiang (echiang@astro)

Graduate Student Instructors: Carina Cheng (ccheng@berkeley.edu), Beth McBride (bethmcbride@berkeley.edu), Michael Medford (michaelmedford@berkeley.edu), Jason Wang (jwang@astro.berkeley)

Quick Links

The Syllabus. Make sure you read this!
The Electronic Big Red Binder. An important resource for GSIs. 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! There is also an older physical copy (The Big Red Binder), located in the library.
Teaching Logs. Summaries of the short teaching log prompts.
Assignments. Summaries of all assignments for Ay375.

Worksheets

Ay 375 Lesson Plans

(Any lesson plans for future dates are subject to revision, but feel free to peruse if you're interested.)

Class Number	Date	Lead	Topics	Lesson Plan Link
1	Aug 22	Carina/Jason	Bootcamp 1: Sample class, First day lesson plans, Board work	BootCamp Day 1
2	Aug 23	Carina/Jason	Bootcamp 2: Finish up board work, partner reviews of syllabus and lesson plans	BootCamp Day 2
3	August 31	Carina	Logistics, Section Recaps, Learning Objectives/Lesson Plans	Class 3
4	Sept 7	Jason	Writing Exams and Homework, Grading Rubrics	Class 4
5	Sept 14	Michael	Quiz Exchange, Board Work and Visuals	Class 5
6	Sept 21	Jason	Student Misconceptions, Demos, Midsemester Evals	Class 6
7	Sept 28	Beth	What is Learning?	Class 7
8	Oct 5	Carina	Faculty Visit Q&A, Ethics	Class 8
9	Oct 12	Beth	Experienced GSI Q&A, Pedagogy Readings	Class 9
10	Oct 19	Carina, Beth, Jason	Teaching Statements, Motivation/Mindset, Biases, Creative Teaching	Class 10
11	Oct 26	Michael	Teaching Statements Peer Review, Pedagogy Careers	Class 11
12	Nov 2		No class!
13	Nov 9		No class!
14	Nov 16	All	Last Class: Jupiter

Handouts

Ay 375-specific and general pedagogy

GSI Basics - getting started as a GSI (some basic ground rules)
Teaching Resources - quite extensive list of teaching resources
Teaching in the Community - opportunities for teaching outside of Cal (handout and TeX source)
TALC - information about The Astronomy Learning Center (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 from AY 300, Fall 2008.
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
Writing MC and FR Questions Slides.
Suggested Readings. Links and copies of suggested reading on teaching and pedagogy.

Cool Teaching Links

Astronomy Education Review - Awesome e-journal on astronomy education published a couple times a year.
NASA's Center for Astronomy Education - NASA's portal for the teaching of introductory astronomy to nonscientists. Lots of stuff, updated frequently.
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.
Melissa's Teaching Page - Melissa Graham, a postdoc in the astronomy department, has taught a similar course at the University of Victoria. Her “Ay375” page is here.

GSI Assignments

Astro C10 (Filippenko) - Harrison Agrusa, Sanyum Channa, Edward Falcon, David Khatami, Kara Kundert, Elan Lavie, Ned Molter, Benjamin Stahl, Samantha Stegman, Rachel Thorp

Astro C13 (Quataert) - Fatima Abdurrahman

Astro 120 (Duchene) - Imad Pasha, Malena Rice

Astro 250 (Bloom) - Goutam Murlidhar

Not Teaching This Semester - Kareem El-Badry, Lucy Jia

Members of Ay375 (teaching times)

C10: 121 Campbell

Harrison Agrusa (Tu 2-3, 3-4)
Sanyum Channa (admin)
Edward Falcon (admin)
David Khatami (M 9-10, Tu 9-10)
Kara Kundert (W 9-10, 10-11)
Elan Lavie (Tu 1-2, 4-5)
Ned Molter (M 12-1, M 2-3)
Benjamin Stahl (W 12-1, 1-2, Th 9-10, 10-11)
Samantha Stegman (M 10-11, W 11-12)
Rachel Thorp (Th 11-12, F 9-10, 12-1, 2-3)

C13:

Fatima Abdurrahman (Tu 4-6, W 10-12, 12-2, VLSB 3002)

120:

Imad Pasha (Tu 6-9, Ugrad lab)
Malena Rice (Tu 6-9, Ugrad lab)

250:

Goutam Murlidhar (Tu 11-12, 131 Campbell)

Not Teaching This Semester - Kareem El-Badry, Lucy Jia

Peer Visits

GSIs doing visits but not getting visited: Kareem, Lucy, Imad, Malena, Goutam, Sanyum, Edward

Kara visits Ben
Ned visits Ben

Goutam visits Rachel
Ben visits Rachel

Edward visits Elan
Harrison visits Elan

Lucy visits David
Kareem visits David

Malena visits Ned
Rachel visits Ned

David visits Kara
Sam visits Kara

Elan visits Harrison
Sanyum visits Sam
Imad visits Fatima

Fatima visits ??

Section Taping

Week of 10/3:

David: M 9-10 (Beth)
Sam: M 10-11 (Carina)
Ned: M 2-3 (Carina)
Elan: Tu 1-2 (Carina)
Harrison: Tu 3-4 (Michael)
Kara: W 9-10 (Beth)
Ben: Th 9-10 (Jason)
Rachel: Th 11-12 (Jason)

Week of ??

Fatima: Tu 4-6 (Michael)

Stuff for the instructors

Some Notes on development and from previous semesters.

Previous Semesters

Fall 2014 (Aaron Lee)
Fall 2013 (Aaron Lee and Francesca Fornasini)
Fall 2012 (Jonnie Pober and Therese Jones)
Fall 2011 (Therese Jones and Aaron Lee)
Fall 2010 (Aaron Lee and Josh Shiode)
Fall 2009 (Josh Shiode)
Fall 2008 (Jeffrey Silverman and Peter Williams)
Fall 2007 (Jeffrey Silverman and Daniel Perley)
Fall 2006 (Holly Maness)

Table of Contents