http://publish.illinois.edu/cdschmitz/teaching-and-learning-in-engineering/

1. Laboratory Instruction in Engineering:Effective, Safe and Fun!August 20, 2013Christopher D. Schmitz, Ph.D. • http://publish.illinois.edu/cdschmitz/teaching-and-learning-in-engineering/

2. Based on presentations by Michael C. Loui, Ph.D. University Distinguished Teacher/Scholar Douglas L. Jones, Ph.D. Designer of ECE 101 and ECE 420 Co-author of A Digital Signal Processing Laboratory using the TMS320xx Christopher D. Schmitz, Ph.D. Design in ECE101, ECE110, and ECE463 http://publish.illinois.edu/cdschmitz/teaching-and-learning-in-engineering/

3. During Individual Introductions… • On the front side of a 3x5 index card, write your greatest concern or the worst problem you could imagine arising as a TA. • On the back side, write any question you would like to have addressed in this TA Grad Academy session.

4. What is a Laboratory Course? • A carefully designed “hands-on” learning experience • Something between a demonstration and a fully realistic on-the-job experience • Finding the right balance is a constant challenge in lab instruction! • Cookbook • Partially-Guided • Unstructured

5. How Do I Design a Laboratory Course? and make good suggestions for improvement! • Prioritize your learning objectives (http://www.abet.org) • DESIGNefficient and effective assignments • 3-4 weekly hours per credit hour • BE CREATIVE! BE PREPARED! • Ch. 9 Design and Laboratory (https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/AboutUs/Publications/TeachingEng/chapter9.pdf)

6. Students Benefit From Labs… • Motivation • Concepts and Knowledge • Professional Practices and Skills • Experimentation • Equipment • Communication (written, oral) • Teamwork • Design processes

7. Teachers (TAs) Also Benefit… • Solidifies conceptual knowledge • Trouble-shooting / debugging skills • Contact with individual students • Technical discussions/Interview skills • Use of Equipment • Design Processes • Being a teaching assistant can play an important role in your future career (IEEE Potentials, 2012) http://ieeexplore.ieee.org

8. Play the “Feud!” • What do TAs fear about teaching a lab course? • Did you think your concern is uncommon? • Hand in your index cards and let’s play! • http://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece101/ Teaching%20and%20Learning/TA_feud.htm

9. Most Common Top-Rated Fears: • (35%) insufficient knowledge and embarrassment • (15%) mechanical or safety failure/student injury • (12%) poor student engagement • (11%) poor debugging skills • (10%) poor communication skills • (8%) poor time management • (5%) unfair grading • (4%) miscellaneous…examples: • nothing! • poorly defined duties • Lions and tigers and bears! (Oh My!)

10. What do students expect of a TA? • Knowledgeable enough to answer their questions and for you to provide the appropriate help. • Engaged, approachable, available, supportive, and helpful • Clear, consistent, and FAIR grading

11. Overcoming YOUR fears:Insufficient Knowledge • There is no substitute for time-on-task…study the material. • Do the lab in advance and ask yourself tough questions. Do your research and then go to the Instructor shamelessly to ask about what you don’t understand. • Roman Philosopher Seneca: “When you teach, you learn twice.”

12. How should you handle a question that you cannot answer? • Reflect the question onto the student: “Good question. What do you think?” • Reflect the question onto the class: “Can anyone propose an answer?” • Admit, “I’m not sure, let me get back to you on that.” • Work with the student later to find the answer, using online references • Ask a more experienced TA or the instructor

13. Overcoming YOUR fears:Mechanical Failures and Safety • Do the lab yourself first to check the equipment within 24 hours of lab time if possible • Be aware of phone, first aid kit, fire extinguisher, eye wash, full-body wash, defibrillator, and/or other safety devices • perform equipment checks • When possible, keep spare parts • Have the phone number of tech support, EMS • Provide open lab time for students to make up the lab

14. Overcoming YOUR fears:Fun and Engaging • encourage cooperation, Think Pair Share (TPS) • games and hands on activity, some friendly competition • encourage collaboration, avoid intense competition • Use interactive demonstrations • offer small prizes/candy • Offer prizes for the best wrong answers (humor) • explain purpose/relevance of tasks • assign most tasks with mid-range difficulty • know students individually, express value • prompt/positive feedback • allow some choice in projects/team names • mix up the Teaching and Learning pedagogies

15. Overcoming YOUR fears:Trouble-Shooting • Troubleshooting or debugging is the systematic process of finding out what when wrong between point A and point B. • It is easiest when point A and B are close together (only one step or component separating the two). • Need to know what is at point A and what to expect at point B. • How does point B differ from expectations and why might that difference occur. • Know the “Rookie” mistakes! Examples: In ECE circuit lab, 90% of mistakes involve DC power is off or Scale is misrepresented. Safety mistakes often involve touching hot ICs or soldered parts, food after soldering, cutting tool. In Chemistry, parallax error or forgetting to add phenolphthalein, goggles and gloves, lab coat leaving lab, food in lab, volatility of chemicals, head under fume hood, splashing…

16. Overcoming YOUR fears:…Just Enough Help • Be Prepared by doing the lab in advance… so you can anticipate what questions will arise otherwise you will solve it by pure instinct. • Monitor students by circulating • Ensure students are safe, productive • Stir up conversation with all students even if they resist! • Ask questions • What have you done so far? • What are you doing now? Why? • What are likely causes of the problem? How do you know? (Lead student through trouble-shooting; suggest but don’t do) • REMEMBER: the laboratory course is a learning experience for students • Always give the amount of help that will maximize a student’s real learning • Students learn when they are challenged but not frustrated…find that balance

17. Overcoming YOUR fears:Communication • English as a second language issues? • Alternate methods of presentation and media • Be prepared to revise and re-present the topic in another way. • If you can’t envision another route, ask the student to meet you after class…one-on-one discussions are easier teaching opportunities. • Other suggestions?

18. What if I can’t understand a student’s question? Be patient. Ask for them to re-phrase. Appeal to other students to rephrase (without embarrassing the first) Ask to discuss it during procedures, after lab, or in office hours. 18

19. Overcoming YOUR fears:Time Management • Preparation: Saves time in the end • Do the lab in advance • Prepare a grading Rubric • Office Hours: offer at a time convenient for students • Afternoon or evening a day or two before due date • NOT immediately before assignment due • Be regularly accessible to students • You need not be constantlyavailable • Open Lab Hours? Share duties across TAs.

20. Time Management Speaking of time, let’s take a short break!

21. Overcoming YOUR fears:Unfair Grading • Prepare a grading Rubric • Do not show favoritism in the lab • Pursue student engagement to avoid low active participation • Provide nearly equal attention to groups • Get to know all students • Attempt to grade without knowledge of who’s report it is • Grade in parts, shuffling reports between each section • Ensure individual accountability for team projects • Individual portfolios, individual exams, peer evaluations

22. A Laboratory Course Rubric will often include: • Portion for Content (traditional answers) …Corrections marked in the report itself… • Portion for the mechanics (sufficient abstract, procedure, summary and conclusions…Professionalism!) …Checklist for this section ONLY may be good… • Sub-Rubrics will help for specific, re-occurring items such as Graphs, commonly missed probs …Handout returned for this section ONLY may be good…

23. Eg: A grading rubric for writing defines grade points explicitly • 5: Well focused, graceful. Precise diction. No errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, or usage. • 4: Some awkward passages and minor errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, or usage. • 3: Occasionally wordy or vague. Individual sentences may be awkward, but the meaning is always clear. • 2: Some organizational faults. Verbose, often vague, but understandable. Several solecisms. • 1: Unclear. Many grammatical errors.

24. Eg: A grading rubric for graphs specifies all criteria • 5: Selects quantifiable experimental factors; defines and establishes quantitative units of comparison; measures quantifiable factors in appropriate quantities; selects appropriate statistical information; displays results in graphs with correctly labeled axes; presents data in both text and graphic form; places self-contained headings in tables and graphs • 4: As in 5, but without self-contained headings • 3: As in 4, but includes irrelevant or statistically inappropriate data in reported data • 2: Fails to select appropriate quantities or to use graphs • 1: Does not select, collect, or communicate quantifiable results [Walvoord & Anderson, p. 200]

25. How are peer evaluations gathered for team projects? • Each student first evaluates own effort; self-evaluation not used in determining grade • Each student evaluates each other student on specific criteria; e.g., Quality of work, Quantity of work, Cooperation with others, Timeliness • Comments and rating for each criterion; e.g., 0/1/2/3 • Student’s grade incorporates both group grade and peer ratings; e.g., drop lowest peer rating, average other peer ratings, with maximum score of 10 (out of 12)

26. Do This Moving Forward… • Meet with your Instructor, determine your duties • Read the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (Chickering and Gamson) • Look over the semester’s material • Prepare for the (first) lesson, overcome student fears! • Plan an interactive lesson • Execute the (first) lesson/lab, watch for Rookie Mistakes • End with a “Minute Paper” • Make notes for improvement • Repeat weekly Rookie Mistakes: Yes, you will make silly mistakes and the students are likely to follow suit! Be ready!

27. Keep in Mind: What Students Fear • Unhelpful TAs • Embarrassed in front of their peers • Unclear or unfair grading policy • Bias (gender, ethnic, personality) • Poorly designed lab assignments that • Take too long (more than 3-4 hours total per week for each credit hour) • Are inefficient in terms of real learning/hour

28. Overcoming students’ fears • BE PREPARED, FAIR, FRIENDLY, AVAILABLE • Creating a good learning environment on the very first meeting! • Why Care? Because overcoming students’ fears greatly improves learning environment • Students will work harder and learn better • Students will be happier with TAs

29. Overcoming students’ fears:How do you get there? • Do the lab yourself • Give clear assignments and grade fairly • Always use a rubric (grading sheet)! • Explain the lab process and why it is done this way • Actively check on students’ progress • Be appropriately helpful to all students • Avoid negative or personal responses to students’ errors

30. How can you introduce the laboratory session? • Prepare short lesson • quiz based on pre-lab reading or worksheet • easy enough not to create apprehension • tough enough to encourage effort • On first lesson: • Introduce yourself • Have student introductions

31. Build your own list of Miscellaneous lab tips • Safety • No food/drink policy…teach by example • Do the lab assignment yourself first • Insist that students do pre-lab • Discipline Specific: Egs. In Material Science or ECE, wear a face shield when using vacuum chamber. In Chem, use a stirring rod when pouring liquid. • Start from a known and work down the chain…work both directions • Add your own here.

32. The “Minute Paper” • The (one-)minute paper will allow you to assess the class’s understanding of the material, what they enjoyed, and where trouble spots may occur. • References: • Angelo, T.A., and Cross, K.P. Classroom Assessment Techniques, 2nd ed., Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1993, pp. 148-153. • http://provost.tufts.edu/celt/files/MinutePaper.pdf • http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/awareness012.htm

33. Attributes of a Great TA • helpful • friendly/approachable • knowledgeable • available • passionate • engaging • clear communication skills • trouble shooting skills

34. Attributes of YOU! • helpful • friendly/approachable • knowledgeable • available • passionate • engaging • clear communication skills • trouble shooting skills

35. Thanks! Be sure to turn in your session evaluations