Adventures of the Learning Assistant (Part 1)

Well, the first of my first “physics practicals” were this week. By this I’m referring to the TA job I’ve been raving about. I promised pictures of the shiny new rooms we get to use, so without further ado:

Behold!

So hopefully these pictures will help you understand why I say the new rooms feel like a sportscar.

… okay, so if they feel like a sportscar, how’s the mileage, you ask?

A fair question. The way these rooms are constructed make them ideal for group interaction. They take focus off of the LA, which is as it should be. The LA is not a lecturer. But for that same reason it is very difficult for the LA to hold students’ attentions if they are telling them something important. To compensate for this they have a wireless microphone and speakers installed to give LAs voices a sort of omnipresence in the room. In addition to that the LAs have the ability to control the students’ computers (individually or in bulk) from the main computer at the front of the room; projecting information onto them, creating mini quizzes, taking full control, writing on them, etc. Overuse of these tools could result in the students going through a whole practical without interacting directly with the LA. I see this as a potentially bad thing. So what I’ve tried to do is avoid using the microphone altogether. Nothing says I need to address the class from the front of the room. I just walk to the middle where everyone can hear me better.

This is what I did the first day, and before I opened my mouth I suddenly felt that sensation I had been warned about by my TA friends: the moment of dread. All of those eyes of students in a required course, some of whom hate physics and don’t want to be there, staring at me, expecting me to do something… after about five seconds it passed and I broke the silence with an overly enthusiastic “HI!”. (I might have scared a few). After that I radiated as much enthusiasm and personality as I could muster. One of the first questions I asked them was: “who here absolutely hates physics?”. Out of a class of about thirty students, seven hands shot up. I’m focusing on those seven. If I can make them curious about physics, the rest will be a piece of cake.

The first practical’s activities were a bit of a drag. They mainly involved analyzing flash simulations of waves. Next practical, however, will be fun. I’ve got it all planned out. The scheduled activity for that practical will be measuring the speed of sound using a standing sound wave in a closed tube. The physics and process behind that experiment is completely analogous to my post about measuring the speed of light with chocolate and a microwave. They will use a microphone to find the pressure nodes (quiet bits: reverse analog of the soft bits of the chocolate), and use this to measure the wavelength for a given frequency (pitch).

My plan is to begin the practical by showing this youtube video. It’s a video of a Ruben’s Tube (if you haven’t seen a Ruben’s Tube you must watch that video). The physics behind the shape of the flame in a Ruben’s Tube is the same physics they will be using in their activity. With a Ruben’s Tube you could just take a ruler and measure the wavelength directly since you can see the shape of the wave in the fire. Unfortunately for the students, they won’t have that spectacular representation of the wave and will have to resort to using a microphone to find the quiet bits.

I’ve been keeping notes of ideas I have to make the practicals better. My plan is to get as much feedback from the students as possible. Hopefully some fine tuning will get everyone’s enthusiasm resonating throughout the practicals.