Teaching
The Learning Assistant Program
At UCLA, I was a Head LA and a Program Development Team member for the Learning Assistant (LA) Program. The Learning Assistant (LA) Program at UCLA allows undergraduates who have previously taken a course to facilitate 20-30 student discussion sections or labs alongside graduate student TAs and course instructors. LAs also learn about collaborative learning and inclusive pedagogy during our quarterly seminar and apply these skills in large introductory STEM courses. More about the LA program can be found on their website here.
I LA'd for the following classes throughout my time at UCLA:
Physics 4AL: Mechanics Laboratory for Scientists & Engineers
1 section; Fall 2020 with Dr. Ni
1 quarter as Pedagogy Head (Fall 2020); 1 quarter as Logistics Head
Physics 4AL is the first introductory physics laboratory taken by physics and engineering majors. The newly revamped course consisted of four units: a tutorial unit on Arduino and Python coding; an unit on 1D motion; an unit on momentum/oscillations; and a final project. Through this course, students received an introduction into Arduino and Python and conducted lab experiments on basic mechanics principles. Python principles used in this class were basic flow of control and functions; SciPy nonlinear and linear regressions; and analytical and numerical differentiation.
Physics 4BL: Electromagnetism Laboratory for Scientists & Engineers
1 section in Spring 2020, 3 sections in Summer 2020A + B with Dr. Arisaka
1 quarter as Logistics Head
Physics 4BL is the second introductory physics laboratory and consisted of four units: a tutorial unit on Arduino and Python coding; an unit on oscillations and sound waves; a unit on more complex circuits (including RLC); and a final project. Python principles used in this class included nonlinear and linear regressions; Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) and spectrograms; and sinusoidal regression.
Physics 1C: Electrodynamics, Optics, and Special Relativity
2 sections in Spring 2021 with Dr. Hauser
1 quarter as Logistics Head
Physics 1C is the third introductory physics course for physics and engineering majors. In this course, students learn magnetism (Ampere's Law, Biot-Savart); Maxwell's equations and electromagnetic waves; geometric and physical optics (lenses, mirrors, and diffraction/interference); and special relativity (Lorentz transformations, 4-vectors, time dilation). This course requires multivariable calculus and linear algebra as pre- or co-requisites.
Chemistry 113A: Quantum Chemistry
Chemistry 113A is the second upper-division physical chemistry course taken by Chemistry majors. In this course, students learn how to solve the Schrodinger equation for the hydrogen atom, rotational/vibrational spectroscopy, variational methods, and perturbation theory. Along the way, necessary math skills were re-introduced, such as solving PDEs through separation of variables, eigenfunctions/eigenvectors, and Fourier transforms.
Program Development Team
During the 2021-2022 school year, I worked with Dr. Shanna Shaked, three graduate pedagogy seminar TAs, and 7 other experienced Head LAs in the Program Development Team as part of the Pedagogy, (Physical) Chemistry, and Social Media divisions.
I directly managed 60+ pedagogy head LAs every quarter, proposed changes to streamline and enhance the quarterly pedagogy seminar, revamped the program's instagram, and maintained Javascript code on Google Forms to send feedback to 600+ LAs multiple times a quarter. I also helped expand the program to physical chemistry (Chem 20A/Chem 113A), biochemistry (Chem 153A), and earth science (EPSS 71/171) courses.