Almost all graduate students
in the sciences will teach a laboratory at some point in their graduate
careers. Labs should be a process of discovery for students as they uncover
the mechanisms behind important scientific principles. The GSI's role
is to lead students through the learning experience by giving them the
conceptual basis for the lab, and to guide them through the investigation
so they can make discoveries on their own.
Labs are a unique challenge
as they combine many different aspects of teaching, including:
lecturing
organizing group work
leading hands-on learning
asking meaningful questions
creating assignments
evaluating student work
Your goal as a teacher is to
make the most effective use of the lab period in order to give students
a beneficial, hands-on experience of doing science. There are two aspects
to teaching labs that are sometimes difficult to juggle but are interrelated
and complementary:
Pedagogy: determining the
best teaching methods for the desired outcomes
Logistics: ensuring the
experiments go smoothly and that your students understand the tasks
they need to accomplish; helping your students accomplish those tasks
in an efficient and timely manner
Coping with these two aspects
can be daunting at times. However, a smooth-running, efficient lab section
need not be mutually exclusive with using sound pedagogical techniques
that provide your students with a successful learning experience.
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