by Oxana Andriuc, Chemistry Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2022 Learning about quantum chemistry for the first time can be intimidating—all of a sudden, you find out that everything you know about classical physics is not always true: an electron does not simply behave like a tiny, tiny marble, but instead…
by Katherine Bruhn, South and Southeast Asian Studies Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 A key learning outcome in Reading & Composition courses is the ability to identify original research topics. For most students this can be daunting. In order to structure this task, I require my students to center their…
by Katherine Blackford, Chemistry Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 Each time I have taught organic chemistry, students have come to me wondering why, even after memorizing all of the necessary content, they still struggled to solve exam problems. They have mentioned running out of time after realizing too late that…
by Douglas Epps, Social Welfare Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 With a global pandemic, an international racial justice movement, and ongoing threats to US democratic institutions, 2020 was a year of many sobering first-time experiences. It also marked my first and second time in the role of acting instructor, teaching…
by Ella Hiesmayr, Statistics Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 One effective way of making content accessible to a wide range of people is to present the material in a variety of formats. It is common to teach mathematical courses by relying mainly on material in text form, but some mathematical…
by Christopher Jelen, Classics Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 After teaching Latin 1, the first semester of Latin, and Greek 15, the intensive Greek workshop, I noticed a recurring problem that arose early in these courses. Many students were deeply uncomfortable making mistakes in class and would avoid situations where…
by Ellis Kennedy, Materials Science and Engineering Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 Materials Science & Engineering 104 is a laboratory course taken by not only materials science and engineering students, but also international concurrent enrollment students and students from other majors because it offers hands-on exposure to techniques that are…
by Mallika Bariya, Materials Science and Engineering Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 Challenge: In the first fully remote semester of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was a GSI for Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) 45L, a core lab course. Labs revolve around hands-on participation and pose a unique challenge for remote…
by Anna Mikkelborg, Political Science Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 When I learned that the first course I would teach at Berkeley would be offered not only remotely, but asynchronously, I was a bit disappointed. I’d been looking forward to leading a classroom of Introduction to American Politics students in…
by Chitraang Murdia, Physics Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2021 Remote teaching has come with its own challenges for everyone. One major challenge faced by most instructors is the lack of student participation and engagement. Traditional teaching styles like lectures and supervised problem-solving sessions have not been successful at mitigating this…