Design&Assessment

As a graduate teaching assistant for the engineering education department, I had the fantastic opportunity to be a part of the pilot-version of the reformation of the Virginia Tech First-Year Engineering Program. We were a team of three TAs and four faculty members that were tasked with revamping the curriculum for the first-semester engineering course (ENGE 1024), as well teaching the revamped course to a pilot group 300+ first-year engineering students. That semester was probably one of the most busy, stressful, and absolutely exhilarating experiences I have had as a graduate student. I learned not only how to manage my time (although my primary obligations were to teach, I was simultaneously serving as a TA, course designer, grader, researcher, student, and department ambassador), I also learned a lot about myself as an educator. For instance, I quickly realized that as wonderful as my upcoming (research-based) lesson plans might look on paper, they will never turn out quite the way I had planned when the time comes to actually teach the lesson. I also was exposed to the challenges of negotiating among competing learning objectives and teaching styles in a way that is productive, all while maintaining students' best interests at heart. I also learned how much I truly enjoy working with students one-on-one during office hours, helping them not only with their homework questions, but also acting as a mentor as they adjust to life as a college engineering students. Needless to say, my experience with the 1024-pilot course was an incredibly invaluable experience that I will forever appreciate.

Below are a few examples that help demonstrate my experience teaching in ENGE 1024.

This example is a sample of the syllabus I helped create during the reformation of the Virginia Tech First-Year Engineering Program. This was the syllabus for the first-semester engineering course (ENGE 1024).

ENGE 1024-Pilot Syllabus

This example is a sample of one of the workshop modules that I acted as one of the lead developers for ENGE 1024. This module topic was focused on introducing students to data acquisition in engineering, as well as to have students practice using Matlab for graphing and understanding engineering data.

Workshop/Lecture agenda overview

Workshop activity

Workshop activity rubric

Post-workshop assignment

Assignment rubric