Molecular Biology AI Manual

Introduction

This AI training manual is designed to address issues specific to teaching courses in Molecular Biology. It is an attempt to provide AIs for all classes with useful information and tips that will make the teaching experience more enjoyable and beneficial.

This manual would not exist if it were not for several other resources, from which we liberally exerpted material. In particular , we wish to thank the Yale University Working in Teaching (WAT) program for sharing their manual with us. We encourage you to look up their web page, and the others listed below for more information on teaching, both specifically in the sciences and more generally for many levels and areas.

1. http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~watteach/
2. http://www.tiac.net/users//pmgannon/teaching.html
3. http://science.coe.uwf.edu/narst/narst.html
4. http://nagps.varearch.com/NAGPS/academic/teaching.html
5. http://www.wisc.edu/cels/

We are also indebted to the generosity of the Office of the Dean of the Graduate School and specifically to Dean Redman and his assistants for kindly providing us with copies of the Princeton University AI Training Manual. We encourage all AIs to read this handbook as much of the material is directly relevant to being a successful AI in the department of Molecular Biology.

Lastly, we encourage anyone who has ideas or comments about this manual to send their suggestions to the members of the Teaching Pilot Program.

Happy Teaching.

Table of Contents

• Life as an AI
  • The Reality of Being a TA
  • Estimate Your Workload
  • Make a Weekly Schedule
  • Know Your Priorities
  • Know Your Responsibilities
  • Set Limits and Boundaries
  • Dealing With Your PI
  • If All Else Fails...
• Before the Semester Starts
  • Policies and Rules
  • Goals
  • Classroom Mechanics
• The First Class
  • Getting to Know Your Students
  • Setting Policies
  • Precept Structure
• Preparing for Each Week
  • Choosing Material to Cover
  • Preparing for Class
  • Taking Care of Business
  • Organization
  • Teaching Tips
  • Teaching Tips for Lab Sections
• Building a Group Dynamic
  • The Precept
  • The Laboratory Setting
  • Avoiding Stereotypes
  • Dealing With Difficult Students
• Providing Guidelines for Scientific Writing
  • Tips to Help Your Students Become Better Scientific Writers
  • "The Lab Report"
• Writing Problem Sets and Questions
  • Structuring a Problem Set
  • Writing Clear Questions
• Grading and Evaluation
  • Establishing Standards
  • Grading Fairly
  • Grading Tips
  • Responding to Written Work
  • Dealing with Regrades
• Additional Materials
  • From an Undergraduate's Perspective
  • Some Web Sites of Interest
  • Education Periodicals of Interest
  • Teaching Tips List
  • The "What-If" List
  • Department of Molecular Biology Faculty and Courses