My Teaching Experience at Cornell

Fall '91

Recitation T.A. for Math 191, calculus for Engineers. Received high student evaluations.

Spring '92

Instructor for Math 111, 1st-semester calculus ( general purpose course, mainly for Arts/Sci majors, pre-med, pre-business, College of Human Ecology, etc )

Graduate students are assigned to an Instructorship position in their first year only if they have demonstrated excellence in teaching.

Fall '92

Instructor for Math 112, 2nd-semester calculus ( Continuation of Math 111 )

On my own initiative, I introduced cooperative learning in my class (students working in groups). Student comments .

Spring '93

Instructor for Math 112

On my own initiative, I:

Introduced cooperative learning in my class. Student comments .
Took my students toMath Department Seminars on Undergraduate Teaching.
Authored my own Activity, , the Calculator Puzzler for my students, about Taylor Series and the Remainder Theorem.
Introduced Oral Exams for my students. Student evaluations

Student ratings averaged 4.5 out of 5 for overall teaching. Nearly 5 out of 5 for Instructor enthusiasm and approachability.

Attended the voluntary day-long (Saturday, Sept 12) T.A. Development Workshop organized by Cornell's office of Instructional Support.

Handling Classroom Discussions; Lecturing; Handling Classroom Problems; Micro-Teaching

In this and subsequent semesters, I attended and participated in the Department's Occasional Seminal on Undergraduate Teaching led by Tom Rishel .

Fall '93

Instructor for Math 112.

Continued using cooperative learning in my class. Introduced also student presentations at the board. Continued receiving high ratings on student evaluations.

From Fall '93, leading to Spring '95, I was a leader of the Calculus Reform initiative by a handful of Cornell graduate students. Initiated many of the key steps which led to the Math Department's introduction of special sections of Math 112 in the Spring of '95.

See the page on the History of Calculus Reform at Cornell . See also Spring '95, Fall '95, and Spring '96 semesters, below.

Spring '94

Teaching Assistant with Professor David Henderson for Math 454.

(Describe here Henderson's innovative teaching methods, my integral involvement in the back-and-forth 'dialogue' we both engaged in with the students, and his just published textbook)

Sat in on the Math Education seminar led by Professor David Henderson (Mathematics) and Professor Jere Confrey (Education), where articles on Multiculturalism and Mathematics were discussed.

Fall '94

Grader for graduate-level course in topology, Math 561, taught by my advisor Professor Allen Hatcher.

Gave a talk at the Department's Occasional Seminar on Undergraduate Teaching about the motivation behind and plans for brining projects-based calculus to Cornell, entitled Calculus Reform at Cornell: Why Reform? (Monday, November 14, 1994)

Attended the MAA Seaway Section conference held at Rochester (November).

Spring '95

Over Winter Break, worked extensively to develop a fairly detailed syllabus and course-work for the projects-based sections of Math 112. (See the page on the History of Calculus Reform at Cornell )

Selected as one of two graduate students (along with Lisa Orlandi ) to teach two special projects-based sections of Math 112. Continued to develop, with Lisa Orlandi, the syllabus and course-material for the course throughout the semester. Gave a talk at the Department's Occasional Seminar on Undergraduate Teaching together with Lisa, on our experiences teaching the special sections.

See the page on the History of Calculus Reform at Cornell for more details; see the section on Spring '95, and the whole document generally.

See the Student Comments from my students, that semester.

(Those are mostly about the course in general (although there were all taken from my section); type in some of the student comments praising me/my teaching in particular)

Also...

Gave expository talk at the Math Department's graduate Olivetti Club entitled DNA: The next Generation Computer?" (Tuesday, March 28)

Attended the MAA Seaway Section conference held at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Saturday, April 22). The Math Department paid for myself and Rachel Hastings to attend. [Other pages: Info Page about HWS Colleges . And pages of Math and CS Departments at HWS Colleges ]

Fall '95

Selected, together with Professor David Henderson to teach two special projects-based sections of Math 112.

Gave a talk at the Department's Occasional Seminar on Undergraduate Teaching together with Professor David Henderson, on our experiences teaching the special sections.

See the page on the History of Calculus Reform at Cornell , Fall '95, for more information, including Professor David Henderson's Report to the Curriculum Committee

Gave a presentation together with Lisa Orlandi about our involvement in Calculus Reform at Cornell at the national MER Workshop (The workshop was held at the Statler Hotel, Cornell University, Nov 16-19)

Wrote an article, Special Projects-Oriented Sections of Math 112: the Saga Continues for Math Department's Undergraduate News (Vol 3, No 1, November '95). The Undergraduate News newsletter also covered the projects-based sections in it's November '94 issue.)

I gave an undergraduate-level version of my talk on Molecular Computation , "Using DNA as a Computer" at the Wells College Science Colloquium, on Friday Dec 8th 1995.

Spring '96

Teaching a third semester of projects-based calculus, continuing to develop the course.

Enrolled in the course Educational Issues in the Teaching of Undergraduate Mathematics taught by Professor David Henderson

Friday, Jan. 26, Feb 9, Feb 23, etc -- Participated in the Math Table -- dinner at Risley, organized by women grad students, to interact with and encourage and support (women in particular, but all) undergraduate Math Majors and Math Major might-wanna-bes.

Saturday, Feb. 3, 1996, 9am-4pm: Attended the Graduate Teaching Development Workshop Attended Workshops on Tutoring and Office Hours (of relevance to 'tutoring' groups of students in Math 112 through their Projects); and Time/Stress Management (the "Not For Women Only" workshop I signed up for, on gender issues, was cencelled due to low enrollement, so I got my 2nd pick here).

Attended Seminar on Undergraduate Teaching with Tom Rishel on the MAA Taskforce, Jan 29; Also Professor Conni Elson of Ithaca College on Surviving at a Small College -- A Report from the Trenches ; Avery Solomon on New Algebra etc (curricular) developments.

Monday Feb. 26, 1996 -- 4:30-6:00pm -- Gave a talk at the Seminar on Undergraduate Teaching describing my experiences at the Graduate Teaching Development Workshops run by Cornell's Office of Instructional Support.

Thursday, Mar. 21, 1996 -- Gave invited talk, hosted by the Pi Mu Epsilon Mathematics Honor Society (right name?), Using DNA as a Computer at Ithaca College (like the Wells College talk, this is as part of the Pew Program....[a few more details here]). See my page on Molecular Computation

Publshed Math 112 Continues the Tradition in Undergraduate News (Vol 3-2, March 1996) by the Cornell Mathematics Department.

Attended MAA Seaway Section Conference at Elmira College. April 12-13, 1996.

Summer '96

Awarded special TA for Fall '96 to develop projects-based curriculum for Math 111 and to create a Resource Library of materials for both Math 111 and Math 112. Special thanks to Professors David Henderson and Bob Connelly for securing stipend from Gowin Fund and a special Tuition Waiver from the College of Arts & Science.

Fall '96

Working on special TA project; see the Calculus Reform Pages I'm developing.

My article Graduate Student Initiated Calculus Reform soon to be submitted for publication.

[Also busy finishing my thesis...]