In the fall semester of 2018, I had the opportunity to teach a first-year engineering seminar at Virginia Tech.Through this role I worked with 80 freshman males, helping them to transition into college and learn the skills they would need to be successful in college. This position was my first opportunity to serve as “instructor of record” in a classroom; I had complete freedom to teach the material in whatever manner I chose, a feat that was intimidating in the beginning. Throughout the semester, however, I developed personal relationships with many of my students, allowing me to better understand the challenges they faced and helping me to work these challenges into the curriculum. When paired with my engineering education courses, I learned several techniques through teaching this course that I plan on replicating in future teaching roles. I also got into the habit of being a metacognitive instructor, constantly reflecting on my experience and working to improve my teaching approach as I move along.

The Rising Sophomore Abroad Program (RSAP) is a unique opportunity for rising sophomores in engineering to develop their global competency. During the program, students take a semester-long course and travel to a foreign country for two weeks at the conclusion of the semester. For me, this two-part opportunity consisted of teaching the Friday section of the course and traveling to China at the end of the semester. Through the course I had the chance to design lesson plans and co-teach a class focused on engineering in a Chinese context. These ideas came to life in May as I traveled across the world as one of three track leaders, testing my ability to lead, teach, and navigate in a foreign environment. Though the course is designed to expose rising sophomores to concepts related to global competency, I found that I grew immensely as a track leader and was able to develop my understanding of the global nature of engineering and appreciate the diversity our field has to offer.   

In the first year of my Master’s degree I was granted the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant for the Civil Engineering Materials class at Virginia Tech. My responsibilities included teaching two of the laboratory sections each week, along with holding office hours and teaching lecture in the professor’s absence. Through this course I learned to design a weekly educational experience to reinforce the concepts taught in lecture. My focus was not to simply regurgitate the material, but to provide opportunities to experience the material using a hands-on approach. 

I began each laboratory with a small, discussion-based review of the material being covered that week. The remainder of the period was used to split the students into small groups and apply the concepts via simple experiments. Lastly, they were asked to demonstrate their gained understanding by composing a detailed report with their group. At the end of the semester students praised the time they spent in laboratory and claimed the experience was key to their ultimate understanding of the material. They attributed much of the laboratory’s effectiveness to the small class and group sizes and the ability to engage directly with the materials discussed in lecture. Many appreciated the informal review sessions and found the discussion that took place during the reviews contributed greatly to their success on the course exams.