So far, I have been singing the praises about the placement with all the experiences and skills that I have learned. But there was a few things in this placement, that I feel, can be done better.
First, there was little to no guidance to how to do the placement at the start of the semester. There were no examples of what previous students had done for lab skills seminars and there was no guidance from the supervisors on what exactly we were supposed to do, and how to do it. I must concede that the lack of guidance allowed us as a group to learn and evolve more quickly than say, if we were told exactly what we were supposed to do because it allowed us to use our critical thinking skills to figure out, what exactly we were supposed to do, and how to do it. Although what is true for us may not be true for another group. For example, the next group of lecturers may not work quite as well as we did, and without instructions or guidance, can compound the effect of a poor group dynamic and prevent the work that is required from being done that meets the expectation of the supervisors. Also, for actually lecturing, there wasn't any actual help on how to prepare for it. I imagine many first lab skills seminars are done quite poorly because of the lack of guidance, and in turn, always provides a poor first impression of the lab skills seminars to students. Also, the material from the first lab may not be covered as effectively as the other labs, just because the lecturers are inexperienced.
Second, the type of work that we had been doing in the placement feels as if a TA should be doing it, but they made this placement to get "free labour" so to speak. Because we are introducing the labs to all of the students, I feel that the TAs in the lab should be doing that with the lab talk. Of course, I am aware of the time constraints there may be in the lab, but the lab skills seminars can be easily replaced with a good lab talk. TAs have a better idea of what the students needs to know in order to complete the lab, while we were kind of shooting in the dark in terms of which concepts should be emphasized because it's important for the lab and what should be left for them to read on their own because it's not as important. Also, there are many small things that are relevant to the lab, but it is impossible for us to predict what those things may be and add them into our slides. Many of these things are not represented in the procedure for the lab and thus, many of these things end up coming up during the LSS when our supervisor speaks up about these small things. The TAs have a better understanding of what actually occurs during a lab, and would be better prepare to address these small things in their lab talk.
Overall, the placement is still quite good as a learning experience, but for the future, I would suggest adding a bit more guidance for the lecturers as they are just starting. Small things like sample work that the previous lecturers have done and small tips on presenting the material would help immensely to help the lecturers who many times, have not been great public speakers to begin with. The small tips are a much needed encouragement for the lecturers. Additionally, a sheet from the supervisors or TAs detailing all the small things that they might need to know for the lab that is not already in the lab manual should be given to the lecturers for each of the labs that are presented to make-up for the lack of knowing what exactly happens during the lab. These can be small things like tips on how to know when the reaction is completed, or some tips on techniques, or big things like how much yield is typically obtained or things that can cause the lab to go terribly wrong if these steps are done incorrectly. With these things, I feel that the lecturers, and more importantly, the students we are lecturing, will benefit more from the placement.
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