Learning Goals

Looking back at my learning goals that I did in the middle of the semester, I was surprised to see that they had never changed.  Usually when I am involved in something as dynamic as this course, I usually would have a change of opinions and views on what I am doing.  But this time, it seems that I have been focused on my learning goals since the beginning.  My learning goals were:

1) To improve my presentation skills

Natalia and I presenting together for the only time in the placement (I had replaced Taleen this Friday to accomodate for her schedule that week).

Because this placement is so heavy on presentations (I had to present once a week for the past 11 weeks), this would naturally be my first learning goal.  In the past, I had always felt extremely nervous when I had to present something for my coursework since I've had some pretty terrible  experiences when I was in middle and high school presenting things.  I would typically be so nervous to the point that I don't even know what I'm saying anymore and it was just so dreadful.  For my first presentation, my old presentation habits had kicked into full gear and I was extremely nervous.  My speech was filled with ummmms, random, awkward pauses, and general forgetfulness to what I was presenting and trying to explain (even though I had practiced it, and I am still able to recall the material from the course when I was practicing).   But after my last lab skills seminar, I felt as if I had been presenting all my life.  Of course, there's always room for improvement, but when I was up in front of the class for the last time. I felt no anxiety at all, which is an extremely sharp change to what I was at the beginning. 

 After the first lab skills seminar, Mario (my partner) and I had given the class a survey to evaluate our presentation skills and the general usefulness of the lecture.  Needless to say, we had some pretty poor reviews.  With the way we were presenting, I don't blame them for giving us poor reviews.  Mario felt pretty bad and we decided that we would not let it happen again.  So after that, we worked even harder to improve ourselves and to ensure we are able to present the material in a way that enforces learning.  We did this by going over the lecture slides that we have made at least twice before each lecture in the form of dry runs with our friends as an audience.  After the last lab skills seminar, we gave our students the same survey, and I'm happy to say, that we have improved tremendously.  Below is the data from the surveys that we have conducted, at the beginning and at the end of our placement.  

Our survey results from the beginning of the placement (first lecture), to the end of the placement (last lecture).

 

This is the survey results from the first survey that we gave to our students.  Note, the questions of the first survey are the same as the final survey.  Q1: The lab skills seminars have helped me better understand the lab theories, procedures, and techniques.  Q2: The mentor’s know the subject material taught by him/her very well and can explain thoroughly without regurgitating what’s in the lab manual. Q3: I would highly recommend other students to attend the lab skills seminar because I could see my performance improve after attending the seminars. Q4: The mentors were organized, confident, and clear during the presentation. From the graphs, you can plainly see that the students were not impressed by our first presentation.  Most of the responses were clearly negative and we were not helping them at all.  Clearly, this has to be corrected.  At least we knew that we couldn't do any worse.

Here are the results of the second survey.  As you can see, most of the responses are generally positive.  Although there is a small amount of people who are still not satisfied, the majority of the students are, and that in itself is a great achievement for me, especially when looking back at the first survey.

2) To improve teaching skills

Natalia and I helping a student with a question.

This one is a new learning goal that was not part of my original goals.  This goal evolved from my personal experience as I was doing the placement.  I had never noticed this before as a student; that what the student wants from the teacher can be surprisingly different from what the lecturer may be doing.  To draw from my experience, when we created our first Powerpoint slides, it was quite heavy in the theory into the lab, and less about the actual lab techniques because, in our eyes, was quite simple (reflux just involves heating with a condenser on top).  But when we started looking at the surveys, we found that they wanted us to do more "dry labs" and focus more on procedure, rather than the more complicated theory behind it, which, we thought, would benefit them more because the quizzes are typically on the theory.  Also, they didn't like it when we quickly glanced over some parts of the theory that were quite simple to us, and that was covered thoroughly in lecture already.  They liked it when we explained every little detail in the theory, regardless of whether it was simple or complex.  So from then on, we catered to our audience and focused more on the lab procedure, and the techniques.  Although this is similar to my goal of improving my presentation skills, it's fundamentally different.  Presenting to students is much more different than teaching to students.  When presenting, you're just conveying information.  But with teaching, you're also conveying information but in a way that is clear, concise, and understandable to allow for learning to occur.  This distinction is important to me because in the future, I want to be a university professor or a high school teacher teaching chemistry.  The survey results also support that my teaching skills have also been improving, alongside my presentation skills.

3) Build a better relationship with my supervisor

The LSS team and Wanda!  We all pitched in for a card and a gift (she's holding it) for Wanda and Lana.

Because I am considering a career in organic chemistry, whether it is teaching or research or working in a private company, I know it's important to start networking in my field of study.  My supervisors, Lana and Wanda, have worked at private companies, performing various roles such as Quality Control.  This undoubtedly means that they have some sort of connections within the industry.  But regardless of building connections, it's, in general, a good thing to maintain good relations with your supervisor as they can be there for you if you need any help as you navigate through your adult life.  I have no doubt in my mind that my team and I have built a closer relationship with Wanda and Lana through the hard work we put into our placement.  It's very clear that they acknowledge how much work we've put for them, and how much we respect them as not only our supervisors, but our mentors as well. 

The LSS team and Lana!  We all embarrassed her when we surprised her with our gift to her.

4) Learning to work better as a team

Just like presentations, working as a team is fundamental when out in the workforce.  Most jobs require interacting, and working together, with one or more people to finish a specific task.  Because these lab skills seminars are done as a group, as well as presenting in a pair, learning about group dynamics in a relatively risk-free environment is a plus for this placement.  Even though we are all friends now, there was a surprising amount of butting heads within the group.  

The team meeting with Lana for our bi-weekly meetings.

Each of us has our own unique strengths and weaknesses, and conflicting ideas on how to do this.  For example, I like to make the lecture slides more brief than detailed, and then make sure I explain everything to the students during the lecture.  Mario, on the other hand, likes to put everything into the slides, including all the fine detail.  I personally hate presenting those slides because I hate memorizing what is written on the slides so it doesn't look like I'm just reading off the slides.  Although this difference didn't really affect our work that much, but we did spend a lot of time fixing our problem with the slides and making concessions, which is what a good team is supposed to do.

I had given each of my group members a survey to do.  Of course, because we are such a small group, it’s pretty hard to do the survey anonymously, but I still got them to answer my questions honestly.  I had asked them two things that they liked, and two things that they didn't like about me in our group.  Most of them said that they liked that I put a lot of effort into what we were doing, but they berated me for being so casual and not taking things as seriously as they do.  I guess next time I work in a group, I should take things much more seriously, even if it doesn't impact the work that I put in.  The impression that I make on my group members is important to when they consider my contributions to the team.