Spring 2018
I taught two sections of Differential Equations and two sections of Pre-Calculus: Algebra.
For the differential equations courses I used standards based grading and lecture. We were still working out some of the kinks in the standards based grading workflow, so there was a ton of paperwork to juggle, but other than that the semester went really well. I felt confident that the grades I was assigning were representative of the students dispayed ability and knowledge. Standards based grading allowed students the time to master some of the more tricky methods, and allowed me to ask some really invloved modeling problems in a proctored envirnomnet. On reflection, I did not like splitting the material up into first order methods, second order methods, systems of differential equations and then Laplace Transforms. In particular the method for solving linear first order equations is subsumed by the methods for higher order linear equations. I think the course would be have a more coherent narrative if the complexity of the differential equation was considered first and then the degree of the equation. We would then also have more time to discuss applications, visualization and approximation. Dr. Lewis and Dr. Clontz used this re-ordering in his version of the course when they taught it in the fall of 2018 and the spring of 2019 and seem happy with it. In all honesty, the differential equations curriculum is probably a bit too focused on techniques and not focused enough of the more qualitative aspects of the material. My course evluations are below.
The pre-calculus: algebra courses were heavily coordinated by Sonna Farmer. Homework, quizzes, and exams are all administered through myLabsPlus. I have to thank Sonna for assembling all of this as it meant the I did not have to assemble my own materials for the course or spend time grading material from the course. The downside of all of this that I had to lecture in a way that was lined up with the material on myLabsPlus. The lectures were a good excuse to get really good at using tools like Desmos and Geogebra and to have really good board work with lots of different colors. One of my classes for this course met in a large lecture hall where the only real way to administer the course was to lecture from a podium and draw on the screen. I definitely struggled to keep student attention and interaction in this environment.
Fall 2017
I taught three sections of Calculus III. I taught these sections traditionally with lecture, homework, quizzes, and exams. Homework was assigned out of the book and I graded it by hand. This turned out to be a mistake as it took up a ton of my time and many students were using chegg or a similar resource to just copy solutions. The class met four times a week and went well, about as well as this format allows. While we did not cover Stoke's theorem in a way that allowed me to assess students on it, but we did talk about it and some students had very excited reactions. Below are my course evaluations from these three sections.