Congratulations to graduate student Matthew Zajac, who has won the Physical Sciences Teaching Prize! Every year the PSD recognizes up to three graduate students for their exceptional teaching of undergraduates in physical sciences courses.
What students have to say about Matt: Matt is an incredible TA, not only has he proven to be incredibly knowledgeable with the material, but he has also been able to develop relationships with students that make them excited to come to discussions or office hours. We felt like we were part of a team working through problems in a fun environment. Matt was clearly invested in his students' success, taking immense pride in his students' accomplishments and improvements. Matt is a phenomenal TA. He showed outstanding commitment to the class as a whole and spent time investing in the academic achievements of each individual member. He made sure everybody was comfortable asking questions and felt welcome in his section. He has been my absolute favorite TA at this school. He showed constant effort in helping us with every little question and put an immense effort into extra things such as review sessions. He is extremely hard working, enthusiastic and dedicated to helping students understand Organic Chemistry. Tonight at our review session, he bought us pizza! Approachable, friendly and truly cares about his students. His enthusiasm is contagious. My knowledge has exponentially increased since switching into Matt's section. He helped me appreciate and enjoy O-Chem. Matt's passion for chemistry is truly contagious – I would not have succeeded without him! He taught me how to think like a chemist.
What Matt has to say about his students and his experiences as a TA:
Is there one anecdote from your TA experience that you feel sums up who you are as a teacher? I had a few students who would come regularly to my office hours to go over questions on their problem sets and lab reports. One particular student would come every week with her problem set marked with where she wanted to ask me a question. For each of these, I would guide her to the answer either by asking her questions that would allow her to come to the answer herself. At one point during one week, she said to me (partially frustrated, partially jokingly) "Why can't you just tell me the answer?!" I told her it was my goal throughout TAing to make sure my students could traverse the problem-solving process necessary to appreciate organic chemistry. Explaining the answer would have given temporary "I get it" moments -- the ability to figure out the process by looking at the answer -- but this would not have foster independent thinking. While it may have been more time-consuming and tedious (for both the teacher and the student), forcing my students to take each step on their own was more beneficial long-term.
We know your students learned a ton from you. What is something you learned from them? I learned many things from them! To name two: (a) when you set high expectations for the quality of work from your students, they become motivated to meet those expectations; (b) people learn and perform best in an environment that is organized, consistent, and safe, and the responsibility to build this environment starts with the teacher.
What is the best part of being a TA? The best part of being a TA was the additional review sessions I would hold before exams. Having a significant number of students come to these optional classes showed me how valuable my assistance was. Furthermore, the non-compulsory nature of these sessions completely changes the learning environment to be more relaxed and naturally discussion-based.
If your students could take away one lesson from your class, what would you like it to be? I want them to remember that the lifelong journey of learning and improving, much like the substance of organic chemistry, is about the process and the mechanisms, not the result. The vast majority of my students will not be chemists in their careers, but the skills they learned in organic chemistry apply to any livelihood. It is invaluable to be able to (i) critically solve a problem, (ii) analyze problems in both forwards and reverse directions, and (iii) apply and combine known concepts to create something novel. This is why I always gave more importance to students showing these abilities in their mental process, rather than the specific answer.