In this series, I will be sharing my experience as a first-year graduate student chemistry teaching assistant (TA) at UW-Madison. It will include lessons I’ve learned and helpful tips for first-time chemistry TAs.
What are chemistry teaching assistants (TAs)?
A chemistry teaching assistant is usually a graduate student who manages a small (~20 students, class size can vary) chemistry discussion section or lab. TAs facilitate discussion sections, which means they guide students to problem solve in groups. They are also responsible for supervising and leading labs for their sections.
At UW-Madison, TAs are not expected to create worksheets or study guides for their students. Instead, TAs are encouraged to direct students to already available resources. The chemistry department here has many study materials including workbooks, online homework, free online textbook, class slides, prelab worksheets, keys, etc.
Why do I have to TA?
Why do graduate students work as TAs? Many chemistry PhD programs are advertised as “free” tuition with an additional stipend. It’s “free” because you’re working as a TA to cover your PhD tuition. Each department or professor has different requirements for TAing. In my program, most students TA for their entire first year (2 semesters).
Students continue to TA until their professor/advisor decides that they can become a research assistant (RA). When this happens, the student no longer has to TA and can focus on research instead. Now, the professor covers the cost of the student’s PhD tuition.
Sometimes, students may receive awards with external funding (scholarships, fellowships, etc) that cover their tuition. In these cases, they no longer have to TA, or only have to teach 1 section for 1 semester for the experience.
It’s important to understand that being a chemistry PhD student is not free. You are still working to cover the cost of it. It just doesn’t come out of your paycheck. The darker side of this deal is that you may get an advisor who will avoid putting you on RA because of “funding issues.”
I don’t know much about how academic funding works, so I don’t want to assume anything. However, that means you will have to TA for longer, which may delay your research and graduation progress.
What do TAs have to do?
This may vary by university and department, but here’s what I did as a TA:
- Attend orientation (30-40 hrs, 1 week before first semester of teaching)
- Attend whole-class (aka lecture) and assist with active learning activities like Tophat (3 hr/week)
- Prepare for and teach discussion and labs (12 hr/week)
- Grade quizzes and lab reports (2 hr/week)
- Tutor at the chemistry help desk (1 hr/week)
- Proctor and grade exams (5hr x 4 times per semester)
- Attend staff meetings (1 hr/week)
- Total hours: ~15-20 hrs per week, about 340 hrs/semester
As you can see from the hourly breakdown, it turns out to be 15-20 hours per week, which is a part-time job. And this is AFTER you’ve transitioned into the role. When I first started, I spent a LOT more time and effort than I needed to, and that drained me. In my next posts, I’ll share my experience teaching in the first vs second semester.
I hope that you enjoyed reading about my personal experience and takeaways from my chemistry PhD journey. If you’d like to chat more about what I’ve shared, feel free to send me an email at hello@brittanytrinh.com or send me a message on Twitter and Instagram @brttnytrnh.