Becoming an Undergraduate TA

A second future goal of mine is to eventually go into education. I find so much joy from educating others and making science accessible to anyone who wants to learn. With this, I want to start my education career by becoming an undergraduate TA. Currently at University of Washington, there are no undergraduate TA positions for marine biology classes but a couple of professors have expressed interest in having an undergraduate to assist with the course. I will reach out to these professors and if they are all not able to have an undergraduate TA, I will reach out to my dance professors and assist in teaching a studio based class.

One major concern of having an undergraduate TA is that they won’t be as helpful as a graduate TA but this worry has been proven false. It was seen in "Undergraduate teaching assistant impact on student academic achievement" by , Stephanie B. Philipp, Rich R. Tretter, and Christine V. Thomas found no significant difference in exam grades between students with an undergraduate or graduate TA in the same class with the same learning material (Phillip et al. 2016). This study also mentioned that having an undergraduate TA positively impacted the students and "reinforced a sense of science identity in their students” (Phillip et al. 2016) which is a skill I would love to bring to my future class .

Me during the grade 3 outreach project during my time at Friday Harbor Labs gaining teaching experience to use in the future.

Additionally, having TA’s enhances students’ ability to retain information, specifically in STEM as seen in “The Impact of Teaching Assistants on Student Retention in the Sciences” by Christopeher O’Neal, Mary Wright, Constance Cook, Tom Perorazio, and Joe Purkiss. This study found that prospective STEM undergraduates were more likely to pursue a major in STEM and an element based on "enthusiasm from the TA”. Students said that the TA made the lab more fun, easier, and interesting by providing personal anecdotes and creating a positive learning environment.

From this experience I hope to learn and develop my own modes of teaching to leave a positive impact on my students. Additionally, I want to gain knowledge on what goes behind the scenes on lesson planning and time management between teaching, office hours, and grading. I also hope to gain connections through meeting new people; professors, graduate students, other TA’s, and students. Being an undergraduate TA is an amazing opportunity to expand my knowledge and web of people in the marine biology and education field before I embark on my teaching career.

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