My Students

Off and on, I've been asked how teaching goes or what my students are like, so that is today's post topic.

I like them.

I mean, I really like them! I have been the TA for Physics 103-104, the non-calculus class for nonmajors. But my students are no lightweights. Most of them are pre-med, pre-vet, or natural science students who have taken or are taking hardcore chemistry and biology classes that I would have struggled with (I nearly didn't pass high school chemistry, and I'm still amazed that I managed to pull a B in my ONE college chemistry class). But the real charm of them is how earnest they are, and how new physics is to them. When I took undergraduate physics, I took the calculus-based class, which is for physics majors and engineers. My classmates and I were more calculating and more jaded. A lot of us already knew the fundamentals of physics and were bored and exasperated. We rolled our eyes at our labs, we were annoyed at doing experiments that we had done before and now viewed as silly. But my pre-med students have never seen this stuff before, and it's awesome how much they learn from doing them.

The other thing is that my students are very far from the stereotypical college party crowd. UAF has the highest average starting age in the U.S., at 25. So a lot of my students are older, returning students who are there of their own volition and not because their parents pushed them. But even my younger, traditional students are uniquely charming. A lot of them still live at home with their parents and/or hold other jobs. They are polite and intelligent, and they don't slouch, roll their eyes, or wear ripped jeans, dirty sneakers, or sweats to class. They are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and awwwwww so sweet! :)

I've also made the interesting observation that UAF has quite a few baby geniuses. Local kids who graduated from high school several years early and who are attending college in their early to mid teens. I'm baffled at and amused by this. I went to one of the top high schools and one of the top undergrad schools in the nation, and I knew a grand total of three baby geniuses. I've met three in under a year of being in Fairbanks. Huh.