So I've just started the second week of my new part-time job. I work at Laney College, the very same college where I was a student just a few short months ago and may possibly be a student again if me and Financial Aid can ever come to terms. The department I work in is "Environmental Controls Technology (ECT)" and I'm a lab assistant for the ECT 1 class also known as "Physics in Building Performance". The students are rising juniors and seniors in high school and they get some college credit for the class.
Basically my job is to help the teacher (Mr. Douglas, PE) wherever he needs help. I show the students how to use the lab equipment and certain particulars. For instance when they ask "Where is the ammeter/voltmeter/ohmmeter?" I have to remind them that a Digital Multimeter is an all-in-one miracle. We talk about the symbols for AC/DC and reading schematics. Before class I help set up the labs and write the procedures but I also help during the lecture portion. See, this is a 5 week class that is a quarter's worth of knowledge and it's a lot of knowledge. Especially when it comes to the basics of Electricity. The teacher I work for studied Mechanical Engineering whereas I'm a fairly recent graduate in Electrical Engineering Technology so I remember alot more about Circuit Theory. The students really jog my brain, I haven't had the time to read every chapter they have to read so there are times when they raise their hand "Jazz!" or "Jasmine!" and I''m staring at an equation I haven't seen in years. Then it is my responsibility to refresh my memory in such a way that I can show them how to do a problem I just saw. Being a computer instructor I have a lot of practise with that, students are always asking me about software and website I've never/rarely used. But like computers, math can become fairly intuitive once you've done for awhile. I remember a lot of the mnemonics we used in high-school and college such as "Watt is a unit of Power? Yes!" and that helps some and entertains most.
The best part is just being able to help high-school students understand some of the concepts they may have to learn more once they go to college. Alot of them want to go to school for engineering, biology, computer science, pre-med, etc. They ask me a lot of questions about what college is like, East Coast college I'd recommend, and just how hard is the Engineering Major. It seems to be informing them without discouraging them, which can be hard since all of those majors are tough but college in general is an adjustment no matter what your major.
My favourite piece of equipment so far is the "Xplorer GLX" by Pasco, I so want one of those for my very own. I'll have to talk about that next time.
till then,
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