Teaching
Teaching
I want every student to leave a physics course able to plan a solution when presented with an unfamiliar problem, judge whether an answer makes sense, and trust that they can work through hard ideas. This page describes how I teach, what I've taught, and what I've learned from students along the way.
Philosophy
How I teach
Help students take ownership of learning.
Students learn most effectively when they actively construct their own mental models of physics rather than passively receive solutions. My job is to provide them with the scaffolding for self-learning, by giving them clear conceptual foundations, helping them connect ideas, and structuring the practice that gets them there.
Make physics relevant.
Students bring diverse backgrounds, strengths, and learning preferences to the classroom, and I strive to take advantage of this diversity by offering multiple pathways into the course material, and making physics relevant to their own experience.
Remove barriers.
An effective learning environment should be free of distraction. That means streamlining the course logistics and reducing the amount of non-physics concerns for students as much as possible. Instead of tracking deadlines and course policies, students should be able to devote more attention to learning actual physics.
Assess often.
Learning is not a one-way street and often requires course correction. Students learn most efficiently though practice and making mistakes. This is why I believe in frequent, formative assessments. In particular, I use in-class polls to see where students are and fix misconceptions in real time. I also allow students to work through their mistakes in quizzes and earn back points.
Keep the bar high, and help students reach it.
Keeping a rigorous curriculum doesn't mean giving students only hard problems, but rigorous assessments have to let students see their own progress. To achieve this, a course must be carefully designed to test different skills separately as well as together, and to clearly reflect students' progress in learning.
Teach physics alongside AI.
AI can now solve most standard physics problems, even at the graduate level, so it is no longer reasonable to expect students to simply reproduce what AI can already do. This reality makes developing real conceptual understanding and transferrable skills a much bigger priority in physics education than ever. I address this challenge by focusing on helping students develop the ability to plan the solution of a physics problem, and to verify and debug a solution given to them.
In practice
Teaching highlights
Course design · PHYS 1A, 2026
Designing a student-centered course
I started preparing three months early by meeting with past instructors, then wrote learning outcomes that fit the department's expectations and the life-science majors taking the course. To help students digest the course material efficiently, I planned every lecture module to follow the same arc: a concept, a simple example, an in-class poll and discussion, a live demonstration (if applicable), a harder integrating example, and a summary of problem-solving tips.
Reflective practice
Learning from my own course
I asked for a peer observation through the Teaching + Learning Commons and used the feedback right away: I added prompts in my slides to pause and read the room, and refocused in-class problems on choosing physical principles and setting up solutions. When quiz averages ran low, I reached out to students to identify the root cause. I realized many students had mastered the individual pieces of the course but were missing links between them, and redesigned my assessment plan around this new realization.
Lab coordination · 2021–2025
Running an introductory lab program
For four years I coordinated PHYS 1AL, the first-year mechanics lab for life science majors, with enrollment ranging from 300 to 1000 each quarter. I trained and supervised more than 50 graduate TAs and 60 undergraduate graders, led instructional-team meetings to keep grading consistent, and redeveloped lab manuals, assignments and rubrics.
Growth as a TA · 2019–2026
Bringing what worked in labs into discussion sections
Early student feedback made me realize that my discussion-section explanations were pitched too high. In the lab, where I coached small groups at their tables, the same students rated my explanations highly. I tried bringing the positives from the labs into my discussion sections by giving students more freedom, providing more scaffolding, and adjusting my presentation each week based on student feedback. By 2026, students described sections where "all students are properly challenged, but no one is left behind."
Student feedback
What students say
"Designed an excellent course where learning (not memorization) is prioritized."
Student, PHYS 1A, Summer 2026
"Made learning less intimidating."
Student, PHYS 1A, Summer 2026
"All students are properly challenged, but no one is left behind."
Student, discussion section, 2026
"Never made me feel like my questions were stupid."
Student, discussion section
Full evaluation reports and summaries are available on request.
Experience
Courses taught
| Course | Title | Term | Role / notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associate Instructor, UC San Diego | |||
| PHYS 1A | Mechanics | Summer Session I & II 2026 | Instructor of record; designed and taught the full course: learning outcomes, lectures, assessments, Canvas site. 80+ students. |
| Lab Course Coordinator (Academic Associate), UC San Diego | |||
| PHYS 1AL | Mechanics Laboratory | Winter 2022 – Fall 2025 | Coordinated 20+ lab sections a quarter; trained TAs and graders; developed lab manuals and rubrics. |
| PHYS 1CL | Waves, Optics & Modern Physics Laboratory | Fall 2021 | |
| Teaching Assistant, UC San Diego | |||
| PHYS 4B | Physics for Majors: Fluids, Waves, Statistical & Thermal Physics | Spring 2026 | Discussion sections |
| PHYS 1C | Waves, Optics & Modern Physics | Winter 2026 | Problem-solving sessions |
| PHYS 12 | Energy and Environment | Winter 2026 | Discussion sections; general education requirement |
| PHYS 1CL | Waves, Optics & Modern Physics Laboratory | Fall 2021 | Lab sections |
| PHYS 2B | Electricity and Magnetism | Spring 2021 | Discussion sections (remote) |
| PHYS 1AL | Mechanics Laboratory | Fall 2020 | Lab sections (remote) |
| PHYS 2A | Mechanics | Spring 2020 | Discussion sections (remote) |
| PHYS 1BL | Electricity & Magnetism Laboratory | Winter 2020, Winter 2021 | Lab sections |
| PHYS 2C | Fluids, Waves, Thermodynamics & Optics | Fall 2019 | Discussion sections |
| Tutor / Academic Intern, UC Berkeley | |||
| PHYSICS 137A | Quantum Mechanics | Spring 2018 | |
| COMPSCI 61B | Data Structures | Fall 2017 | |
Professional development
Pedagogical training
- Spring 2026Specialist in Student-Centered College Teaching40-hour Advanced College Teaching course on course design for instructors of record
UC San Diego Teaching + Learning Commons - Feb 2026SciCom TrainingScience communication for informal audiences
UC San Diego MRSEC & Fleet Science Center - Fall 2025Practitioner in Student-Centered College Teaching30-hour Introduction to College Teaching course on evidence-based, equitable teaching practices
UC San Diego Teaching + Learning Commons
Recognition
Teaching awards
- Summer 2026Scholar in Student-Centered College TeachingUC San Diego Teaching + Learning Commons
- Spring 2026Distinguished Senior Graduate Teaching AwardDepartment of Physics, UC San Diego
Resources
Teaching materials
PHYS 2A discussion notes
Mechanics · Spring 2020
Weekly notes and worked problems from my discussion sections.
General relativity notes
Self-study · Graduate level
A slightly more condensed version of Chapters 1–6 of Robert Wald's General Relativity.
More on request
Annotated course syllabi explaining my design choices and sample assessments are available on request.