Teaching Evaluations and Feedback

If you would like to return to my main page, please click here

If you would like to return to my portfolio page, please click here

Highlights of Student Evaluations

Representative highlights from students’ written feedback across the laboratory courses I have taught during my PhD are below.

Spring 2023 PHYS1292 Physics Laboratory II for Pre-Med Students

This is a mandatory laboratory course for undergraduate students in the Pre-Med track at Columbia University. Almost all students take this laboratory concurrently with the second semester of introductory physics. I taught this course to one section of 15 students, and we met once a week for 180 minutes. 10 students filled out a mid-semester survey.

In-class interactions and environment:

“Giancarlo is the best TA I have had during [my eight semesters]. He clearly cares about all of us, individually and together, and wants us to learn.”

Teaching:

“The prelab lectures done by Giancarlo have very much helped me this semester, because of how informative and well done they are.”

“I’ve found the content review prior to actually completing the lab very helpful – it ties in both theory/content and experimental processes very nicely. It’s also been helping with reviewing lecture material.”

“I wish he was teaching my lecture class.”

Feedback (in response to “What has helped your learning?”):

“constructive feedback on lab reports”

Fall 2022 PHYS1291 Physics Laboratory I for Pre-Med Students

This is a mandatory laboratory course for undergraduate students in the Pre-Med track at Columbia University. Almost all students take this laboratory concurrently with the first semester of introductory physics. I taught this course to two sections: one with 15 students, the other with 12. Each section met once a week for 180 minutes. 20 students filled out a mid-semester survey.

In-class interactions and environment:

“Giancarlo does a great job of keeping the class engaged.”

“ He’s also very patient and kind and goes out of his way to make sure we understand what is happening. Very glad he is our TA.”

“[He makes] sure we understand the material and is always available to ask any questions we have. He is very helpful during experiments when we are lost! He also maintains a very good energy during this section, which helps on the energy of the class too.”

“Very approachable when we have confusions.”

“Giancarlo is super helpful and supportive during our labs.”

Teaching:

“He goes over the labs in depth and ensures that everyone knows what’s going on before we start.” “Giancarlo takes time to explain concepts and answer our questions. Best experience so far.”

Feedback:

“His feedback is always helpful and productive.”

“He also gives good actionable feedback on lab reports.”

Comments from observations:

Representative highlights from peers’ and observers’ feedback across the laboratory courses I have taught during my PhD are below.

Mid-Course Review of Fall 2023 PHYS1494 Physics Laboratory for Engineers

A Mid-Course Review of my course section was conducted by a Teaching Consultant. The consultant met with my students for 15-30 minutes and gathered completely anonymous feedback from them. Below you will a find highlights of what the consultant reported back to me.

PHYS1494 is a mandatory laboratory course for undergraduate students in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University. They have already taken two semesters of introductory Physics (covering mechanics, electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics). I taught this course to one section of 12 students, and we met once a week for 180 minutes.

Feedback:

“the class found the comments on their lab reports extensive and detailed … students found the feedback meaningful and relevant and saw the corresponding boost in performance.”

In-class interactions:

“Many students find it very helpful that Giancarlo goes around the classroom and checks in on groups throughout the lab section. He always asks them questions, which stimulates more thought and helps lead them towards where they are supposed to be at the end of the lab.”

Peer observation of Spring 2023 PHYS1292 Physics Laboratory II for Pre-Med Students:

“Overall, I think you did a fantastic job. I want to particularly highlight the moment you got a student up to the board. It is often really difficult to get a student to come up to the board, but you got an answer out of them, acted confused, and asked them to show you. This was masterfully done and I’m really impressed. Overall, in terms of engagement and active learning, you’ve really done an awesome job.”

Organization:

“Your organization was clear and effective. By the end of the lecture, I was able to tell what your goal was and how you thought about structuring it. You very clearly understood the material and knew how you wanted to convey this to the students.”

In-class interactions:

“The engagement is great, most students are participating and seem to really enjoy participating, and you were able to get people up to the board. You also asked students to help you with every step. This obviously slows things down, but for a very good reason.