Teaching Requirement

Gaining teaching experience is an integral part of a graduate student's education. Developing essential teaching skills is not only beneficial during one's time as a student but also provides PhD students with valuable experience for future careers. To ensure all our students acquire adequate teaching experience, we have established the following requirements:

TA requirement

Students must work for at least one quarter as a Teaching Assistant, either in a lecture course or a laboratory course in order to fulfill the department’s teaching requirement.

Physics 500

All incoming graduate students are required to enroll in PHYS 500 Instruction In Physics Teaching during the Fall quarter. This course includes discussion of teaching, techniques and materials necessary to teach physics courses.

Additional TA Training Resources:

Teaching + Learning Commons

In addition to department-specific training, the Teaching + Learning Commons (the Commons) offers various teaching resources for educators including optional individual consultations, workshops in topics related to TA development, newsletters and a sourcebook of teaching ideas. Participation in these workshops is highly encouraged.