PRESENTATION ON LABORATORY DEMONSTRATING Professor Martin Wills Background

PRESENTATION ON LABORATORY DEMONSTRATING Professor Martin Wills Background, You have to do the (one-day) course as it is mimimum requirement of the University for anyone who is going to teach. It's not a requirement of your PG skills course or a PG requirement but it will be useful to you anyway. The University and Departmental policy is that you have to have done the course in order to do paid demonstrating in laboratories. Previous experience of demonstrator training or practice will be taken into account. Extended courses exist for anyone who wishes to develop their teaching further.

Some basic advice: Know what is going on and where things are – it’s a professional job so prepare beforehand! – know which floor you are on/which room you are in, study lab layout, instrument locations and operation, computers, safety equipment, exits! Guide and encourage the undergraduates – learn names, go to them, don’t be sitting on the benches waiting. Be careful about conflicting advice, explain things in detail and the reasons behind any advice you give. Know and understand the experiments in detail – read the manual beforehand, attend prelabs, do it yourself? Suggest improvements and use feedback to make improvements.

Some basic advice: Cope with problems – be consistent if changes are to be made. Mark the write-ups – ensure you understand the marking scheme. Keep records of attendance, marks and results – don’t loose anything. Ensure safety and good order – see later. Ask your supervisor if it is OK before you agree to demonstrate at a particular time.

HOW THE LABS ARE ORGANISED The laboratory course tutor (academic in charge) plans the course writes the course is ultimately responsible. ‘moderates’ your marking fixes the local rota and checks your timekeeping – see form at end. The departmental teaching administrator/director of undergraduate studies: distributes the total Departmental demonstrating work (note that the demonstrating is NOT allocated by the director of graduate studies) The senior undergraduate technician ensures that the equipment is working directs the other technicians The technicians provide technical support; equipment and chemicals (but not necessarily scientific)

SAFETY Make sure that you are familiar with the Departmental safety handbook, and know what Risk and Safety phrases mean (R 18/S 24? ). Who/where are the nearest first aiders? Where is the health centre, what is the emergency no. /where is the ‘phone book? Make sure COSHH assessments are completed before the experiments start. consider what will you do if: 1. someone spills a litre of water on the floor 2. someone gets a splash of dilute acid in their eye 3. someone cuts their hand badly on some broken glass 4. someone collapses? all accidents MUST be reported

YOU SHOULD GAIN: teaching experience (useful for c. v. ) motivation skills wider practical knowledge and safety awareness assessment skills payment!

Undergraduate demonstrating – year 1/2 carousel. Information taken from web pages: Information for undergraduate students: http: //www 2. warwick. ac. uk/fac/sci/chemistry/chemintra/ugstudy/uglabs/ Information for demonstrators: http: //www 2. warwick. ac. uk/fac/sci/chemistry/chemintra/ugstudy/uglabs/demonstrators/ (presentation by Prof Martin Wills)

General Guidelines For Demonstrators (detailed instructions are online) NB All marks must be submitted on the new mark form found online Check the demonstrator allocation page to find which experiment(s) you are demonstrating in each term. Use the Year 1 and Year 2 timetable links to find which days those experiments are running. Familiarise yourself with the Safety and Undergraduate Laboratory Regulations. Please be prepared to enforce the rules from Day 1 to ensure they are seen as serious. Please note that mark deductions for not observing safety and lab rules are 20% of the student's mark for that experiment, so if a student has 15/20 marks, a 20% penalty is a 3 mark deduction.

Familiarise yourself with all aspects of the on-line materials for each experiment (including the demonstrator handbooks). Please do theory test, and report any problems you note to the member of staff responsible. The morning of each lab day that you demonstrate, you should check that your students have all successfully completed both theory test and the safety acknowledgement before 11 pm the night before. You can do this by clicking the 'view recent submissions' links at the bottom of the safety confirmation and theory test pages(MORE THAN 10 SUBMISSIONS WILL BE MARKED AS A FAIL). Additionally the student must have completed the risk assessment in their lab book before they come into the lab. Report any failures to the lab staff.

Check the sign in sheet at 11. 30 am and that all students present have signed in. Students who have not signed in by 11. 30 am will not normally be allowed in the lab. FOUR out of TWENTY marks are normally given for "Good Lab Practice". (Please note this is separate from marks to be deducted for bad lab practice according to the Undergraduate Laboratory Regulations. ) Please consult with your allocated staff member about awarding these marks, but as a guideline I would suggest: 1 mark for showing understanding of theory behind the experiment when questioned 1 mark for showing understanding of the experimental techniques being used when questioned 1 mark for awareness of health and safety issues when questioned 1 mark for completing the experiment on time and clearing up appropriately .

Example: Year 1 O 3 Bromination of an Alkene Theory: Which of the isomers are mirror images? OR Why have you not suggested bromination of the arene? Practice: Which solvent did you select for recrystallisation? Why? Safety: Which is the most hazardous compound you are using? What precautions are you taking? At the end of the day, check that each student's kit is clean and complete before signing them out of the lab. Information about submission of reports should be on the Submission page for each experiment. Students have one week to submit (one week from 4 pm on the day of the experiment), then standard late submission rules will apply. Reports will be submitted electronically on the submission page of the experiment (which are then emailed directly to you and can also be accessed from the submission webpage of the experiment - which you have editing rights to). Numerical marks (out of 20) should be given to Jane Emmerson in the 3 rd floor Labs using the pro forma here. You may wish to use this Feedback Form once you've marked an experiment, and you should give a letter grade only to the students, as described here. Please use the boxes to identify things the students did well and areas for improvement. Please mark and return the reports back to the students' pigeon holes within a week.

Chemistry Finance Office Getting paid for demonstrating! STEP 1: Do this the first time only Get set up on the Payroll – “new starter form” And need to show ID (e. g. passport) & relevant visas to Chemistry Finance staff Receive letter from HR appointing you as a Demonstrato

Chemistry Finance Office STEP 2: Do this every time you want to claim Provide timesheets signed by the organiser There are individual and group timesheet templates – so check if the organiser is completing timesheets for every Timesheets must be handed into to the Chemistry Financ Office by 5 th of the month for payment on 18 th of the mo Demonstrator hourly rate includes preparation & markin

Payroll number Leave blank- organiser to complete this If the payment exceeds the tax threshold – tick here to split it over one or more months

Chemistry Finance Office Allow at least 2 weeks (before 5 th )to get set up on the P Please be aware that some visas require re-checking every 12 Months- we will email you if we need to see your ID again Let us know if you are already on Unitemps payroll or have an other university jobs. Current pay rate £ 12. 03 per hour All forms available from the Chemistry Finance Office or intra http: //www 2. warwick. ac. uk/fac/sci/chemistry/chemintra/hods_office/finance/forms/

HOW WILL YOU COPE WITH: 1. A student who obviously hasn’t bothered to read the introductory parts of the manual 2. a student who is consistently skiving and sponging on his/her partner’s results? 3. A student who is reasonable but lacks self-confidence 4. A student who is experimentally able but arithmetically erratic? These are a few situations – others will be in exercise which follows.