1. A Fun Story About My Experience TAing
by Abigail A. Advincula
“How do I get the computer scientists interested in materials science this year?” I pondered on
Monday, August 24th, 2015. It was the first day of my second year working as a TA for ENGR
145, the second semester of freshman chemistry for engineers, and I needed a way to impart the
importance of materials science to the forty people that I would teach the following day and every
Tuesday until the end of the semester. Teaching chemistry concepts for an hour every week was
no longer a terrifying prospect, and neither was the challenge of keeping on top of grading the
homework and quizzes while balancing a full course load, research schedule, and clubs. The
challenge this year would be more externally focused: engaging everyone in my recitation, not just
the students who intended on majoring in materials science or polymers. Computer scientists
provided a special challenge due to the seeming lack of relevance of materials science to their
future goals. Regardless of major, however, I wanted engagement, and I wanted them to feel like
they had gained something from the class.
The following day after my initial introduction, I perkily told my students I would not expect
them to love materials science by the end of the semester, eliciting chuckles from half the recitation
and smirks from the rest. “But I do want you to think about the material all the time,” I followed
up earnestly. It was actually a tip that I internalized as a response to struggling with chemistry
during high school. I encouraged them to make a game out of explaining different aspects of the
world, to turn something as mundane as a plastic bottle into an object of fascination. What kind of
material was it? How was it synthesized? How would it degrade? What was its chemical structure?
I encouraged them to forget the poor experiences they had had with chemistry in high school and
to remove their disinclination to learn because of the subject’s seeming irrelevance to their
intended field of study. Materials science would teach them not to take anything in the natural
world for granted and that the goal of the class was to improve their abilities to observe and
understand the world better than they had before they had taken this class.
Engagement of every student regardless of major was a priority for me. Every week, I would
try to tie in the concepts that they had learned into the real world while still covering the material
in depth, and I would draw examples from polymer classes that I was taking, outside reading that
I had done on the field, and my own personal experiences. I engaged the computer scientists about
materials science by recounting to them the fact that printed circuit boards for electronics were
coated in poly(p-xylylene) to protect them from dust, moisture, and static electricity, a fact that I
had learned while working on a research paper for a graduate level polymer class. Grabbing an
example from the New York Times bestseller on materials science called “Stuff Matters” by Mark
Miodownik, I related the importance of materials science to civil engineers by mentioning the
importance of steel development in construction. I even talked about how my short time working
as an intern at Lubrizol opened my eyes to the sheer amount of thought that went into producing
something as seemingly simple as shampoo. I had fun coming up with creative analogies to teach
the material, as when I likened packing of isotactic polymer chains to a rigged game of Tetris. The
feedback that I received was encouraging, and my students said that my teaching was effective, on
topic, and prepared them well for the exam. Of all the feedback that I received on my teaching,
however, this was my favorite: “Full of passion. Won’t feel sleepy.”
Research and development has helped me appreciate my natural world, and teaching has given
me an outlet. Through materials research I look forward to the capacity of engaging in

2. interdisciplinary work with other fields and the opportunity to foster the next generation of
researchers and scientists. Through my experiences, I have come to believe two things: R&D in
Materials Science drives the future of technology and teaching drives the future of humanity. I
would like to pursue both as a graduate student and as a future professor.