Student evaluation of teaching for Kiarash Ahi

1. Section 6. Comments
What was the most positive aspect of the way in which this instructor taught this
course?
Comment
He is very approachable and is more than willing to help the students with the laboratory experiments. He focused
more about the student understanding the concepts of the experiments and ensured that we got the most out of it at the
end of lab. He is by far the best lab instructor i've had throughout my entire college career.
Was a wonderful TA. Fair grading and if I ever had any questions he was always available. Responded promptly to
email questions. Explained theories and methods at the beginning of lab well. Wish him luck and great success for
wherever he goes after he gets his PhD
Was very enthusiastic and always seemed excited to answer questions.
Kiarash always came to class with a well planned, easy to understand explanation of what to do for the lab. Kiarash's
teaching was very helpful in succeeding in both the lab section of PHYS 1202 as well as the lecture section. Unlike
many TAs, Kiarash showed a genuine interest in helping his students gain as much as they could from the lab. He both
guided his students as well as challenged them to think critically about the science behind each lab assignment.
Overall, having Kiarash as a TA helped me develop into a better student and scientist.
He was understanding in that many students didn't know what was going on because the lab manuals are horrible.
What can this instructor do to improve teaching effectiveness in the classroom?
Comment
Overall I thought all of his techniques of teaching his student was very effective. Im a grateful for having him as my TA.
A little mini lecture before the lab starts where you demonstrate the experimental setup would be helpful as a lot of the
times we were lost for the first portion of the lab
Kiarash seemed to have a deep understanding of how the scientific principles taught in the class were applied in
industry. I always thought it was very interesting to learn about these applications and thought that it made the
information more accessible. I think that teaching more about these real-world applications would make the class even
more interesting and enjoyable.
Please write any comments you have about the course or course materials.
Comment
Physics isn't my best subject, yet having a helpful Ta, made my learning experience much better.
The manual was useless, ambiguous, and a pain to use.
The Lab really does not sync up with the lecture at all and I think this represents a huge problem. For example we did a
lab about finding Plank's constant 3 weeks before ever mentioning it in lecture so none of us really understood or could
appreciate the material we were doing in lab. I very strongly believe the timing of the lab and lecture need to be
drastically re-worked.
I think that the lab manual needs to be improved. Many sections are not well written. (Not Kiarash's fault)
The lab manuals are horrendous and need to be fixed.
For courses with laboratory and/or discussion sections: were the
laboratory/discussion sections helpful to your learning?
Comment
Yes the laboratory section were very helpful to my learning.
Yes, very much so. The lab section of this course really helped me understand the material that was taught in lecture.
University of Connecticut: Student Evaluation of Teaching
Kiarash Ahi - SET Grad/Teaching Assistant 11/12