Dave Tompkins :: Teaching :: 2005-Summer II

Course Description:

CPSC 121 - Models of Computation
Physical and mathematical structures of computation. Boolean algebra and combinations logic circuits; proof techniques; functions and sequential circuits; sets and relations; finite state machines; sequential instruction execution.

Dave's comments:

This was the first time I had TA'd a 100-level course.  It was a summer course, and so the pacing of the course was very fast... I was doing a tutorial for 4 days of the week.  I seemed to be going through a lot of whiteboard markers that were always failing, and I was often tossing them around the room and into the garbage -- I made jokes about becoming a professional whiteboard marker tosser.  There was a lab component to the course, and near the end of the course the students were having a lot of trouble with a specific microprocessor simulator... that (quite frankly) was the Lab TA's responsibility and not mine... but I was still getting a lot of specific questions on individual microcode instructions that I couldn't answer, which is why I think my "Well Prepared" mark & comments were a little low.  Overall, I enjoyed the course and the tutorials.

Evaluations:

Number of Respondents: 14 / 18

The Teaching Assistant was:

5 = Strongly Agree, 4 = Mildly Agree, 3 = Neutral, 2 = Mildly Disagree, 1 = Strongly Disagree

Q6. My suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the teaching assistant are:

[Note: This is a complete list of comments I received -- listed alphabetically to avoid bias]

Dave is willing to explain things many, many times and in different ways to make us understand.  Plus, his examples can easily sink in.  Overall, he is pretty good at helping me catch up the things I didn't understand in class.

Dave was very cheerful and enthusiastic about the course and that combined with his wonderful sense of humour and helpfulness got me through this course better.

Friendly guy & fun tutorials but on some days we didn't cover much material other than Q & A.  I guess if anything, just consider time management more.  Thanks!

Good explanations! Could be more prepared but good on his feet anyway.

I feel like I can understand the TA more than the professor.

I think I may have learned more from Dave than from the actual lectures.  He made sure everyone understood whatever he was doing.  Very receptive to questions.  Several times stayed past end of tutorial to keep answering questions.

Interactive examples.  Monkeys.  Subway.  Ha Ha -- VERY humourous and helpful.  He knows his stuff.  I think he'll make a very good prof! :)

Interesting tutorials.  Good luck with the pens Dave!

Need to be more prepare for the tutorial

Thanks!

This TA seemed to have a good grasp of the theory; however, he spent much time either telling jokes or attempting to toss dead markers into a garbage can from 30 feet.

Very funny.  Dave can always find perfect analogies for all the abstract stuff.

Was very good at making up examples to explain things.