It has been a long time since I last looked at first year undergraduate materials. In preparation for my first experience of teaching a first-year Biology laboratory class, I had to revisit some technical terminologies and definitions used in BIOL140. I also requested for students’ assignments that would be relevant to this class’s activities, so I was more prepared for facilitating class discussions that were based on these assignments. After the observation, I knew the students in this class were a little quiet. My goals for this practicum were to 1) motivate students to share their answers and thoughts with their group and the whole class, 2) to be able to facilitate confidently this activity-heavy class.

This class had three activities, and the content to be delivered was pre-designed in order to align with all 36 sections of the course. The first activity was an exercise on experimental design critique. Students would read two passages and answer a list of questions. As an instructor, I had to encourage students to share their answers. Through discussing students’ questions, I delivery lecture content and highlight key points as well. I spent time addressing each key point, and since there were quite a few things I would like to address, I ended up going over time by 15 minutes just on the first activity. After noticing the time, I rushed into giving instructions for the second activity, which was to have students to plan for their animal experiment in a group discussion. My role was to go to each group and facilitate their planning using a list of guiding questions. Since I was focusing heavily on catching up with time, my attention was solely on different groups, rather than on the class as a whole. Fortunately, my mentor helped with facilitation from the opposite end of the class, so it did not seem like the rest of the class was neglected. And before moving onto the last part of the class, I then realized I was doing fine time-wise.

Facilitating an activity-heavy class was quite a challenge. It was hard to predict students’ responses, hence difficult to control time. In this practicum, I think I had some good interactions with students. I was able to encourage students’ participation by setting a friendly and relaxed learning environment. However, I need to work on my flexibility for facilitating class activities. I need to make sure I am not cramming too much information within the class, and learn how to move forward smoothly when needed. Furthermore, group discussion is a great tool of learning for students, and I will work on its facilitation skills for the upcoming practicum. My goal is to be able to care for individual groups without neglecting the rest of the class.