As a Swarthmore student majoring in biology, I wanted to get plenty of experience with the subject while also supporting other students in the department. That led me to becoming a lab teaching assistant for Bio 2, which is an introductory course on organismal and population biology here at Swarthmore. I help out with the Tuesday 8 AM lab section, so here’s what that looks like for me.
On Tuesday mornings, I wake up bright and early to head over to the lab. Sometimes it is a bit of a struggle to wake up so early, but I was in the same lab section when I took the class, so it’s not too bad. Usually, before I head into the lab, I’ll grab breakfast either at the Dining Center or from one of the cafes in the town of Swarthmore where I can use part of my meal plan.
When I get to the lab, I help the lab instructors set up all of the things we’ll need for the day and go over any important information. Then, once everyone gets to lab, we begin the lab for the day. This past week we had a journal club and observed fruit fly courtship behaviors in preparation for a study on them. My position as the TA that day meant I was the discussion leader and fly wrangler for the lab, passing out flies to everyone and assisting them if there were any problems, such as an escaped fly…