Department: |
Department of Chemistry |
June 1, 2009 | |
Grade: |
USG 11 35 hr/wk |
Reports to: | Undergraduate Laboratory Coordinator (laboratory courses); Associate Chair (lecture courses) |
The Organic Instructor is involved with three types of courses:
The Organic Chemistry Instructor has sole responsibility for organizing and running laboratory-only courses;
The Organic Chemistry Instructor is responsible for lecturing one or more Chemistry lecture courses;
For lectures that have courses directly associated with laboratories the Organic Chemistry Instructor is responsible for designing experiments that reflect the contents of the relevant courses.
The Organic Chemistry Instructor is responsible for organizing and creating assignments, laboratory manuals, midterms and finals for the laboratory and lecture courses. The Organic Chemistry Instructor is responsible for the content of the assigned laboratory and lecture courses in consultation with the Associate Chair of the Chemistry Department and in accordance to the guidelines defined by the Chemistry Department. Due to the hazardous nature of chemistry laboratories the Organic Chemistry Instructor must be present during all laboratory periods and thus is responsible for the safety of the students and Teaching Assistants.
The courses for which the Organic Chemistry Instructor has responsibility are assigned by the Associate Chair. The lecture to laboratory ratio is typically 1 or 2 lecture courses to 6 to 9 laboratory courses per year. The total teaching contact hours should not exceed 60% of a 35h work week, leaving a minimum of 40% for the administration and preparation of laboratories and lectures. The lecture to laboratory ratio and/or percentage of teaching contact hours can only be changed upon agreement of both the Associate Chair and the Organic Chemistry Instructor. The Organic Chemistry Instructor is also responsible for the management of all laboratories supervised by the Organic Chemistry Laboratory Demonstrator.
Laboratory Component:
To ensure that a laboratory course provides an atmosphere conducive to an enjoyable learning experience by students, the following general duties and responsibilities are:
2.1 the maintenance of safe laboratory environments, specifically, (i) by ensuring that both the Teaching Assistants and the students in the laboratory sections understand all safety aspects associated both with the chemicals that may be employed in the experiments and with the equipment in use in the laboratories, and (ii) by the posting of relevant safety notices in the laboratories;
2.2 the training and supervision of Teaching Assistants (TAs), including such instruction as shall be necessary to ensure that the TAs are effective in the performance of their duties. TA duties include the supervision of undergraduate students, the grading of student laboratory reports and the recording of grades for individual experiments;
2.3 designing and organizing laboratory exams and quizzes and the set-up, supervision and grading of all laboratory examinations;
2.4 signing of students into laboratory/tutorial sections and for keeping the sections appropriately filled;
2.5 creation, set-up, and management of web sites for all laboratory courses to which he/she is assigned, including all updating of information regarding TAs, quizzes, exams, tutorial content, and posting of grades;
2.6 preparation and update of laboratory manuals;
2.7 care and maintenance of the physical facilities, including permanent fixed equipment, scientific and teaching equipment, and apparatus, inventory control and ordering of replacements when required;
2.8 routine day-to-day operation of the laboratories during all three academic terms, including supply of materials and chemicals, safety precautions and housekeeping; this may include the testing of solutions and preparations to ensure that they function correctly in the specific experiments for which they are intended; cooperation with the Chemical Preparations Technician, and with Chemistry Storeroom staff members may be necessary in achieving these goals;
2.9 assembling and testing of new experiments or modifications to existing experiments;
2.10 allocation of assigned Teaching Assistants to specific sections of multi-section laboratory courses;
2.11 setting up of appropriate marking schemes for individual experiments, and provision of these schemes to the Teaching Assistants;
2.12 demonstrations of the uses of equipment and experimental techniques employed in the laboratory courses for which the Organic Chemistry Instructor is responsible;
2.13 proper disposal of all chemicals and waste solvents associated with the operation of assigned undergraduate laboratories, in accordance with waste procedures for handling solid and liquid wastes specified by the Chemistry Environmental Safety Facility;
2.14 averaging of grades for each set of experiments done by each student and for the preparation and administration of any required laboratory examinations needed; course grades shall be submitted to the Registrar’s Office;
2.15 management of all labs run by a Senior Laboratory Demonstrator; the Organic Chemistry Instructor is responsible for training the Senior Laboratory Demonstrator and for the laboratory content and all student files. As the Senior Laboratory Demonstrator reports to the Organic Chemistry Instructor, he/she is responsible only for the operation of the laboratory sections assigned to him/her;
2.16 serving on the Undergraduate Chemistry Equipment Committee and others committees where appropriate;
2.17 other duties as assigned from time to time by the Associate Chair and/or the Undergraduate Laboratory Coordinator;
Lecture Component:
The lecture component of this position entails independent preparation and delivery of lectures, the preparation and delivery, either in the classroom or online, of any tutorial materials required for the course, and the setting, administration, and grading of quizzes and/or examinations of the course material. This task requires a level of technical knowledge typically associated with the individual holding a Ph.D. degree or minimally a M.Sc. degree with considerable practical experience.
3. Significant Relationships will be established with
3.1 Teaching Assistants:
via their assignments to specific laboratory sections, their training and the direction of their weekly activities, their performance evaluations both midterm and at the end of each term, and via solicitation of feedback on problems encountered and potential problems that may occur in individual experiments;
3.2 Undergraduate Students:
via provision of information either directly or via TAs, laboratory manuals, websites, and other distributed media; evaluation of student performance quizzes, tests, assignments, and examinations
via enforcement of academic regulations, such as those imposed by UW Policy 71;
by ensuring that students are treated fairly and with respect at all times by figures of authority (instructor, teaching assistants, demonstrator, etc.) allowing for an enjoyable lab experience;
via student advisement and counseling on subjects, such as course selection, scholarship information, research opportunities on campus, co-op opportunities, post-undergraduate education, and any personal issues that a student may disclose;
by knowing the appropriate counseling services to which students can be directed to if needed;
by dealing with student complaints and the initial step in a student appeals process;
via scheduling of laboratory/tutorial sections and correction of scheduling problems as they may occur, in coordination with the Chemistry Undergraduate Secretary.
3.3 Faculty Members:
by providing input into decisions regarding curriculum and course content;
with the Chemistry Graduate Officer by aiding in the selection of TAs and recruitment of undergraduate TAs for those laboratory courses under his/her jurisdiction;
3.4 Technicians and ChemStores Personnel:
via consultations regarding purchase of supplies, purchase and repair of equipment and technical problems arising in the teaching laboratory;
via collaboration with the Chemical Preparations Technician with respect to the preparation of solutions needed for the operation of laboratories;
via cooperation with UW Health and Safety personnel to ensure compliance with regulations such as those imposed by WHMIS.
3.5 Chemistry Secretarial Staff:
via interactions regarding student enrollment, scheduling of laboratory time slots, opening and closing of laboratory time slots, setting laboratory class size limits, room booking and exam scheduling.
3.6 Chemistry Senior Laboratory Demonstrator:
as the Demonstrator reports directly to the Organic Chemistry Instructor she/he is responsible for providing input to the Demonstrator’s Job Evaluation carried out by the Undergraduate Laboratory Coordinator
a close working relationship with excellent communication is needed to make the laboratories supervised by the Senior Laboratory Demonstrator successful
Range per term: 2 to 5 courses; 200 to 500 Students; 7 to 30 TA
The Organic Chemistry Instructor is solely responsible for the general nature of each laboratory course and lecture course in accordance with the guidelines defined by the Chemistry Department, to select sets of appropriate experiments for each term of operation of the laboratories, and to determine the method of arriving at an overall laboratory grade or lecture course grade. The Organic Chemistry Instructor is required to create a positive and enriched learning environment for all students, which will promote and cultivate an air of confidence and self-motivation. The instructor is required to promote an environment of respect and consideration both inside and outside the laboratory and/or classroom. The Organic Chemistry Instructor’s responsibilities include:
creating educational, enjoyable and high quality laboratories for students;
preparing protocols of laboratory procedures – individual techniques and /or manuals;
setting up laboratory/tutorial quizzes, laboratory/tutorial exams, midterm exams and make-up exams;
creating and updating computer files for the students’ laboratory reports and final grades;
submission of final course grades to the Registrar’s Office;
scheduling laboratory and tutorial sections and correcting scheduling problems as they may occur, in coordination with the Chemistry Undergraduate Secretary;
ensuring that laboratory experiments reflect the contents of a course that is directly associated with the laboratory;
developing the content for laboratory courses associated with specific courses;
developing the content for laboratory-only courses;
teaching specific courses assigned by the Associate Chair of the Chemistry Department;
managing those laboratories supervised by a Senior Laboratory Demonstrator;
creating of new laboratory experiments;
updating and improving existing experiments;
updating of existing laboratory manuals and/or writing of new laboratory manuals;
establishing, administering and enforcing safety standards and regulations;
ensuring that the laboratory is kept clean and maintaining a safe laboratory environment;
setting out chemicals in appropriate containers and at appropriate locations in the laboratories;
maintaining laboratory equipment, including fixing minor equipment problems;
replacing chemicals that run out during the weekly experiments;
ensuring that equipment and chemicals are put away at the conclusion of each experiment;
closing each laboratory section upon completion of the laboratory period;
arranging for the purchase of new equipment and maintenance of equipment;
ordering chemicals and disposal of waste;
meeting with the TAs to provide them with direction/instruction/explanation regarding laboratory concepts/objectives and marking;
selection of graduate TAs and their placement in laboratory courses for which the instructor is responsible;
recruitment of undergraduate TAs and their placement in laboratory courses for which the instructor is responsible;
training of TAs in the particular safety aspects of the Organic laboratories;
ensuring that all Teaching Assistants fully comprehend the equipment and procedures to be used;
providing instruction to Teaching Assistants with respect to concepts with which they may not be fully familiar;
the setting up of marking schemes for the Teaching Assistants to follow;
being available during lab periods for answering students’ questions;
providing of help to students on an individual basis, as needed, and reassigning students who have missed their laboratory sections;
the teaching of laboratory techniques and procedure;
contributing when appropriate, to key committees that affect her/his assigned laboratory courses (including goals and equipment purchases).
Due to the hazardous nature of chemistry laboratories the Organic Chemistry Instructor must be present during all laboratory periods. Space, scheduling and other factors may necessitate that Instructors work special schedules including for example, work in the evenings. The Organic Chemistry Instructor is expected to accomplish her/his duties by arranging hours of work to allow her/him to be present during scheduled laboratory hours. In particular, Instructors are responsible for closing each laboratory session. This may mean that the Organic Chemistry Instructor will have to work more than 7 hours on a given day; should this be necessary the Organic Chemistry Instructor may reduce the hours worked on another day during the week or may recoup the overtime during a term with a lighter course load.