Dr. Laura Stoy

May 31, 2017

My ideas on what makes a strong educator are always a work in progress. But, here are some thoughts that I have.

May 15, 2017

The Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering awarded three graduate students its inaugural Future Faculty Fellowship Award. The award provides funding for additional opportunities for teaching skill development and exploring academic career options. 

May 15, 2016

The TA Fellows are responsible for developing an engaging TA Orientation for new TAs. We cover the boring but important legalese of GT policies and procedure (academic integrity, student privacy, etc.) and the more varied roles and responsibilities (grading, running labs, teaching lectures, etc.). We use active learning methods like jigsaw and gallery walks to demonstrate activities that TAs could incorporate in their own classrooms.

January 01, 2020

The Tech to Teaching Program is designed to prepare grad students and post-docs for college teaching positions. Teaching is a significant part of any academic career, and understanding how people learn is crucial to being effective in the classroom. This certificate program focuses on evidence-based teaching practices and requires an in-class practicum, as a TA or instructor of record- nothing like putting your skills to work! 

May 10, 2016

As the TA for CEE-3340, Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Lab, I had several roles. I prepared weekly review lectures and organized and ran weekly laboratory exercises. Students learned to build and demonstrate the capability to analyze environmental samples, conduct laboratory experiments, critically analyze experimental data, and coherently present the experimental results. Additionally, I rewrote many of the class materials, including the syllabus, lab handouts and data analysis guides, problem sets, and created rubrics for the lab reports. 

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I TA'd this course Fall 2015 and Spring 2016, and trained the Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 TAs as well. 

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Picture at left: in one module of the course, students measure water quality of stormwater collection cisterns around Georgia Tech! You're looking right at one- underground, of course.

June 01, 2015

During the summer 2015 through the summer of 2016, I served as a  Teaching Assistant in an integrated program between Georgia Tech Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) and the Gwinnett County Public Schools. The program was designed as a four-class series for K-5 elementary school teachers to earn a Math or Science education endorsement. I was on the Math side, and I helped out the instructors with challenging math concepts, helped developed some lectures, and did several in-class demonstrations. My real role was to show the teachers that this math didn't just belong in textbooks, but that their young students would go on to learn this math and apply it as engineerings, doctors, business leaders, and more someday. ​

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In addition to classroom time, I also helped plan and coordinate two trips to Georgia Tech for the teacher groups. I also taught one activity, focusing on the math of honeybees! Check out the lessons in my blog!

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I wrote the press release below describe the efforts of the lead GT professor and one of my fellow graduate students who was also a TA for the program.