Campus-Wide Early Excellence in Teaching Award

Feb 14, 2022

In Fall of 2020, graduate student Rachel McClure acted as a teaching assistant for Professor Christy Tremonti’s Astronomy 170 course. The course, titled “The Dark Side of the Universe: The Great Cosmic Mysteries from Black Holes to Dark Energy” introduced undergraduate students to some of the most astounding objects and physical processes in the universe.

Because of her work as a teaching assistant in that course, Rachel received an "Early Excellence in Teaching" TA award from the university. At most, 5 teaching assistants at UW-Madison receive this award each year.

Christy had this to share about Rachel’s teaching during Astronomy 170: 

“Rachel developed and facilitated a variety of new group-based exercises aimed at developing community within our virtual classroom.  In addition to her knowledge of educational best practices, she brought exceptional energy, enthusiasm, organization, and dedication to her work as a TA.  In truth, she was more like a co-instructor.”