The Teaching Fellows Program: Undergraduate Partners In Teaching

One of the most significant and enduring legacies of the NSF-sponsored ECSEL coalition at the University of Maryland at College Park is the Teaching Fellows program. Begun in 1992, the program was originally conceived as an opportunity for advanced undergraduates to assist faculty in the delivery of the Introduction to Engineering Design (ENES 100) class. Because ENES 100 was designed to be a "hands on" experience where first year students were introduced to the design process through the realization of an actual product (e.g., human powered water pump) by working in small teams, Teaching Fellows (called TFs) have a variety of roles atypical of most undergraduate teaching assistants. Specifically, TFs act as role models, tutors, and team facilitators in addition to assisting the faculty member with tasks such as grading, supervising study sessions and occasionally teaching a class section on material related to the class project or team dynamics. The purpose of the present paper is to describe the Teaching Fellows program today, ten years after its inception. While many features have remained virtually the same, significant changes in the students targeted for inclusion in the TF program, their training, as well as the curriculum completed by the first year students merit an update at this time.