Three teaching assistants from the Jackson School of Geosciences were recognized for their contributions to geoscience education in January.

The Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award “recognizes outstanding teaching assistants in geoscience education” according to the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. Of the 14 teaching assistants who won the award nationally, three of them — Sinjini Sinha, Travis Stone and Eric Hiatt — teach at UT.

Rowan Martindale, an associate professor in the School of Geosciences, nominated Stone for his work creating virtual field sites geology students could digitally explore. Stone said he developed the project for a different class where geology students took a field trip to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

Stone said winning the award made him feel recognized for the work he did as a teaching assistant, something he said he finds a lot of joy in.

“This was nice, just in that it’s for the side of work that I did not expect to be rewarded for here, because (being a TA is) just kind of a thing that most people have to do,” Stone said.

Stone said he originally created the virtual field sites for Sinha, who was unable to travel with her colleagues to conduct fieldwork. The virtual field sites that Stone created lowered barriers for students unable to attend a required field trip to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park for class.

Martindale also nominated Sinha for her work integrating a board game into weekly labs to teach students about evolutionary processes in a hands-on manner. She also said Sinha compared the data collected from pre-lab and post-lab answers to assess student learning for both UT and the other institutions. 

“The course has a lecture component and lab component, and I deal mainly with the lab component,” Sinha said. “I tried to bring in fossils as well and try to make it as active or hands on learning as possible. It’s learning the process in the class and then applying those concepts.”

Research professor Sean Gulick nominated Hiatt for creating the labs for the Solid Earth Processes class. The class is one of three new courses required for geoscience majors after a curriculum change last semester. 

“Building a new class is always one of the hardest things you do as a teacher, and building a new set of labs is one of the hardest things you can do as a teaching assistant,” Gulick said.

Hiatt said he had to recreate the labs from scratch to accommodate students’ varying levels of knowledge due to the curriculum change.

“I try to make a whole bunch of narratives, like it’s a story,” Hiatt said. “I think it’s easier to remember a story than it is to remember … things that you’d have to memorize.” 

He said winning the award felt gratifying as a recognition of his efforts and love for teaching.

“Even though (the lab’s) not gonna be perfect the first time, putting in as much effort as you can, it’s your due diligence,” Hiatt said. “It’s something that I didn’t do for an award because I’m passionate about teaching people. But it was nice to be recognized.”