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More About Zodiac Webster

The Answer is Awesomesauce

Two questions arise when I tell people about my career pivot from physics teacher to analytics student at NCSU’s Institute for Advanced Analytics.

  1. How have you found the transition going from teacher to student?
  2. What is it like being a student?

The answer to both is “It is awesomesauce!”

Bottles of awesomesauce
Bottles of awesomesauce: image credit.

 

I am applying my teacher knowledge to the practice of being a student. I am a better student now than I was as a Ph.D. student. I review every test and quiz to ensure I understand what I missed. I talk through the material with my homework team when I am confused. And, as we head into winter break, I’m looking to review everything again! It is awesomesauce to apply all the learning strategies I used to teach to my learning.

 

The awesomesauce of being a student comes from being able to play, experiment, and try things out. Each homework assignment has basic requirements that must be met. Once the barebones are ready, there is time to explore outside the original assignment parameters. One of my favorite series of assignments was modeling energy use data. I tried using Fourier components, tossed in some complex seasons in a Prophet model, and tried some Bayesian Structural Time Series Models. Being a student means that I can meet deadlines and still have room to experiment.

Teamwork is one of the joys of this program. Academic teaching is often a solitary job. The expectation at the IAA is that you will complete work as a team. Talking about the data and the interpretation of the results adds so much value to the report. When a single person works alone, the work can lack the depth of understanding of having someone ask questions about your choices. Having those critical partners in the analysis and writing process also helps ensure the message is communicated to the audience. It is easy to convince yourself you are making sense, but the test is in having someone else confirm it makes sense. Teamwork is awesomesauce!

There are some challenges in being a non-traditional student. I’ll leave those for another post on another day.