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Back to (virtual) school 2021: Tips for surviving college during the COVID-19 pandemic

1/11/2021

Switching to remote classes is a huge transition from what we’ve been accustomed to with traditional courses. From preparing your workspace to keeping up with your classes, there are plenty of barriers to overcome if you want to succeed. So, how do we get through this virtual world and the impact on our day to day? Here are some tips so help college students succeed throughout a virtual semester:

transitioning a STEM course online

9/26/2020

Are you now teaching a course online? In preparation for the unique challenges I anticipated in teaching my first online course, I pursued training opportunities from the University of Florida’s (UF) Center for Teaching Excellence and Center for Instructional Technology and Training and completed certification in following three programs:

The UF First Year Faculty Teaching Academy is a workshop series designed for faculty in their first years of teaching at UF to learn how to create a great learning experience.
The UF Great Teaching for New Faculty Certificate Program is a program composed of workshops and faculty learning communities, including topics in developing an inclusive culture, innovative teaching for learning differences, and strategies for humanizing your course.
The UF Best Practices for Teaching Online Program is composed of assignment-based workshops covering the needs of diverse learners, tips for student engagement in transitioned-online courses, and accessibility issues.

Below, I share advice that helped transition my Radiation Biology course online and also provide some examples of how I applied the principles in action.

what do medical physicists do?

8/1/2020

A physicist? In medicine? What is that? Some people think I just solve physics equations for the doctors. Thankfully, it is far from that! A career in medical physics is suited for people with a physics or engineering background who desire to work in a clinical environment as a scientist rather than a medical practitioner. This unique mix of medicine, technology, science, and the different tasks involved are extremely exciting and motivate me to come to work every day.

what is Dual energy CT?

7/1/2020

Dual Energy CT (DECT) is a useful modern technology that expands the clinical utility of CT exams. By transmitting two different x-ray energy spectras through the patient's body, due to differential x-ray photon attenuation by your body's tissues as a function of energy, we can separate materials that previously looked identical in traditional CT scanning due to having similar attenuation at one energy.

preparing for a board exam

9/16/2019

Cheers to finding out I passed a board exam! Life was really rough for 3 months, working and studying full-time and ignoring all friends and family. I’m grateful for them for understanding, being supportive, and celebrating with me afterwards. Here are some important lessons for big exams:

time management

6/3/2019

I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." Studying for a board exam while working is rough. With my exam 2 months away, effective time management is critical! The Eisenhower’s principle suggests prioritizing tasks into four levels and scheduling them based on their importance and urgency.

undergrad vs. grad school

1/27/2019

I wish someone told me graduate school would be nothing like my 4 years in college studying biomedical engineering. Part of me thought it would just be a prolonged experience and I would continue taking classes as normal. However, the increased workload and expectations introduced several new pressures and obstacles I had to overcome. I wanted to share my main observations in order to prepare you if you’re considering graduate school, or also engage with others in graduate school who may have experienced these or different challenges. Of course, experiences vary for everyone depending on where you completed your undergraduate degree and where you’re going for graduate school, but in general, these are some major differences between undergraduate and graduate school.

how to give great presentations

12/7/2018

During my PhD, I won 1st place in all 3 conference competitions where I gave scientific presentations. I was extremely humbled, grateful, and was ecstatic every single time. All other competitors were all overwhelmingly intelligent and talented and we all got to know each other well and celebrated the night afterwards. I wanted to share some personal tips that helped me deliver strong presentations:

Tips for attending a conference

7/1/2018

There are many great benefits of attending a conference as a student. However, it can also feel overwhelming to define why you should attend, how you can attend, and what to do once you are there. Here are some general tips to help you get to a conference and make the best of your time there

functional mri

6/1/2018

Today I volunteered to have my brain scanned in our newest clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner equipped with functional MRI (fMRI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)! These technologies are SO cool! I almost cried when the radiologist was teaching me this, absolutely amazed and in love with medicine and technology (all over again!)

Author

Izabella Barreto is a clinical medical physicist and academic professor who shares her journey in striving for personal and professional growth while overcoming anxiety, stress, and common barriers in an academic world.

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