Science Student Success Centre
3431 Herzberg Laboratories
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6 Canada
Tel: (613) 520-2600 ext 3111
Email: sssc@carleton.ca
www.carleton.ca/sssc/
Position:
Unit:
Contract:
Date:
Math Matters Teaching Assistant (MM-TA)
Office of the Associate Vice-President, Students and Enrolment (OAVP-SE)
$1,060 (still negotiating)
Training: August 17 (5 hours)
Math Matters: August 20 – August 27
Job Description
Math Matters is a summer boot camp created to review important high school math concepts in order to
ensure that students are completely prepared for the math they will encounter in their first year at Carleton
University. The course will provide a rapid but comprehensive review of several topics deemed essential
for incoming first-year students.
The MM-SGL’s role is to help students attending the Math Matters program learn how to learn the
material being covered in their courses. MM-SGLs will facilitate study groups where they will challenge
each student’s comprehension of the material covered in the previous class while encouraging them to
improve the way they study for math classes. A significant amount of the time in study groups will be
spent on identifying the processes students use to approach and complete problems as well as on
recapping the most important concepts students need to master. Participants will develop the way they
approach math problems and will be required to quickly reason their way through problems on their own
by the end of the program. Students will also be introduced to math support services available on campus
during the year including but not limited to the Math Tutorial Centre (MTC), the Science Student Success
Centre (SSSC) and Learning Support Services (LSS). The MM-SGL team will need to be very familiar
with each of these resources. MM-RMs should be aware that participants in their groups will be from
three separate course sections that are further divided into six different study group sections and, thus,
students in each group will have covered different material each day.
Specific Duties
 Attend mandatory SGL training on August 17th
 Attend all MM classes specific to your field to take notes and identify areas in which students are
having difficulty
 Organize and lead study group sessions during the MM program
 Develop handouts with tips, tricks and model questions to be used during study group sessions
 Keep a detailed journal of activities done, questions raised, problems encountered and successful
techniques used during study groups
 Help students develop learning skills like test preparation and problem solving
 Provide immediate feedback to course instructors in order to give them the opportunity to meet
student needs during MM
 Provide written feedback, suggestions and recommendations to the MM-SS, who will pass it
along to course instructors
 Help distribute and mark diagnostic tests on the first and last day of MM
 Assist with setup, student packages, printing, photocopying and other miscellaneous tasks that
need to be done for MM
Science Student Success Centre
3431 Herzberg Laboratories
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6 Canada
Tel: (613) 520-2600 ext 3111
Email: sssc@carleton.ca
www.carleton.ca/sssc/
Qualifications
 Display outstanding leadership, communication and organizational skills
 Have a proven ability to work both independently and in a team environment
 Demonstrate mastery of
- Algebra (fractions, decimals, powers, roots, intervals, simplifying algebraic expressions,
rationalizing, long-division
- Equations (Solving linear and quadratic equations, completing the square, solving
inequalities, special formulas like the difference of two squares, sum and difference of
two cubes, the square and cube of a binomial)
- Graphs (Power functions, sketching and shifting graphs and the intersection of curves)
- Transcendental functions (Exponential and logarithmic functions)
- Trigonometry (angles, right angled triangles, the law of sines and the law of cosines,
trigonometric identities)
- Calculus (introduction to limits and differentiation, integration)
 Previous experience teaching or facilitating classes, seminars or activities is considered an asset
 Knowledge of Carleton University’s structure and student support services is an asset