Thoreenz Soldevilla ​ ​
2021-04225​ ​
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Physics 210.2
Jul 17, 2026
A mentor for himself and for others
Under the Master of Science in Physics curriculum of the National Institute of
Physics (NIP), students who do not have teaching experience, i.e. not hired as
Teaching Associates (TAs) or instructors, are required to enroll in a teaching
practicum course. I was curious to know what learning opportunities I may have with
our practicum under Physics 210.2. I have heard stories from my classmates who
were TAs that the teaching load, despite the number of units invol\ved, requires a
great deal of effort that is beyond the class hours prescribed. The name NIP is
self-explanatory - it is the best physics school in the country because that is its exact
mandate. Thus, a high level of extension is expected from us, including the
pedagogy of service courses.
I was able to have a small talk with my classmate Francis Latoja, who is a TA
that handles one section of Physics 72 students this midyear. The said subject is a
service course for electromagnetism and optics. He was worried about his
performance this year since most students failed the first long exam. Francis told me
that some of the items were discussed in his lectures as well as in the sample exam,
yet no one completely got it right. Thus, he made an effort to reduce the complexity
of the questions but made sure to retain the expected learning outcome for the
service course.
Then, I was assigned under Physics 71, section X8-2, taught by Alyssa
Alisuag. I have known Alyssa since I met here during the beginning of in-person
classes in NIP in January 2023. My first impression of her is a reserved but
approachable person. I struggled before with Physics 108, but when I saw Aly, as I
call her, aced the exams, I did not hesitate to ask help from her. Since then, I have
seen her as a mentor-colleague. I silently admitted to myself that she would make a
great teacher. After we graduated, I was accepted under DOST-ASTHRDP, and Aly
was accepted by the NIP under the TA program. Throughout our first year in the MS
program, Aly sometimes shared with me her evaluation reports with her students,
which were always positive. When the practicum committee assigned me under her,
I made sure to grab every window of opportunity. Then came the proctoring, the
class observations, the checking of long exams, and of course - the teaching part,
arguably the hardest in this course.
This, along with many other valuable lessons, constituted the first half of my
practicum. Even with a short span of time, I have done enough work to immerse
myself in the lives of teachers. Most TAs that I fondly know of were just hired last
year. Thus, their relatively new appearance in the junior faculty room makes them a
perfect example of how their lives are in a two-state superposition as both a student
and as a teacher.
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Thoreenz Soldevilla ​ ​
2021-04225​ ​
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Physics 210.2
Jul 17, 2026
In this paper, I aim to reflect about mentorship through what I learn and how I
share this knowledge. I will add my experiences with senior faculty, and find
inspiration in their teaching approaches that I could imbue in my practicum course. I
will discuss the challenges me and my classmates have experienced and the
solutions that the institute has come up with resolving them. These anecdotes will be
accompanied by points discussed in the guidebook “Adviser, Teacher, Role Model,
Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering”, distributed by
the National Academy of Sciences, United States of America, in 1997, referred
throughout this paper as “guidebook”.
Before I start my practicum
I reflected so much on my past experiences during my undergraduate studies.
Like many motivated students, I also had my share of professors who made a lasting
impression on me. After all, I won’t be able to graduate without them.
Most senior faculty members utilize the slides as a guide to the required
coursework. Dr. Villagonzalo during Physics 108 is the perfect example. The order of
her slides were directly lifted from the Physics Openstax book, which is easily
accessible on the internet. Her way of teaching made it also easier to navigate
through the book and manage to do some advanced study, since you will be able to
predict the next topic. This will be the setting for most of the Physics service courses,
so it's best to take notes from her rulebook.
I am aware that some older members of the senior faculty actually prefer the
chalk-and-talk method. This is the preferred method by Dr. Esguerra in our 11X
classes and Dr. Lamsen in our 151 class, involving the whole lecture to be entirely
written on a blackboard/whiteboard, without any accompanying slides. Dr. Esguerra’s
11X, or the mathematical physics class, always had a prerequisite for us to watch his
recorded lectures before coming to his class. This was the advent of the gradual
return to in-person classes, where we also spend 50% of time on asynchronous
learning. I was very demotivated at that time since I wanted the full in-person
experience, but the situation calls for precaution. Dr. Esguerra repeats in-person
what he discussed during the lectures through examples that the students can try. I
once tried to expand some expression in terms of cosines and sines, and failed to
account for the correct plus or minus signs. I felt embarrassed, at first, but the
environment proved otherwise - Dr. Esguerra and my classmates helped me point
out my mistakes and correct them.
As said in the guidebook, mentors should be aware of the degree of attention
and help it has to offer to the student. I was always able to seek help from Dr.
Esguerra during class hours since (1) he made himself approachable, (2) he gives
you guide questions that would help you figure out problems, and (3), he creates an
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Thoreenz Soldevilla ​ ​
2021-04225​ ​
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Physics 210.2
Jul 17, 2026
environment safe for students to make mistakes. I would like to emphasize point
number 3 in connection with me making a mistake during class - the form of help that
I received was not dreaded with some precondition or something to be laughed at,
but of genuine help. That factor alone diffused the tension within the classroom as I
am writing down my solution.
On the other hand, Dr. Lamsen’s approach to Physics 151, known as
statistical physics, was literally textbook definition - as if every detail in the textbook
was written on the blackboard for us to understand. It was a fairly large class size
with 40+ students enrolled, so the more personalized approach that I encountered
with Dr. Esguerra will not work in his class. In plain hindsight, it is a recipe for
misunderstanding of material. What Dr. Lamsen did for our class is to “force” us into
working through every relevant problem in the prescribed textbook. Some of the
problems will be assigned as homework, while some will be used for the exam. He
also encouraged us to form groups to expedite the study of the material altogether.
By creating a conducive environment that encourages collaboration, Dr. Lamsen
prepares us in what to expect in group works that may be useful in our professional
careers. Even as simple as calling dibs on a problem set item and sharing with your
peers on time is important in building these healthy dynamics. You could say that this
is another example of appropriating your pedagogy to your student’s needs. In this
case, Dr. Lamsen thought that group work would be apt for a large class size.
However, we need to be careful of utilizing this, as some group dynamics may
not work well, especially if a student is not receptive to his groupmates, has a shy
demeanor, or does not have good time management. As a mentor, I must take into
account these factors, encourage affected members to step forward and raise
concerns, and look personally into the “problematic” student and understand the
reasons behind his or her attitude. I know that the NIP, and the University of the
Philippines is keen on “academic freedom”, but freedom can also manifest from a
student feeling liberated about learning, and that starts with checking his or her
situation and finding ways to help alleviate his or her experience.
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Some of the senior faculty have a more hands-on approach, such as Dr.
Soriano and her App Physics 184 class. It’s understandable that 184 would be heavy
on electronics and instrumentation, so our laboratory skills would be constantly
tested. I, however, did not expect such to arise from Dr. Soriano’s lectures! From
time to time, she puts out physical demonstrations that would accompany her
lectures. For instance, in our signal processing course, she taught us how to convert
sounds into electronic audio using Fourier transform. One of my classmates brought
a guitar to the room and was told to strum a string five times. We recorded the audio
using a smartphone, and imported the audio to a processing software called
“Audacity.” We then analyzed its spectrum, or basically obtain its Fourier transform,
and selected the five most dominant frequencies. We then used these frequencies to
recreate the guitar sound using audio waves. By the time Dr. Soriano exported the
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Thoreenz Soldevilla ​ ​
2021-04225​ ​
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Physics 210.2
Jul 17, 2026
recreated audio and played it, the whole class was amazed. We thought that it is
indeed possible to recreate sounds electronically with just a few peaks from its
spectrum. It really shows how practical applications during her class are memorable.
Best practices outside of typical coursework
Of course, I cannot write about my experience in undergraduate school by
only looking into the coursework. I also have to write about my co-curricular
activities, specifically in research as well as dynamics within the people at the
institute. These, I think, are valuable lessons that are plainly shared by my superiors.
Other advice comes from situations that are usually taken for granted, but are
needed to be refreshed in our minds continually. Cultural issues as presented in the
guidebook is fleshed out heavily through personal anecdotes here.
Queer representation in the physical sciences is quite few nationwide, and I
made myself aware of what I am getting into since I am part of the group. When I
entered the university, one of the vocal advocates of science was Sir Rene Principe.
I just learned that he is studying at NIP! What a delight it was to see someone you
look up to be part of the same department. Sir Principe draws his motivation to do
geospatial research from his experiences in Tropical Storm Sendong, which almost
destroyed his family home. He aims to use nighttime lights as an observable in
planning relief efforts after the storm passes a locality. I got the chance to have him
as my lab instructor in App Physics 155. He was very helpful in accommodating my
request for consultations during our coding sessions.
Regional differences also play a huge part in some of my peers’ upbringing in
the institute. For instance, Dr. Galapon’s class has a significant number of students
who did their undergraduate studies at the University of Northern Philippines in
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur. I learned that Dr. Galapon himself is an alumnus of the said
university. All of his mentees were able to thrive under his wing, and I think the
immediate alumni network was very helpful in establishing rapport. Linguistic
similarities also matter too. Take for instance Dr. Flores who heads the lab that I am
part of, the High Energy Physics Phenomenology. He is a native of Dumaguete City,
where the majority of residents speak Cebuano. Most of my Cebuano-speaking
colleagues were able to report to him quicker because they could converse in their
mother tongue.
Lastly, I want to add more on the importance of knowing where you are
coming from. I came from a secondary school that gives importance to writing. I was
able to utilize this ability in group works, specifically Physics 19X classes. It was
important as well to recognize your own abilities so that you can teach others. For
example, we have an experiment on coupled pendulums. Since I am interested in
the results, I analyzed the data obtained and wrote the discussion section. I had my
groupmates review it, and when ready, asked for their permission to share what I
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Thoreenz Soldevilla ​ ​
2021-04225​ ​
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Physics 210.2
Jul 17, 2026
wrote to other groups so that they could learn how we performed the experiment and
do their own modifications. I was able to propagate this ability in my conference
presentations as well.
The role of open communication
The guidebook emphasized the role of a mentor as a faculty adviser and as a
wise and trusted counselor. I was blessed to have the opportunity to learn from my
thesis adviser by talking plainly and openly about my struggles and their respective
solutions. These are the final and most important anecdotes that I have learned to
imbue in my mentorship career.
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Dr. Flores was very patient with me during our weekly research meetings.
During my second year in the BS program, I was keen on learning instrumentation in
particle physics experiments. Even though I know that his subgroup does things on
the phenomenology side, I still did not hesitate to reach out to him about what I want
to do. He then accepted me since my research goal was interesting. Over time, as
typical research progresses, I stumbled across roadblocks that are sometimes
difficult to resolve in a matter of days. When it comes to this, I sometimes want to
resolve things on my own and not want to meet him at a particular period. Hence, I
inform him that I will not attend our scheduled meetings, which he always agrees
with. However, I also made it a habit not to let these unsolved problems drag on my
end. For example, when I wanted to reduce the number of trials in my simulations
since time does not permit, I consulted with him and asked his thoughts. Clear
communication was the reason why I was able to produce my BS thesis on time.
Demonstration of what can I do during the practicum and beyond
Some of the learnings I encountered here were handy enough for me to do
the tasks assigned to me during practicum. I was able to handle one lecture session
last Tuesday, July 14. I taught about fluid dynamics - pressure, buoyancy, Bernoulli’s
principle - you name it. It was difficult to fit these topics during the midyear, where the
course syllabus for a regular semester that lasts for four months is squeezed within
five weeks! Imagine the burden that these students and instructors have to deal
with? However, me and Alyssa managed to pull this off. What I did was to focus on
the motivation and derivation of key formulas, and work out some examples for the
students to tinker with. I even lifted some concepts from other fields such as marine
engineering to highlight the importance of buoyancy in managing the ship’s load.
When it came to a summative quiz, I was happy that most of the students got the
correct answer at their first try. ​
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I would also like to add that my mentorship does not end with the confines of
the MS curriculum. I was able to guide my juniors on what electives and core course
to take during undergraduate studies and how to ace them. I took note of the
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Thoreenz Soldevilla ​ ​
2021-04225​ ​
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Physics 210.2
Jul 17, 2026
different pedagogies of each instructor and relayed to them how I passed them. It
was a humbling experience looking back at my previous experiences and sharing
them with others.
Summary
Reflecting on my journey from student to teaching practicum participant has
deepened my appreciation for the multifaceted role of a mentor. By synthesizing
lessons from my own mentors, who navigated diverse teaching styles ranging from
structured slides and 'chalk-and-talk' methods to collaborative group work and
hands-on demonstrations, I have learned that effective mentorship requires
adaptability and empathy. Whether it is addressing regional and cultural nuances,
fostering an inclusive environment for queer representation, or maintaining open
communication during challenging research periods, I now see how these
experiences shape my own pedagogy. As I continue my practicum, I am committed
to paying forward these lessons, guiding my juniors, and approaching teaching not
just as a delivery of information, but as a deliberate effort to empower and support
each student.
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