PTYS graduate student Patricio Becerra is the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for Fall 2012. Patricio earned the award for his work as a GTA for Professor Tamara Rogers' PTYS 170B1 course during the Spring 2012 semester.

The student nomination forms cited Patricio for his dedication to communicating the course content. Professor Rogers nominated Patricio for the award for his work in helping to design and implement "think-pair-share" and Lecture Tutorials; both these activities required Pat to prepare the activities with the instructor in advance. Professor Rogers writes that "Pat was invaluable to my ability to implement these [activities] successfully." Patricio also ran the lecture tutorials on his own and had to improvise a lecture when one version of the tutorial guide did not match the other. Patricio also assisted with the Media Reported Science (MRS) activity, and created and implemented an MRS of his own.

Recipients of the Outstanding GTA Award receive funds of up to $1,000 to support travel to a professional meeting of their choice. Congratulations, Patricio!