Henry

Rate $21
Response 1h

$21/h

Math & physics major, seasoned tutor at high school and college levels with extensive experience as a teaching fellow at introductory and advanced courses.

Math
Algebra
Physics
Trigonometry
Algorithms

Lesson location

- online

About Henry

I am or was a theoretical and computational physicist in training, with experience primarily in numerical biophysics and simulations of colloidal self-assembly, but also possessing a healthy interest in a wide array of topics ranging from representation theory to novel photovoltaics and meteorology (as well as, among other topics, science writing, good journalism, representations of language, and the epistemological foundations of e-sports.)

When I am not playing with equations, or fidgeting with code, I enjoy practicing cello and volunteering my time at my friendly neighborhood FedEx warehouse (a great side hustle for those of us who need the extra motivation to work out.) I'm also looking forward to celebrating a newly-gained liberty to donate blood.

About the lesson

I firmly believe that all students have the capacity to flourish with the right environment and the right approach, and that my job as a tutor is to help my students uncover what might be described as their unique inner creative energy, or what motivates them to continue to learn and appreciate what they learn independently of what else might be happening in their lives as only they can.

Before lessons start, I try to get students thinking about what they are most excited about learning. This could be anything from the sine qua non of algebra to the nature of electric and magnetic fields to perturbative techniques in classical dynamics and the standard model. It also doesn't have to be unique. The important thing is to have a sort of 'in media res' starting point for a natural conversation, and to build lessons on a solid foundation of interest. In the course of this conversation, an opportunity often presents itself to expand the horizon of inquiry to related topics, and to draft a sort of preliminary conceptual map connecting interdependent questions or mysteries. This sets the stage for a prospective syllabus, which the student may opt to explore over the course of one or several lessons, and possibly even involving several educators and even entirely different tutors. The idea isn't to make learning easier or less effortful, rather to help students essentially trick themselves conscientiously into doing more work than is strictly necessary, by tapping into their own latent curiosity.

When students are relatively sure of what they want to learn, and a preliminary roadmap has been constructed, it's possible to begin more focused lessons. In math, there's a relatively straightforward and more or less universal format to these: you start by describing the basic conceptual structures that you'll be working with, then you prove a few basic general theorems or properties about them, and then decide where to go next while exploring examples with the students to build intuition and to some extent sensibility or taste. It can be extremely helpful, however, to have a tutor at hand who is able to respond in real time to questions, or to help students look at an unfamiliar concept in several ways before moving on to the more involved examples.

Physics is a bit different, but only because it is easy to hoodwink oneself into thinking that one knows more about the world than one actually does. All the more so with the extensive explanatory power of well-tested and well-developed 20th century theories such as quantum field theory and general relativity, and even to some extent the classical models of Newton and Maxwell and their contemporaries that are introduced in AP curricula. In didactic contexts (i.e. not when I'm hosting a last-minute review session for an exam) I try to present experimental results before theory and to encourage students to think of ways that specific theories could be tested in order to avoid giving the impression that physics is more (or less) than a science, or that there is a shortage of as-yet unaddressed fundamental questions. I think it is also healthy to encourage students every once in a while to seriously question the theories or models that they learn about; to imagine how the models might apply in (relatively) new environmental conditions or physical systems.

My philosophy toward exam review is essentially to (a) help students self-diagnose their own strengths and weaknesses, and (b) to help students hone skills or knowledge that they believe is worth their attention. This might involve engaging with students in casual conversation about materials related to their exam, providing independent and similarly distributed exam-style questions for them to work on, and finally to provide examples that are catered to what the students wish to focus on.

Math & physics major, seasoned tutor at high school and college levels with extensive experience as a teaching fellow at introductory and advanced courses.

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About Henry

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Math & physics major, seasoned tutor at high school and college levels with extensive experience as a teaching fellow at introductory and advanced courses.

Lesson location

About Henry

About the lesson

Rates

Rate

Pack rates

online

Other tutors in Math

Alireza

Hamid

Ali

Nihit

Dhirenkumar

Alireza

Gavin

Mr Ali

Qasim

BARNABAS

Jaspreet

Moe

Parham

Divya

Avneet

Jalal

Alaa

Sam

Osadebamwen

Achint

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