"I am a current college junior at Otterbein University, double majoring in zoo and conservation and biology, with a double minor in economics and math. I graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA and 31 superstore on the ACT, and currently hold a 3.5 GPA. I've taken a multitude of math and biology courses at Otterbein, and been provided many opportunities geared towards my major. I work multiple jobs while more...
"I am a current college junior at Otterbein University, double majoring in zoo and conservation and biology, with a double minor in economics and math. I graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA and 31 superstore on the ACT, and currently hold a 3.5 GPA. I've taken a multitude of math and biology courses at Otterbein, and been provided many opportunities geared towards my major. I work multiple jobs while maintaining a full time academic schedule, but the job with the most skills geared towards a position as a tutor being a lab teaching assistant for BIO 1020, organisms and ecology.
As a TA, I grade papers as well as help students during lab times. This varies between prepping labs, helping students perform labs, and answering questions about the lab and assignment along with it.
As stated previously, I work as a lab TA this semester. I do not have any specific prior tutoring experience outside of this position, but as I've gone through college I have learned that the best way to master material is to teach to others. In lab, I can understand that some topics can be more difficult to grasp, especially when a student is learning it for the first time. When students come to me with questions, I often try to explain the answers to their questions through diagrams, if possible. For example, mitosis and meiosis or taxon groupings.
Having physical images or examples to refer to is something that I believe is very beneficial in the learning process. If an image is not available for the topic, I do my best to explain topics step by step, connecting each step along the way. This is also the way I've found to teach math topics to others. For example, I often studied with a group for my Calculus 1 course, and would find myself trying to teach the topics I understood to them. With math in particular, you may know what to do, but not how to execute it or you may not know the appropriate steps to use next. For this, it's easiest to use an example, explaining each step, how to do it, why it was used, and how to identify its usa" less...
