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James N. for tutoring lessons in Denver CO WyzAnt Tutoring Tutor Tutor United States

James N.

I love to tutor & have a Master's in Physics and Philosophy

Denver, CO (80228)

Travel Radius 20 miles
Hourly Fee $40.00
Discount $34.00 - $38.00 Save up to 15% (i)

Your first hour with any tutor is always 100% refundable!

I love to tutor and have Master's in Physics and Philosophy. I am very good at figuring out what it is that's hanging a student up and coming up with an approach to the material that allows the student to understand and master it. My motto is "If the student fails to learn, then I have failed to teach!"

James's Subjects

Math:
Science:
English:
Test Preparation:
Computer:
Special Needs:
  • phonics
Elementary Education:
Business:
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Corporate Training:
Homeschool:

Algebra 1

There's a lot of garbage taught in algebra 1 classes these days. But the simple fact of the matter is that algebra is NOTHING but arithmetic without the numbers. If you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers, then there is very little in public school algebra that one doesn't already know.

It really is a shame that Algebra 1 is the topic that turns so many students off to math, when it ought to be a cakewalk.

Algebra 2

There's a lot of garbage taught in Algebra classes these days, and Algebra 2 continues with scaring students to death with story problems. Math teachers often start every lecture with about hard they are, and so, of course, the students 'learn' that story problems are hard.

But there is one simple, foolproof algorithm (step by step process) for working story problems, and, personally, I find story problems to fun. And I can teach you find them to be fun as well.

Calculus

Calculus is where math gets serious. It's generally the most advanced topic offered in high school, and required for almost every science class you'll take in college.

Whether you're taking (AP) Calculus in high school or college, I can help you master this topic.

Chemistry

Let me be truthful, I haven't had chemistry since high school, when I took AP Chemistry. I got a 4 on the AP exam, and so got credit for 2 semesters of chemistry when I started school at CU Boulder.

But about 80% of chemistry, that isn't memorization (I couldn't tell you waht the difference between a sulfate and sulfite are -- I thought that's why we made up those funny little one or two letter abbreviations like SO4^-2 and SO3^-2), is simple algebra, and I rock algebra.

Another... Read More

Microsoft Excel

I am a MS Excel guru. Whether it's entering basic formulae, formatting the page and data in it to look nice when viewed/printed, I can teach everything you might ever want to know about Excel, including writing Visual Basic for Application (VBA) macros to make your Excel spreadsheets into powerhouses.

Geometry

Geometery is often the first math class taught by means of memorizing theorems without reference to the real world, and this makes the topic unnecessarily abstract and hard to grasp. But everything Euclid wrote came as a result of looking at the world around him, and if geometry is taught from this perspective, it is really fairly straighforward.

Physics

I have an MS in Experimental High Energy Physics from KSU and completed all of the coursework necessary for a PhD at KU. I have taught physics as an adjunct at a number of colleges and universities in both Kansas and Colorado and tutored many, many students physics -- I can supply references, if you wish.

My motto is: if the student fails to learn, then the teacher has failed to teach.

Microsoft PowerPoint

As an Educational Specialist II at Echostar, I developed a number of courses for the computer engineering staff to help them "write better code faster." Every one of these classes were developed to be delivered as MS PowerPoint presentations, and some of them were quite complicated making use of animation and fades of different kinds. I can certainly help you master MS PowerPoint.

Prealgebra

There's a lot of garbage taught in pre-algebra classes these days. But the simple fact of the matter is that algebra is NOTHING but arithmetic without the numbers. If you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers, there is very little in grade school algebra that one doesn't already know. But the topic is seldom presented this way so students are often intimidated/scared by it and wind up not doing well. When I teach algebra at any level, I ALWAYS relate the current topic back to a basic... Read More

Precalculus

In my experience pre-calc students have the most trouble with the subject because of a less than optimal background in trigonometry.

Trigonometry is at once one of the math classes I found to be both the least and most fun. The least fun because there's just a lot of memorization without which you simply cannot succeed. Fortunately, there are alot of mnemonics (_e.g._ SOHCAHTOA, sin respects sign, etc) that can make all this memorization almost painless. The most fun because a many... Read More

Trigonometry

Trigonometry is at once one of the math classes I found to be both the least and the most fun. The least fun because there's just a lot of memorization without which you simply cannot succeed. Fortunately, there are a lot of mnemonics (SOHCAHTOA, sin respects sign, etc) that can make all this memorization almost painless. The most fun because a many trigonometry problems are like puzzles and you just have to figure out how to fit the pieces--the stuff you have to memorize--together to make the... Read More

Astronomy

In high school, my father and I built a 10in Newton-style reflecting telescope from scratch. The tube was a 12in concrete post tube, and we melted, cast and polished and mirrored the main mirror -- completion of the main mirror took almost 3 months. The eye-piece lenses we bought, but we machined the two eye-piece cylinders from PVC tubes. With that telescope we were able to image Jupiter's Red-Spot and see moons transit it! By the time college rolled around, my my interest had shifted from astronomy... Read More

HTML

I have never taken a class in web-design -- I am completely self-taught. 90% of the web pages on the web could be as static pages (meaning they would look the same every time they were loaded regardless of who was loading them) using no more than a dozen basic html tags.

CSS adds a great deal of customizability (_i.e._ allows these dozen tags to look different), but construction of basic web-pages using basic html can be mastered very, very quickly.

SAT Math

The SAT Math test consists of:

11–13 Numbers and operations questions,
19–21 Algebra and functions questions,
14–16 Geometry and measurement questions, and
6–7 Data analysis, statistics, and probability questions.

There are 44 standard multiple-choice questions and 10 'essay' questions for a total of 54 quesitons to be answeredd in two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section for a total of 70 minutes. That means you have ~1:15min per question.
Read More

SQL

While teaching software engineers to "write better code faster" at Echostar (DishNetwork's harware spinoff company), I developed and taught an introductory course to SQL databases (including Oracle, MySQL, and yes, even MSSQL -- even talked very briefly about MS Access).

SAT Reading

I completed all but my PhD dissertation in Philosophy and have taught philosophy at several colleges and universities -- and that meant learning how to read critically and teaching my students to do likewise.

I also write ficiton (short-story and novels), belong to the Rocky Mountain Ficiton Writers (RMFW), and attend 3hr long RMFW critique sessions twice a week in which my work is critiqued by others and I critique their work so I can certainly help you with your reading skills.

SAT Writing

I completed all but my PhD dissertation in Philosophy and have taught philosophy at several colleges and universities -- that's a hundreds of pages of my writing graded by professors and thousands of student pages of writing graded by me.

I also write ficiton (short-story and novels), belong to the Rocky Mountain Ficiton Writers (RMFW), and attend 3hr long RMFW critique sessions twice a week in which my work is critiqued by others and I critique their work so I can certainly help you... Read More

Physical Science

'Physical Science' generally includes the following topics: physics, chemistry and 'Earth Science', which in turn includes the topics, the atmosphere, hydrosphere, oceans and biosphere, as well as the solid earth.

My MS in (Experimental High Energy) Physics, but I have a fairly thorough understading of chemistry.

'Physical Science' is generally a class taught in junior high school, and I am confident that I could help a student at these levels gain a firm grasp of all of... Read More

ASVAB

The ASVAB is a multiple-choice exam (MCE), and as such, it is like every other MCE and there are certain techniques one can use to improve one's score on any such MCE. I can help you master these techniques in addition to the all of the topics covered by the ASVAB: General Science, Arithmetic Reasoning, Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, Mathematics Knowledge, Electronics Information, Auto Information, Shop Information, Mechanical Comprehension, Assembling Objects.

I have a MS... Read More

Probability

My first probability class was in high school, and I got an A. My second probability class was at CU Boulder (UCB), I got an A, and the professor was BLIND! This should tell you something about probability -- except for very advanced topics, if you can count (the UCB professor taught the majority of the class by making hashmarks on the board), multiply and divide, you can do 90% of probability.

ACT Math

The Math ACT consists of:
14 Arithmetic Questions
10 Elementary Algebra Questions
9 Intermediate Algebra Questions
9 Coordinate Geometry Questions
14 Plane Geometry Questions
4 Trigonometry Questions
for a total of 60 questions and you have 60 minutes in which to complete the test. That means you've got ~1min/question. They are several tricks to doing well on the exam that have nothing to do with the subject matter, and in addition to helping you with the subject... Read More

Elementary (K-6th)

I have been granted a K-12 Substitute Teachers license by both the states of KS and CO and taken many, many K-6 teaching assignments as a Substitute Teacher.

Study Skills

Half of my tutoring and what I've done on my own has been teaching students study skills that they didn't learn or weren't taught. This includes underlining key passages of the text, making notes in the margin about material in the text that one doesn't understand so that one has a record of questions to ask the teacher/professor. Working problems for which one answers, whether they be examples in the text or problems for which their are answers in the back of the text. And so on.

Web Design

I have been a off and on web designer since 1994, having working both in industry (KSU, Sager Dental, Andax Industries, Kaiser Permanente and ISSISGlobal) and taking on numerous independent contract jobs and volunteer website design work at Junell Norris's Manhattan Emergency Shelter.

Additional in my almost of my teaching jobs (KSU, KU, Bethany College, MSUD, and CU Denver), I have developed websites for my courses.

Chess

My father taught me chess when I was in elementary school, and we continued to play regularly through junior high. By that time we fairly equally matched, each of us winning roughly half the time. We would often walk our way through matches of champions in which one of the champions capitulated and then play until one of us one won (as often as not it was the player that won -- this was always hard to explain) and try to figure out what it was the capitulating champion saw coming that caused him/her... Read More

Differential Equations

I received an BS in Phyiscs from Metro State Univ of Denver in 1993 and an MS in Experimental High Energy Physics (EHEP) from KSU in 1996, and completed all of the coursework necessary for a PhD in Nuclear/Experimental High Energy Physics at KU.

On the way to these degrees I took math and physics courses which taught, _e.g._ differential equations (at the undergraduate level), mathematical methods of physics (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels) and made extensive use of differential... Read More

C++

I have been hacking code since high school. I gained most of my hands-on programming experience while working on my MS and PhD in Experimental High Energy Physics, where I programmed in a number of languages: FORTAN, C/C++, (Visual-)BASIC, and a number of web scripting languages (javascript, PHP, PERL) and specialized in physics programming environments like PAW, PYTHIA/JETSET, GEANT and GRAHMS.

In particular, I developed statistical thermodynamic models of particle flux for a Threshold... Read More

Computer Programming

In addition to teaching software engineers to "write better software faster" (DBS basics, MySQL, Oracle, MSSQL, MS Access, Linux OS, bash and makefile scripting, multi-threaded C/C++, debugging and testing multi-threaded software, multi-threaded software/cyber security) as an Educational Specialist II at Echostar (Dishnetwork's hardware spinoff), I have been hacking code since high school. I gained most of my hands-on programming experience while working on my MS and PhD in Experimental High Energy... Read More

Computer Science

I have been hacking code since high school.

Not being too bright, I spent 3.5 years pursuing an Electrical Engineering/Computer Science degree at CU Boulder before realizing I didn't want to be a EE. Even so, a great deal of graduate work in Experimental High Energy Physics at KSU and KU involved work in computer science.

I gained most of my hands-on programming experience while working on my MS and PhD in Experimental High Energy Physics, where I programmed in a number... Read More

Dreamweaver

I have been a off and on web designer since 1994, having working both in industry (KSU, Sager Dental, Andax Industries, Kaiser Permanente and ISSISGlobal) and taking on numerous independent contract jobs (Barbara J Butler's Transitions Simplified International, Jody Rein/Patti Thorn's BlueInk Reviews) and volunteer website design work at Junell Norris's Manhattan Emergency Shelter.

Additionally in most of my teaching jobs (KSU, KU, Bethany College, MSUD, and CU Denver), I have developed... Read More

Fortran

I have been hacking code since high school. I gained most of my hands-on programming experience while working on my MS and PhD in Experimental High Energy Physics, where I programmed in a number of languages: FORTAN, C/C++, (Visual-)BASIC, and a number of web scripting languages (javascript, PHP, PERL) and specialized in physics programming environments like PAW and PYTHIA/JETSET.

In particular, I did a great deal of FORTAN programming while participating in the Department of Energy's... Read More

Linear Algebra

I received a BS in Physics from Metro State Univ of Denver (MSUD) in 1993 and an MS in Experimental High Energy Physics (EHEP) from KSU in 1996, and completed all of the coursework necessary for a PhD in Nuclear/Experimental High Energy Physics at KU.

On the way to these degrees I took math and physics courses which taught linear algebra, _e.g._ linear algebra and matrix theory (at the undergraduate level), mathematical methods of physics (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels)... Read More

Linux

In addition to teaching software engineers to "write better software faster" where there predominate OS was Linux OS as an Educational Specialist II at Echostar (Dishnetwork's hardware spinoff), the overwhelming programming I did in my Experimental High Energy Physics graduate program work was done in the LINUX OS. I am also predominately a Mac user, and since OS 10, the underlying Mac OS is LINUX.

Logic

In both my undergraduate and graduate studies in Philosophy I took both informal and formal/symbolic logic courses.

While an adjunct professor at Barton County Community College, I developed for online delivery and taught the 8 week BARTONline PHIL1605 - Introduction to Logic; this was predominately an class in informal logic though we did cover formal logic to some extent.

As an adjunct professor at Bethany College, MSUD and CU Denver, I taught courses in Introduction to... Read More

Macintosh

I have been using Macs since the early 1990's, and intimately familiar with both OS <9 and OS 10.x.

While a graduate student in Experimenatal High Energy Physics student at KU, I managed a network of Macs and installed Yellow Dog LINUX on Macs running Mac OS 9.x before we replaced these older Macs with Macs running OS 10.x.

I also managed a network of Macs at Sager Dental when I was doing web design work there, where I performed wide variety of IT consulting tasks – researched... Read More

Microsoft Windows

I have extensive experience using and administering Windows (98-Vista -- I don't have much experience with Windows 7 yet, but I'm a quick study) machines. Working for SmartSource as a Field Technician, I have performed soft/hardware (kiosk, workstation and POS computers, network printers and HD TVs) refreshes and installations for Best Buy, Rent-A-Center stores, Grainger Industrial Supply, and Sheraton Hotels -- these were all Windows machines. Working for QualxServ (now Worldwide TechServices)... Read More

Perl

As a web designer a number of my projects have required a database back end, and for a number of these projects I have used PERL as the interface language.

For instance, as a TA at University of Kansas, I had to take a TA-prep class that included a communication styles 'test'. It was a paper test with 36 questions that you had to answer with "1=never", "2=infrequently", "3=sometimes", "4=frequently" and "5=often". Then you had to 'grade' the test by hand, and this unbelievably tedious,... Read More

PHP

As a web desinger a number of my projects have required a database back end, and for a number of these projects I have used PHP as the interface language, in particular, the webistes I designed for Kaiser Permanente and ISSIS Global have used PHP as the interface language.

UNIX

I have worked in a UNIX environment on Solaris workstations, while doing my Master's research in Experimental High Energy Physics. From a user's point of view, UNIX and Linux are interchangeable, and I taught software engineers to "write better software faster" where their predominate OS was Linux OS as an Educational Specialist II at Echostar (Dishnetwork's hardware spinoff). The overwhelming programming I did in my Experimental High Energy Physics graduate program work was done in the LINUX... Read More

Visual Basic

I have extensive experience with VBA, having written MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint macros (routines) to generate monthly payroll reports, monthly expense reports, instructor, student class lecture notes, and multiple static html pages from a single MS Word or PowerPoint file, and (functions) to calculate student grades and GPA's , a variety of statistical analyses (financial and for research in physics), and ongoing/continuous budgeting.

The macro's were written for use at home,... Read More

Electrical Engineering

Not being too bright, I spent 3.5 years pursuing an Electrical Engineering/Computer Science degree at CU Boulder before realizing I didn't want to be a EE.

But having abandoned EE as topic of study, I did a great deal of EE work while a graduate student in Experimental High Energy Physics. A great deal of elementary EE topics are covered in the physics classes I taught at Baker University, KU and CU Denver. Furthermore, I taught two EE classes at Echotech Institute (EEN1440 - Wiring,... Read More

Mechanical Engineering

I have a MS in Physics and have studied classical mechanics, which is the basis for mechanical engineering. I have also tutored Architechural Engineering students; and in my experience, mathematics and physics, which I know in spades, has been sufficient to help them.

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