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About
Nathan: |
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I have an interesting and diverse educational background, including moderate undergraduate emphasis in physics, electronics, chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and mathematics. Currently I am studying multivariable calculus and biochemistry at Beloit College. I will be attending UW-Madison in the fall to study mathematics and biochemistry further as an undergraduate. I enjoy meaningful independent academic study and research.
An area I have focused on especially in my personal research has been mathematics, specifically multivariable calculus and differential equations. I value very highly the precise development of mathematical ideas that leaves no room for the mystery or vagueness that often comes about in classes and discussions. Therefore I tend to tutor mathematics in a different way, which may be tougher for the student seeking direct answers (in other words, to be led along hand in hand with the tutor), but which will ultimately lead to a better understanding.
Therefore my tutoring philosophy is simply that one should be encouraged to develop clear ideas and connect principles so that vagueness is avoided. I will expect thinking as the active status of the student, as this is the only way to learn. Traditional tutoring where the tutor gives you answers at every step is less effective than measured guidance. Understand that I do provide detailed logical explanations of topics to students, but only logical explanations which lead to learning. In many cases tutors give students guidance in a way which is arbitrary and thereby meaningless to the student concerned with learning the subject; I try to avoid this fault.
My tutoring experience includes four years of work at a program called VIC Tutoring in high school and private tutoring of peers.
I also enjoy playing the guitar, bass, and piano, walking, politics, meaningful discussions with friends, and James Joyce. |
Learn More About
Nathan's Experience:
biochemistry
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My interest in biochemistry arose in high school where the curriculum of my advanced placement biology class largely consisted of biochemical topics. Specifically I focused on traditional topics including biomolecular structure and function, biomembrane structure and function, cellular respiration, photosynthesis, topics that I had already developed interest in through independent research efforts.
I have since studied organic chemistry at Beloit College as well as taken a biochemistry course at the same institution in which we reviewed lipid behavior, metabolic trends, glycolysis, fermentation, the pentose phosphate pathway, glycogenolysis, glycogen synthesis, gluconeogenesis, the citric acid cycle, electron transport, oxidative phosphorylation, photosynthesis, lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, cell signaling, and other related areas with specific emphasis on mechanisms, energetics, and control. This course involved several dozen laboratories related to these topics including a week-long investigation of succinate dehydrogenase activity of cauliflower mitochondria. Research for this class focused on the metabolic basis for certain diseases, specifically glycogen storage disorders, citric acid cycle abnormalities, and the impact of dietary riboflavin deficiency.
I have other independent research experiences in this area, most notably investigations into the temperature dependence of goldfish respiration, where I unfortunately found this quantitative relationship too insignificant to measure.
Also, in 2006 I wrote a thesis entitled "Evolution: the modern dimensions of evolutionary science" in which I specifically addressed among other dimensions of the field the modern biochemical and genetic means of quantifying the degree of interspecific evolutionary kinship. This is an interesting area and although it is less traditionally incorporated into biometabolism courses, being more a matter of genetic analysis, it lies in this realm of study and deserves the student's attention as an area of great development and technical promise.
In addition to these noted interests and experiences, my proficiency as a chemist serves to render the nature of my study and perception of biochemical research appropriately rigorous and mechanistic. I have studied and tutored various areas of chemistry for the last four years, including organic chemistry and atomic physics.
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algebra 2 - biochemistry - biology - calculus - chemistry - discrete math - geometry - physics - precalculus - trigonometry
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