I taught chemical physics topics as a teaching assistant for more than 5 years. I have a BSE in chemical engineering from the University of Iowa and a MS from the University of California San Diego in computational chemical physics. I earned income as a teaching assistant. I taught discussion sections on statistical mechanics for some fairly well known professors doing important work on protein folding and other areas (John Weare, Peter Wolynes). During this time I also tutored college...
I taught chemical physics topics as a teaching assistant for more than 5 years. I have a BSE in chemical engineering from the University of Iowa and a MS from the University of California San Diego in computational chemical physics. I earned income as a teaching assistant. I taught discussion sections on statistical mechanics for some fairly well known professors doing important work on protein folding and other areas (John Weare, Peter Wolynes). During this time I also tutored college students at the university in my free time. I considered it a benefit because it was an opportunity to learn to explain complicated topics to students who had yet to develop the background necessary to understand them.
My method for tutoring includes producing documents -- PDFs, downloadable programs, e.g. yolo-example.py, or slides in PDF, Google, or Microsoft format -- ahead of time to help organize each session according to the topic the student requested. For example, if the student is interested in learning to build neural networks using PyTorch, I prepare by producing a document which highlights what we'll talk about during the session and produce some simple starter examples demonstrating key concepts, e.g. formatting training data with DataLoader, choosing which layers to use, and how to size the validation samples relative to training data. These are all made available to the student before the lesson.
For context, when teaching and tutoring students in a university setting, I primarily worked with first- and second-year students looking for help getting past particular software engineering challenges. They ranged in age from 18 to 22 in most cases, and we usually met up at the local library (Geisel Library at UC San Diego or the main library at the University of Iowa). In a couple of cases I did meet with students in their homes. This was fairly unusual though, and I only agreed to it because I had a history of working with them. I prefer meeting in public or online.
