Lauren: Pleasanton tutor

Certified Tutor

I am a crop and soil scientist in eastern Washington. I received my BS in Environmental Science from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and my MS from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Natural Resources and Environmental Management. While a graduate student I was a teaching assistant where I helped undergraduate students with core concepts from class, homework and exam preparation as well as helping them recall concepts from former math and science classes that the class built upon. During this time I also volunteered with an after school STEM program for underprivileged 2-8th graders. During my undergraduate time, I spent a semester with a classroom of elementary school students where we created lesson plans and taught environmental science to the students. I also spent a summer working as a teacher's aide in a school for children with special needs including autism and various neurological impairments. There I helped with 6-9 year old students on their goals for both life and academic skills. Lastly, throughout my academic career I helped many of my friends and classmates through various science and math classes.

I enjoy helping people learn and become passionate about science. It is not as scary as some people think! I like to apply real world applications to problems to help students visualize why the information is important. I also strive to identify how individual students best learn, whether it be through talking through problems, visualizing or drawing them out or even acting out and using kinetics to help remember and understand. The goal is not to memorize how to do a specific problem, but to gather a toolbox of skills to be able to apply to future problems and critically think how to solve them.

When not in the lab, I enjoy reading, hockey, yoga, working out and exploring Washington.