Travis: Burr Ridge tutor

Certified Tutor

I recently graduated from the University of North Texas (UNT) with a bachelor of science in biochemistry, along with a minor in biology and a certificate in technical communication. I am currently back at UNT, pursuing a master of science in library science.

While pursuing my bachelor's degree, I co-led multiple organic chemistry study groups, in which I helped students work practice problems in-person and answered both specific questions about the material and general questions about how to succeed in the course.

I also volunteered for Reading Partners North Texas as a virtual tutor. In my role with Reading Partners, I worked one-on-one with elementary students struggling in reading. I led my students through lessons, listened to them read, and read aloud to them myself to demonstrate proper pronunciation.

I currently tutor various levels of biology and chemistry, as well as K-12 mathematics. I enjoy how concepts in chemistry build in logical ways and how it's possible to use foundational knowledge to reach more complex ideas. It's extremely rewarding to see a student grasp a concept they've been struggling with, especially when they build up to it themselves.

I like to ask questions when I tutor. I want to see what knowledge the student has, and I want to prompt their memory. I try not to give a student the answer directly if I can help it. Even if I must prompt them all the way to the solution, it is valuable for the student to be given a logical framework, and the prompting helps them remember what questions to ask themselves when facing a similar problem in the future.

If a student is having trouble conceptualizing something mechanistically, I try to describe the concept in different ways, approaching it from alternative perspectives. A lot of times, students are only presented with one perspective one approach to understanding but not every explanation works the same for every student.