About Me

I graduated from the University of Arizona in 2010 with two Bachelor of Science degrees, majoring in Engineering Physics, Applied Mathematics and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I currently tutor math from middle school Algebra up through Calculus I, Physics, Biology and Ecology. I started tutoring after completing a class covering various tutoring strategies and methodologies my sophomore year through the UofA's Center for Recruitment and Retention of Mathematics Teachers. During this course I was mentored by two high school teachers who had me help during their classes. This experience gave me a good base for designing lessons and introduced me to common problems students have and how to work past them. After completing this course and earning a listing on the math department's website, I tutored through the rest of my college career with students from middle school level to college level. As a result of being listed with the math department, most of my experience tutoring involved math. With this experience I've found I favor an approach to tutoring that builds from past lessons and mastered material into the current subject matter to work towards a personalized understanding where all the pieces fit nicely together and support one another. This approach makes finals time easier since we are periodically revisiting old material throughout the semester, keeping it fresh and reinforcing it the whole time. For math I find it especially useful to explore different applications of the subject matter to help motivate what we are learning and keep it interesting. Overall, I think science and math are cool, fun, challenging and worth every minute you put into it and I enjoy sharing my own interest whenever I can. I like to keep my lessons lighthearted and with three younger siblings I have become very patient, so don't worry about saying you don't understand! During my free time I have a number of activities I enjoy. I grew up camping and fishing with my parents and continue to do so with friends and family and I've even spent a season building and repairing hiking trails. I enjoy music and messing around on my banjo and trying to sing and play at the same time. I also mess around a little with photography, which can be especially fun from a physics point of view. I spend a lot of time reading books, play a mean game of Mario Kart and enjoy just about any board game you put in front of me!

Education & Certifications

Q&A with Zach

Tutoring Subjects