Andrew

4th year chemistry PhD student with 5 years'/1000+ hours' teaching experience.

I am a 4th-year PhD student studying the Origins of Life at University College London. Before starting this research, I completed my integrated master's degree at the University of Edinburgh, where I studied advanced modules in a diverse range of chemistry before specialising in organic chemistry for my master's project at the University of Chicago.

Originally from Scotland, I have lived in London since 2020 for my doctoral research, although I am currently based near St Andrews. Outside of my studies, I am passionate about music, history and language learning.

Tutoring Experience

I have had numerous opportunities to teach chemistry at a range of levels since my year abroad in Chicago. Brief outline below (full CV available on request as I await its approval by the site's moderators):

• Teaching assistant for introductory chemistry module at the University of Chicago (2020), leading laboratory classes and discussion sessions for group of nine students;
• Online tutoring with Coachbright for GCSE science trilogy students (2021);
• Laboratory demonstrator for undergraduate and master's level organic chemistry students at UCL (2021-present);
• Tutor for first-year undergraduate organic chemistry students at UCL (2022-present).
• Senior postgraduate teaching assistant in the Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP) at UCL, specialising in technical communication.

Tutoring Approach

My principal aim in teaching is to help students think about problems and solve them in the same way that I do. In practice, this leads to the following dialogue-focussed tutorials which have been designed to follow a similar pattern to university tutorials/interviews:

In the first tutorial:
1. Personal introductions, followed by a broad discussion of the student's studies in chemistry, the stage they are at in these studies, and the areas in which they feel support would be most valuable;
2. Walking through and discussing a preliminary exam-style problem set designed to set a benchmark by which the student's progress can be measured over the course of these tutorials.

Subsequent tutorials:
1. A brief discussion of the material covered in the student's studies since our last tutorial to identify areas in which the student would like to be more confident;
2. Discussion of bespoke questions designed to gauge the student's progress in understanding matter which was identified as difficult in previous tutorials;
3. Quick questions to recapitulate material studied throughout lesson.

Examples of bespoke problem sets and subject notes which I have prepared at various levels are publicly available on this profile to those interested (pending site moderator approval - in the meantime, they are available on request). I am happy to produce similar problem sets to the specification of the student after each tutorial.

I attach great importance to improving the students' confidence in their studies generally speaking, and so am also mindful of being explicitly encouraging and empathetic by reflecting on my personal experiences of studying what can be quite a daunting subject.