Ben H.
Private tutor in Santa Cruz, CA
Education
BA Mathematics UCLA 1964 MA and PhD Mathematics UCLA 1965
Experience
I tutored math starting in the 10th grade and continued through my undergraduate education. I then taught mathematics at UCLA, UC Berkeley, Indiana University and The University of Minnesota. I was a full professor at Indiana University when I left to work for Apple Computer. My industry career included computer graphics and CAD at Apple, Microsoft and Autodesk, biotechnology and machine learning at Applied Biosystems, Celerla Diagnostics, and Expression Diagnostics. After retiring from full time employment I have continued to develop computer software for analyzing complex data. I miss teaching and have begun to offer my services as a tutor. I know mathematics and its applications. I know the principles behind the exercises and problems and can use this knowledge to help students do the exercises and get the most out of them. As an academic I was surrounded by thoughtful people who were constantly thinking about how we learn and I continue to think about this. Most subjects are much more than a series of facts. This is especially true of mathematics. Mathematics solves many problems by applying “simple” principles. The difficulty with these “simple” principles is that they are abstract and somewhat removed from our everyday experiences. To communicate these principles it is best that the tutor start with simple concrete examples to guide the student in building understanding through repeated application of the principles to the examples. As a teacher I feel that it is a misdirection to emphasize “shortcuts” “to get the answers” to exercises. Exercises are meant to strengthen the student’s ability to understand an underlying principle. In a different realm, the purpose of exercises is crystal clear – the purpose of running all the way around the track would not be served by cutting across the middle. When a teacher really knows the principle underlying an exercise then that teacher can most effectively use the exercise to promote an understanding of the principle. Exercises in mathematics often have two distinct parts, for example first, deciding what to do (add, subtract, etc.) and second, doing the calculation itself. So there are two skills to practice such as determining the operation and doing it or setting up an equation and solving it. In a tutoring session the tutor can separate the first of these skills from the second. As soon as the student says a correct choice for the first part, the turor can confirm it and the student can immediately go on to the next problem. This makes the problem appear easy and encourages the student. By skipping the second step the student concentrates on the first skill and gets more practice of that skill in the same time.
Availability
Any day after 9AM
Can Meet
Up to 20 minutes away for no additional charge
Hobbies
I play the piano and have an avid interest in ping pong. I coach my 16 year old granddaughter in math and science. I volunteer at the Senior Center Computer Lab helping people use computers, iPhones, and iPads. I work on my own computer software project which concerns understanding complex data through visualization.
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