Clare

I have recently completed my PhD at Imperial College London in the Materials Science department working with electromagnetic detection of biological solutions in the group of Professor Norbert Klein in the Centre for Terahertz Science and Engineering, developing a novel biosensor. Before my PhD I graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a first class honours degree in Chemistry with Materials Chemistry. I therefore have strengths in Chemistry, Physics, Maths and general science, including some Biology.

I love to communicate science, and I have been active in my department through lab demonstrations, open days, outreach with Imperial, mentoring individuals and supervision of masters student projects during my time at Imperial. I also held a competitive paid teaching job at a local high school helping under performing A level students achieve their predicted grades with great success. My experience at Gunnersbury High School has taught me how to pitch my subjects to students with dramatically different capabilities and levels of understanding, a key skill for private tutoring in order to get the best possible results. I have also gained familiarity with the Chemistry A level syllabus, as well as useful teaching resources, and an understanding of different learning styles and the importance of catering to these.

For higher level students, I have relevant experience in overseeing two masters projects in our lab at Imperial, delivering undergraduate level teaching and advice on an individual basis, as well as demonstrating to larger groups as part of lab demonstration responsibilities. I have given presentations at international conferences on my research and I firmly believe that all this experience has made me a very good communicator of complex ideas.

Availability: I am currently not accepting new students.

Willing to travel: 2 miles

Experience: I recently held a competitive teaching job holding weekly 2 hour AS-level catch-up classes to a class of 14 under performing A2 level students for two school terms (this is where my reference is from). This involved lesson, test and homework planning, as each topic had to be re-taught at the beginning of sessions before practise and past exam questions were worked through both as a class and individually. This experience has been hugely valuable and enjoyable as I have been able to test and improve my communication and dissemination skills, managing to explain as thoroughly as possible to a group of very mixed abilities (students range from predicted As to predicted Ds) the fundamentals of an idea through to complex applications of it. I love the challenge of this kind of exchange, and find teaching this age group very rewarding as the pupils are lively and enthusiastic interaction can be achieved. It can be difficult to engage all levels simultaneously and manage a large group but, even with no previous experience of this kind, feedback from both the school and my students has been very positive. After completing the A level re-sits the school managed to receive record results in their A levels.

I have done some part-time work in the Materials department demonstrating in taught undergraduate lab courses. For one term I have been in charge of groups of 6 second year students for two 3-hour sessions a week as they carry out an experiment using a scanning electron microscope, overseeing the operation of the machine and ensuring their safety as well as teaching them about the technique so that they are prepared to write a report on their findings. I particularly enjoyed this teaching experience as I am passionate about science and what I do and I find it very rewarding to pass some understanding to others as I feel that this can really spark their interest. I am actively looking for further opportunities to engage in all manners of teaching and communicating science and engineering.

As part of my PhD studies I have overseen the supervision of two Masters Students in our lab. The first I helped complete a project on microfluidic cell sorting, aiding in microfluidic components and systems, pumps and theory, the second I helped complete a simulation project, helping with the design of the investigation, microwave theory and with CST microwave studio.