Hey, I'm Greg. As cliche as it sounds, I love to learn. Throughout my childhood and even to this day, I love learning. I love to figure out why things work, how they work, and whether or not it can be further optimized. Such curiosity pushes me to explore many hobbies in an attempt to learn and understand more about the world. My main passions are food, reading, tennis, and games (both video and board games). As a child, I grew up in libraries and Science always fascinated me. Science to me is the explanation of the world and such an interest led me to study Chemistry in College.After four years, I graduated from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) with a degree in Pure Chemistry. After graduating, I returned to UCR to obtain a California Teaching Credential and a Masters in Education for teaching. My focus whenever I am teaching or tutoring a student is to help develop critical thinking skills. To do so, instead of telling students the answers, I provide guiding questions to help push students towards the right answer. Doing so forces students to reflect upon their knowledge and confront any partial understandings or misunderstandings. When learning new topics, I like to incorporate inquiry based learning because such methods bring students back into the classroom as an active participant rather than a passive consumer. In addition, such strategies encourage students to use critical thinking skills to explore and learn about Science instead of read about Science. I pursued teaching because I realized that I really enjoyed the process of helping others learn. To me, teaching others is a very visible way to help others and to make an impact on the world. My favorite part of teaching is seeing those “lightbulb” moments where a student resolves a point of confusion. While these moments are never as dramatized as the moments we see in the media, such moments are real and the increase in confidence within the student is immediately visible.