Science Education Center
of California

Background and Philosophy

The Science Education Center of California has made a commitment to provide a broad range of educational services to the community. They range from educational presentations and museum displays to science supplies and curriculum books. Most of these outreach programs are designed with large groups and educators in mind. The tutoring portion of the Science Education Center of California was created to provide the individual attention students need to be successful in mastering the increasingly rigorous curriculum of the classroom. All of our tutoring is in very small groups (or on an individual basis) and is provided at our location in Orange, California. We have decided to specialize in the following areas so that we can fully utilize the materials in house for the needs of the community.

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Science Tutoring

Tutoring is available in the earth and physical sciences for the K-8 level. Many of the labs and activities that we provide through the science museum on wheels are designed to supplement the earth and physical sciences at the elementary and middle school level and are available as teaching aids. In addition, the director of the Science Education Center (Mr. Krawitz) has spent several years teaching physical science at the middle school level, and has a good feel for the portions of the curriculum that challenges students the most.

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Math Tutoring

Tutoring is available from basic math through algebra, and is designed to give students a solid background in the quantitative areas so they can be successful in higher level mathematics. In addition, tutoring is also available in the area of basic statistics, which is taught mainly at the high school and introductory college levels.

One of the greatest challenges facing educators today in California is the great breadth of material covered in math books. Many topics are covered (much more than in other countries) but with less depth than is seen in other countries. This can be frustrating for some students who might be accustomed to mastering a few topics well and are less successful in mastering a great many topics within a given subject. The director of the Science Education Center of California has experience teaching both math at the introductory level (remedial math) to honors algebra at the advanced level. We are here to help the student who will benefit from individual attention that a classroom of one can provide.

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SAT Preparation

There has been a growing debate within our nation’s most prestigious universities regarding the ability of entrance exams to be effective predictors in choosing the most successful candidates. The best academic universities (the University of California in particular) try to bring a variety of factors on board (including qualities unique to a particular candidate) in making university selections. Despite this holistic approach to candidate selection, test scores are still a big factor in deciding who will and who will not be admitted to a given university.

Our role is to help the aspiring college student meet the quantitative admissions component of our best universities with strategy tips and practice in SAT test taking. Sometimes structure and guided practice in SAT preparation is enough to give students that little boost in the final score. Studying alone is a good start, but help from someone who has taken the SAT, PSAT, GRE, GMAT, MSAT (for teachers) and others can provide a little extra boost that studying alone often does not provide.

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Fees

Our fees are modest. We charge $25/hour for tutoring a single student and $15/hour for each student when 2 – 3 students are tutored at the same time. Prior to any tutoring a short meeting will be conducted with the parents or student to see how effective we can be in addressing their special needs. If we think we can help, then we are willing to provide the services listed above. If we think the difficulties can be addressed better outside of the Science Education Center then we will make a recommendation free of charge. We can be reached through the Contact Us portion of the website and look forward to addressing the individual needs of the community.

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