James (Jim) Frankenfield - About Me - Experience
Expertise - Experience - Authority - Trust
When you hire or engage a tutor or teacher you should review their experience, as well as expertise, authority and trust.
I have a great deal of experience in a variety of STEM fields, in industry and consulting as well as teaching.
I earned my B.Sc. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), one of the top STEM universities in the US. While studying there I had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience at IBM (computer engineering) as well as on research on campus. I also had the honor of being on the teaching staff for several engineering courses including systems analysis and computer/logical design. This is a rare opportunity for an undergraduate but is possible due to the fact that incoming grad students to RPI often are unfamiliar with material taught in undergrad courses there.
Following my undergrad studies I gained experience in semiconductor fabrication at Intel followed by rocket propellant quality assurance at Thiokol (purveyor of rocket motors, including shuttle boosters).
Industry was not so fulfilling for me so I returned to graduate school at Utah State University to study Physics. I had the chance to teach quite a bit while studying there. I was on the team for freshman STEM physics, which was extremely popular with the College of Engineering due to its effectiveness. I also taught remedial math as well as two graduate engineering courses - one on semiconductor process physics and one on mathematical analysis of dynamical systems. Since I was a grad student myself these two courses were closely monitored and were ultimately met with strong approval by both the monitoring faculty and the students.
Following my graduate work I taught evening college courses on US military bases in Europe through the UMD European Division. Ultimately I ended up teaching remedial math most terms (often grade 8 level) as well as occasional general physics and introductory computer courses. This was a new experience for the most part since I had previously taught primarily STEM courses.
After returning from Europe I pursued a variety of interests and gained new experience on research projects related to fluids in porous media, cloud physics, and physical oceanography. I also taught some engineering courses for Oregon Institute of Technology. My teaching experience there was primarily in Mechanical Engineering and Math although I was loosely and unofficially associated with Civil Engineering.
I have experience as an expert on snow avalanches and have consulted for construction projects in avalanche zones, insurance issues, and due diligence reports.
As you can see, I have gained extensive experience in a wide variety of STEM areas, both teaching and practicing in industry and research and consulting. Before you decide on a tutor you should consider their experience, especially in relation to their fees. If you are looking for low level homework help then expertise may not be so important and a totally inexperienced student for $20/hour may be sufficient. On the other hand if a tutor is charging $50 or more per hour you should expect extensive and diverse experience in the field they are tutoring.
More details on my experience can be found on my full c.v.