Biology help - find a biology tutor online

Why isn't a tomato a vegetable? What causes hiccups? How do honeybees reverse their biological age? Is the cause of cancer genetic, cellular, molecular or all three? Curiosity might kill a cat, but biology is the science that answers all these curious questions, including what really killed that cat. Both high school and college biology require logic and creativity to answer increasingly difficult questions. When you need help answering those questions or coming up with your own, like so many biology experiments require, it's time to find a biology tutor.

Science help at the cellular level

The National Tutoring Association recommends that you supply a potential tutor with your goal and have that tutor provide a basic plan outlining how he or she can help.

• High school biology tutoring goals: Talk to your biology teacher to help you develop short- and long-term goals or develop goals based on your state's biology or life science standards. California's standards outline what high school students should know in several key areas of biology, including genetics. Based on California's standards, one possible goal for a biology tutor might be to help you understand how the incorporation of exogenous DNA in a cell can change its genetic composition.
• College biology tutoring goals: Your course assignments and syllabi are essentially a list of pre-determined goals that you can use for biology tutoring, but tutoring goals can extend beyond a class's final grade. If you're a biology major, you may have the option of independent research or a thesis, like biology majors at Stanford University. Biology tutors can help with research, scientific writing, lab work and more.
• Grad school tutoring goals: Getting into grad school is one goal a biology tutor can target if you'd like to go to veterinary or medical school and haven't taken the admission tests, both of which include biology. Once you're in grad school, a peer tutor or biology mentor can help with the deliverables your professors, faculty advisor and committee expect, such as research proposals and your thesis or dissertation.

How to find a biology tutor

Whether you want face-to-face interaction with a tutor or if you'd prefer to take advantage of online technology that makes 24/7 interactive tutoring possible, these five tips can help you find a biology tutor:

1. Reach out to school personnel and ask about biology tutoring resources, including any local professional biology associations with mentorship programs.
2. Chat with your local librarian. The County of Los Angeles Public Library and several other libraries offer free, online one-on-one tutoring to their patrons through a service called Live Homework Help®.
3. Search the American Tutoring Association database for male or female biology, marine biology or microbiology tutors in your area.
4. Get free tutoring for high school- and college-level biology students through Khan Academy. You can watch tutorial videos before completing online exercises and assessments.
5. Use our TutorFinder to find online or face-to-face biology tutors near you.

Your success in biology doesn't have to be experimental. These and many other tutoring resources are available to help you answer those tough questions and achieve your academic goals in biology.