Sebastian Gamboa

Math & Science
VDA Teacher Since 2024

Tell me a little bit about your personal and educational background.
I was born in Miami but moved around a lot with my family: Costa Rica, Mexico, and even a year in southern Texas. When I was little, my main interest in exotic animals (which made the Costa Rican rainforest my version of “paradise”) and Legos grew into a love for math and science. This interest led me to pursue a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering with an additional major in physics from Carnegie Mellon University. 


When and why did you decide to become a teacher?
During college, I would lead a small group of underclassmen to help them understand Physics 2 – Electromagnetism. We would meet once a week to work through packets I had created that went over the major concepts of the class. While this was supposed to be a small extracurricular, I started dedicating more and more time to it. Helping students clarify concepts and reach those “aha!” moments was an extremely rewarding experience. After college, I had a small stint as a research assistant for my cosmology professor investigating the early formation of galaxies. While the work was interesting, I quickly realized that my real passion lies in education. I have been a math and science teacher ever since then.  

If you specialize in a particular subject area, why did you choose that specialty?
I will primarily be teaching middle school science. I chose to specialize in science to help students foster a deep understanding of natural phenomena and their roots in observation.  

I fell in love with science twice, once as a child with the wonder of discovering and understanding things in the world around me, and then as a young adult, when it helped me learn how to think. While my love for science only grew as I got older, the science curriculum at school did not always help foster that love. I was initially attracted to biology because of how accessibly “cool” animals were, but middle and high school quickly dissuaded me from the life sciences with what seemed like endless and pointless memorization (e.g., “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell”). In high school, I started dedicating my energy towards math, physics, and chemistry, as I was attracted to how a few simple principles could apply to a wide array of situations. Ultimately, even though by every traditional metric I was a “great” student in math and science, I felt I had a deeper understanding of how to use formulas to pass tests than of the world around me. 

I chose to specialize in science because I want to give students the experience I wish I had – to build up scientific principles from observations so that the ideas can feel motivating, real, and useful to the student’s lives. 

Do you have any favorite stories about your teaching experience?
One of my favorite stories happened in geometry class when we started learning Euclidean proofs. While initially the students thought the concept of postulates and common notions seemed unnecessary and overly contrived, they eventually became huge sticklers for logic, and would playfully (yet legitimately!) criticize my presentation of material when I didn’t justify even the most obvious statements. I loved that the students gained a deep understanding of the role of logic and proof in mathematics.  

Another of my favorite stories happened during physics class when we went over the “boring” concept of friction. We went over friction’s role in motion: relative friction, rolling friction, air friction, and more. What I liked most about this was that the students connected a few simple concepts (friction and Newton’s laws) to a wide variety of situations, and I could see the “power” they felt from being able to do so. 

What do you like to do in your free time?

In my free time, I like cooking, training our dog, reading, drumming (which I recently got back into), watching science and math videos, and going on long walks in the park with my wife.