The practice

Abhishek Dabas

MSc Astronautics and Space Engineering. BEng Aerospace Systems Engineering. Years spent designing spacecraft systems before teaching full time. Teaching one to one since 2015, mathematics, physics and spaceflight, kindergarten through Grade 12.

The Tsiolkovsky rocket equation
The equation that decides whether a rocket can reach orbit. A capable fifteen year old can derive it. That is the whole idea of this practice.
MSc Astronautics & Space Engineering

BEng Aerospace Engineering

10+ years teaching internationally
Abhishek Dabas, founder of Insight Bay
Abhishek Dabas. Every class is taught by him personally. A recent piece of the work is Why a Mars landing is really a differential equation.

Engineer first. Teacher always.

I'm the founder of Insight Bay. By training, I'm an aerospace engineer with a Master's in Astronautics and Space Engineering, the kind of degree where mathematics stops being something on a worksheet and becomes the thing that holds satellites in orbit and lands rovers on Mars.

Engineering at that level forces a particular relationship with mathematics and physics: there is no hiding behind memorized methods. Every formula has to mean something, because one day you must apply it to a problem no textbook has seen.

That is the relationship I want every student I work with to develop. Not in five years, but now, while it can still change how they see every class they take.

Why I teach

I began teaching one-to-one more than a decade ago, during my Bachelor's, because friends kept asking for help, and their results kept improving. By the time I finished my Master's, I had worked with students preparing for the SAT in New York, the IB Diploma in Geneva, IGCSEs in Dubai, and GCSEs and A-Levels across the UK. The curricula differed. The ceiling did not.

What I saw, repeatedly, was the same gap: clever, motivated students who had been taught methods instead of thinking. Once that is fixed, usually faster than parents expect, the grade looks after itself.

What Insight Bay stands for

Insight Bay exists to make that kind of teaching available beyond personal referrals. A private practice, run by one educator, held to one standard: work worth a family's trust.

  • One student, one educator. No outsourcing, no rotation: the person who assesses your child is the person who teaches them.
  • Engineering-grade rigor. Every class has a goal, every two weeks brings a written report, every term has a measurable outcome.
  • No filler, no fluff. Classes are paid by the hour. They should feel like the most efficient hour of your child's week.
  • Honest fit. If I don't think I'm the right educator for your child, I'll say so after the assessment. There is no incentive at Insight Bay to take on a student I can't help.

Where I teach

Classes are held live, online, with families across the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Each family keeps one consistent weekly hour, scheduled in your own time zone, in evening and weekend hours.

What's next

Insight Bay is, deliberately, a small practice. It will not grow by hiring. The one-to-one teaching will always be me, which is why there will only ever be fifteen students. What grows is the depth of what is taught. The subjects are growing too: alongside mathematics, I now teach physics and space exploration, the disciplines my own training comes from. If that sounds like your family, the right first step is an assessment.

Request an assessment
Why space

Because it is the only subject where the mathematics has to be right.

Most students meet mathematics as a set of rules with no consequences. A wrong answer costs a mark. That is a weak reason to be careful.

Spaceflight is different, and children feel the difference immediately. A spacecraft either reaches the orbit or it does not. The rocket equation does not negotiate. When a child works out how much propellant a mission needs and the number comes out at ninety four percent of the vehicle, they have learned something about exponentials that no textbook exercise teaches: that the mathematics was describing something real the whole time.

It is also the honest answer to the question every capable student eventually asks, which is what any of this is for. I can answer that from having studied it, not from having read about it.

See a worked mission calculation →

What this looks like in a class

  • Logarithms taught through the rocket equation, not through a worksheet
  • Ratio and proportion taught through mass fractions
  • Vectors taught through orbital transfers, where direction genuinely matters
  • Estimation taught the way engineers actually use it, to catch your own mistakes

None of this replaces the syllabus. It is the context that makes the syllabus stick.

Reasoning, in the open

Why a rocket is ninety five percent fuel, worked out rather than asserted.

A student asked me last term why a rocket has to be almost entirely fuel. It is a fair question, and the answer is not engineering trivia. It is one line of algebra, and I would rather show you the line than assert that I know it.

Rearranged for the ratio of start mass to end mass, and with the numbers put in:

Reaching low Earth orbit costs roughly nine thousand four hundred metres per second once you have paid for drag and for fighting gravity on the way up. A good kerosene and oxygen engine has an exhaust velocity near three thousand metres per second. So the vehicle has to begin at almost twenty three times the mass it ends at, which puts propellant at about ninety five and a half percent of it.

Mass ratio against delta v 03691211020304050 low Earth orbit: 22.9 velocity change required, kilometres per second start mass divided by end mass
Mass ratio against the velocity change a mission demands, for an exhaust velocity of three thousand metres per second. The curve is not steep because rockets are badly built. It is steep because the ratio sits inside an exponential.

Now look at where the ratio sits in that expression. It is in an exponent. Shaving a tonne off the structure moves the answer a little. Raising exhaust velocity moves it enormously. That is why engineers spend careers on engines rather than on lighter bolts, and it is why this is worth putting in front of a fifteen year old: the shape of the equation told us where to spend the effort before anybody built anything. That is the whole argument for teaching mathematics as a language rather than as a procedure, and it takes about four minutes to make.

Teaching philosophy

Six principles that govern every class.

If you have ever wondered what actually happens inside an Insight Bay class, these are the rules of the room.

1 · Understand, then practice

No method is taught before its meaning. Procedure follows comprehension, never the reverse.

2 · Build the mental model

Every topic is anchored to a diagram, a picture, or a physical example: something the mind can hold.

3 · Examinations still matter

Understanding comes first, but exams reward precision. We practice exact phrasing, time discipline, and calm under pressure, deliberately.

4 · Track progress honestly

You receive a written summary every two weeks. No vague reassurance: topics covered, gaps closed, what comes next.

5 · Build confidence, not dependence

A successful student is one who needs their educator a little less every month. Independence is the real outcome.

6 · Respect the student's time

Every class has a written plan. If we finish early, we finish early. No padding.

Shall we see whether this is the right fit?

Begin with a complimentary 45-minute assessment: real teaching, no obligation, and a clear picture of where your child stands.

Request an assessment