Peer Tutors for Math Skills and Science Major Retention

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Peer Tutors for Math Skills and Science Major
Retention

• Dr. Barbara Reitsma, Assistant Director
• Math and Science Skills Center, Kenyon
  CollegePresented at Enriching the Academic
  Experience
• of College Students Science Learning Center, U.
  Michigan, May 22-24, 2007

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Math and Science Skills Center

• Funded by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant
  for retention and recruitment in the sciences
• Opened Fall 2004
• Science/Math equivalent of the Writing Center

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Goals

• to build basic math literacy in all students
• to increase retention of science majors by
  improving performance in math-intensive
  introductory courses

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Math Literacy

• Kenyons Quantitative Reasoning (QR) requirement
• Quantitative-reasoning courses may focus on the
  organization, analysis, and implementation of
  numerical and graphical data or they may involve
  learning mathematical ideas, understanding their
  application to the world, and employing them to
  solve problems.
• Although the subject matter of QR courses will
  vary by department and discipline, the
  quantitative knowledge and skills developed will
  be applicable in a wide variety of settings.

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Science Majors

• Some students enter Kenyon with weak math
  background
• Ability in math directly correlates to success in
  the sciences
• Desire to give entering students support and
  encouragement during first science courses

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Structure of Center

• Walk-in clinic
• Open five 2-hour sessions throughout the week
• Supervised peer-tutors
• Easily accessible room in the Science Quad
• Variety of resources available
• Informal, friendly atmosphere

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Why students come to the MSSC

• Help with homework problems
• Check answers
• Questions from past exams
• Concept clarification
• Pre-lab questions
• Lab report calculations and writing
• Extra problem practice
• Group assignments
• Computer use (assigned work and other)
• To study for quizzes and exams
• Assistance writing papers
• Use of reference materials
• Review missed questions on exams

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Frequency of Student Visits
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Center Attendance
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Student Usage of the Center
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Success of the Center

• Cooperation of course instructors
• Quality of peer-tutors

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Course Instructors

• Feature MSSC in syllabus and course website
• Encourage student attendance
• Communication with center director
• Provide answer keys to problem sets, quizzes and
  exams

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Peer Tutors
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Job Description

• Guides students in problem-solving questions from
  lecture and laboratory courses. Attends tutor
  training and staff meetings. Other duties as
  assigned by Director.
• Sophomore standing. Superior performance in two
  related 100 or 200 level science courses.
  Excellent quantitative reasoning and
  communication skills. Recommendation by course
  instructor. Familiarity with Kenyons computer
  network, Microsoft Word and Excel.

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Peer Tutors

• Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors
• Majors
• Biochemistry/Dance minor
• Biochemistry
• Mathematics/Economics
• Chemistry
• English (pre-med)
• Chemistry/Physics minor
• Molecular Biology/Anthropology (pre-med)

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Tutor Training

• Three hours each fall
• Learning styles
• Theories of intelligence
• Question-asking skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Staff meetings mid-semester

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Benefits to Tutors

• learning teaching (questioning/explaining) skills
  
• review/reinforcement of material learned
• identifying/filling in gaps in learning
• experience for resumes and applications
• stronger core knowledge helps in upper level
  courses
• develop communication skills, people skills, and
  relationships
• increased confidence in knowledge possessed
• income

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Results

• Very hard to show effect of center
• Data collection
• Number of variables
• Statistics by Program Evaluator
• Biology in Science Fiction
• Solar Energy
• Biophysical/Medicinal Chemistry

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Statistics by Program Evaluator

• Student surveys from 4 classes from AY 2005-6
• Correlation of grade received with frequency of
  visits to the center

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Student Survey

• mean value significantly different from neutral
  value of 3 plt.005
• Q1 Helped learn? Q2 Course interest Q3
  Improve Grade? Q4 Feel involved? Q5
  Encouraged major?

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Survey Results by Class and Question

• Q1 Helped learn? Q2 Course interest Q3
  Improve Grade?
• Q4 Feel involved? Q5 Encouraged major?

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Center Visits and Class Grades

• plt.01
• r relates number of visits to Center in the
  semester to semester course grade
• partial r controls for Math SAT in the
  relationship between visits and grade

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Biology in Science Fiction (Non-major QR course)
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Solar Energy(Non-Major QR Course)
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Biophysical/Medicinal Chemistry Chem124
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One Students Story
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Problems

• Serving only chemistry students
• Resistance from other departments
• Dont see all the students who could benefit
• Laboratory courses

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Surprises

• Large amount of help requested for laboratory
  courses
• Attendance varies widely

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Successes

• Increase in attendance
• Variety of uses
• Repeat visitors
• Mentioned in campus tours
• Website
• Students use center for multiple classes
• Dance physiology anthropology math biology

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Math and Science Skills Web Site

• http//biology.kenyon.edu/HHMI/math-science/

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Into the Science Quad Workshops

• The Quad Workshop at Kenyon College is inspired
  by the successful Gateway Science Workshops at
  Northwestern University.
• Northwesterns program is modeled after Uri
  Treismans retention program at Berkeley.

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Gateway Science Workshops

• Student Goals
• Improve overall student performance
• Increase student retention within individual
  course sequences
• Increase STEM majors and students entering
  science related careers
• Particularly for underrepresented groups
• Science, technology, engineering and mathematics

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Quad Workshops

• A pilot program offered during the spring
  semester of 2007 available to students in the
  Biophysical/Medicinal Chemistry course (Chemistry
  124).
• Biweekly workshops in which small groups of
  students work as a team on challenging,
  interesting and conceptually-based problems that
  are relevant to the course curriculum.
• Workshops meet six times during the semester for
  1-1.5 hours.
• Led by a peer facilitator who successfully
  completed this course last academic year.
  Questions for discussion are prepared by the
  course instructor.

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Why would I want to participate? (How we
presented it to the students)

• Better grades Programs of this kind at other
  institutions have been shown to improve student
  performance and experience. This is NOT a
  remedial program.
• Better learning Research has shown that group
  problem-solving such as will be found in the
  Science Quad Workshops enables students to learn
  the subject matter more thoroughly and at a
  higher level of learning.
• Ownership of subject matter Anyone who has
  struggled with difficult subject material or
  challenging problems gains not only a better
  grasp of the material, but also confidence in
  their abilities to continue and excel in that
  area.
• Monetary benefits Understanding that your time
  is valuable, a stipend of 75 will be provided to
  each student who participates in all the workshop
  sessions.
• Experience Being involved in the initial stage
  of this project will look great on a resume!
• You have to study anyway Many students find
  that group studying is more effective than
  studying alone. And its more fun!

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Implementation

• Two sections, eight students per section, worked
  in groups of four
• Students were paid for their time
• Problems posed were related to the course, but
  not specific course content
• Students were given different roles to play
  (leader, scribe, encourager, discourager)
• Sessions met Tuesdays at 8 AM and 930 AM

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First Quad Exercise

• This Quad Session is divided into two parts
• Part A
• Learn how to identify pairs of optical isomers
• Use experimental data to derive an equation that
  relates the variables that govern the rotation of
  plane polarized light by an optical isomer
• Part B
• Use experimental data to derive an equation that
  describes the optical rotation of mixtures of
  optical isomers
• Apply your knowledge to determine the composition
  of mixtures of optical isomers.

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Part AI. Identification of Optical Isomers

• Optical isomers possess an asymmetric center (or
  center of chirality). The most common type of
  asymmetric center is a tetrahedral carbon bound
  to four different groups. A molecule with one
  such carbon will lack an internal plane of
  symmetry and is termed chiral. A molecule that
  does contain an internal mirror plane is termed
  achiral and is never optically active.
• Question 1
• Examples of a few chiral and achiral molecules
  are given below (Figure 1). Build a model of
  each molecule, complete with hydrogen atoms, and
  classify each one as chiral or achiral. Draw an
  accurate picture of each molecule, including
  hydrogen atoms, that clearly illustrates the
  internal mirror plane if one exists. It is
  important to remember that rotation around single
  carbon-carbon bonds is possible when looking for
  internal mirror planes.

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Figure 1. Some chiral and achiral molecules
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Figure 2. Pairs of molecules

• .

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Summary of Concepts Developed in Session 1

• What is the defining feature of a chiral
  molecule?
• Optically active solutions must contain?
• What are enantiomers?
• What is a racemic mixture?
• Optical purity describes?

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Quad Workshop Results

• Excellent attendance one absence over entire
  semester
• Actively engaged, enjoyed sessions
• Preliminary Results 9 out of 16 would repeat
• Effect on grades?
• 3 A 2 A 1 A- 5 B 2 C 2 C 1 D
• Student survey results
• Many students wanted more tie-in to course
• Weaker students did not keep up with group

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Future Plans

• Still in pilot stage
• Offer workshops in same course next spring
• Four sections to be offered (up to 32 students
  could participate)
• Target B/C students
• Workshops will meet weekly for 12 sessions
• Problems will be a 50/50 mixture of process
  oriented problems (POGIL) and challenging
  problems

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Future of the MSSC

• Increase hours
• Expand subject areas
• Recent overture from Biology department
• Offer Quad Workshops in other courses
• Better service to laboratory students
• Dream of a dedicated facility and office for the
  director