This is the second year that middle and high school students have come to Wright State University to better their STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) skills. The Math Boot Camp provides an opportunity for minority students to practice fundamental skills in proportionality, basic statistics, linear relationships and exponential equations using multiple teaching strategies in a university environment.
Teachers and volunteers include Wright-Patterson Air Force Base personnel working in STEMM fields, the College of Science and Mathematics professors and students, TAFSS (The Academy for STEM and Sports) teachers and Peggy Kelly, director of the Math Boot Camp and math lecturer at Wright State. “If they know it already, then it’s digging deeper into the concept … or it may introduce them to a new concept,” said Kelly. “We don’t want math to be a stopper for them.”
Liberty Endres, 13, hopes to “excel in math this (school) year” after attending the Math Boot Camp. The camp “really helps. I made friends and also learned a lot not just in math but other things,” said Endres. The teachers “have a big variety in the way they teach the math in creative ways to help us learn.”
Students used a web-based assessment and learning tool called ALEKS which is the same tool used for the university’s math placement testing. In addition to computer lab work in ALEKS, students experienced hands-on-learning with faculty in the areas of biological sciences, earth and environmental sciences, physics, and psychology. The boot camp seeks to improve performance while changing the student’s attitudes towards STEMM disciplines.
The Office of Latino Affairs co-hosted the Boot Camp. Tony Ortiz, associate vice president of Latino Affairs, commented that the Boot Camp “helps with problem solving”. The skills practiced in the camp builds a foundation for the skills needed in today’s workforce. “There’s a lot of employment in the area and unemployed people because they don’t have the skillset to fulfill them,” said Ortiz.
STEMM education is valuable for increasing the students’ confidence in education and employment. The camp was attended by 25 students, including four returning students.
“I feel more confident,” said Bryon Perez-Avila, 11. He hopes to “be smarter and learn new things” by the end of the camp.
Excerpted from WSU Newsroom, read the full article.
