Mentoring Program

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• Mentoring Program

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About our School

• ESOL Center gt7currently enrolled
• Disadvantaged
• Free or Reduced Lunch 42

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Demographics

• 54 White
• 30 Black
• 8 Hispanic
• 4 Asian
• 4Other

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Science Fair Participants

• Not reflective of our population
• Most students
• White
• Upper middle class
• Educated parents

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Why?

• Lack of support at home.
• Not area of expertise
• Setting timetables
• Lack of materials and equipment.
• Dont want ugly projects.

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A Semester of Mentoring Middle School Science
Students

• Did it make a difference?
• K. Herrlinger-Garcia
• R. Rudd
• B. Langkamp-Henken
• S. Charbonnet

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University Students as Mentors
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The Middle School Students (2003)

• Racially diverse
• Black 23
• White 9
• Hispanic 6
• Multiracial 2

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The Middle School Students (2003)

• 21 males
• 19 females

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Student Performance
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Predictive equations

• Being in the experimental group accounted for 15
  of the variance in teacher assigned science fair
  score.
• The number of mentor visits to students accounted
  for 37 of the variance in the judge assigned
  science fair score.

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Results

• The number of mentor visits to students had the
  biggest impact on outcome.
• No other variables were significant
• FCAT reading and writing scores
• GPA
• gender, race
• science pre-test score

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Four Successful Years
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Future challenges

• Computer access for completing posters
• 29/40 (73) reported having a computer at home
• 19/40 (48) had internet access at home

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Challenges

• Communication with students and parents
• Many did not have telephones

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Challenges/solutions

• After school work sessions
• Almost all students ride the bus
• Solution Activity bus (approximately
  2,400/school)

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Limitations

• Access to supplies and materials
• Students are from low-income homes
• School has few available resources
• Solution Money to buy supplies (50 / student)

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Seeds of Science Goals

• Provide mentoring.
• Provide funds to purchase materials.
• Support local and regional science fairs.
• Provide recognition awards.
• Support students who attend the State and
  International Science Fairs.

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Accomplishments

• So far
• Provide display boards.
• Support students at the regional fair.
• Support students attending State and
  International Fairs.

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Whats Next The Challenge

• Increase critical thinking and learning.
• Involve more UF faculty.
• Involve more UF students.
• Adopt a class, teacher, school !