Over the course of the last year West Virginia State University has been working to develop a two part approach to improving the success rate of our students in the STEM fields. This work, supported by a National Science Foundation Science, Technology, Engineering Talent Expansion Program (Grant Number DUE-1161214), was designed to boost the retention rates of science majors who come in with low math skills. This dual approach includes a Summer Bridge Program to boost math skills of incoming freshman while simultaneously exposing them to career options in chemistry, biotechnology, and physics. The second approach is to have trained supplemental instructors (SI) for the more difficult classes in the lower level STEM fields. All of these instructors were hand selected for their academic and communication skills to help serve the students in those sections. Retention rates and overall performance in the SI staffed classes can be compared to the non-SI staffed classes to see the benefits in general chemistry and algebra courses.

West Virginia State University: STEP to success

247th National Meeting (2014)

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