Gina De La Rosa, a rising eighth grader at Vernon Johns Middle School in Petersburg, traded in nearly a month's worth of summer fun to learn how to multiply, divide and subtract fractions at Virginia State University.
"This was just as fun as anything else I could have been doing," she said.
Gina is one of 28 Petersburg students who attended the first VSU/HBCU Research Education Project: Middle School Summer Bridge Program, an intervention program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
NSF awarded VSU $3 million for three years to research different types of community and non-academic interventions that can positively impact students' math and cognitive abilities while simultaneously building their interest in math and science. The goal is to increase the number of minorities in the fields of science and engineering.
Oliver W. Hill, Jr., chair of VSU's psychology department; Cheryl Adeyemi, professor of mathematics and computer science; and a team of VSU students and staff, including VSU's Young People's Project, assisted the students in the math instruction and cognitive training activities.
At the onset of the program, students' skill levels in math and reasoning varied, said Hill, who facilitated the program. "We wanted students with a variety of abilities so we could look at the impact of our intervention across ability levels," he said.
For three-and-a-half weeks, the rising eighth graders from Vernon Johns and Peabody Middle schools visited VSU during the day for training and workshops designed to enhance their math levels and improve their processing speed, memory and attention span. The students also took algebra-ready tests to ease the transition into algebra this fall.
In the last week, students showcased their new skills; showing off math techniques using graphing calculators and building blocks as well as martial arts moves, which helped enhance students' mind-body discipline and self-esteem, improving their focus and concentration abilities.
Many of the students' presentations left their parents in awe; and many parents left the presentation having learned something new from their children.
Gina, who wants to become an engineer, said she most enjoyed receiving one-on-one tutoring throughout the program.
"I never had that kind of interaction before in school," said 14-year-old Gina. "It helped me to better memorize and understand things I had known before as well as things I was learning for the very first time."
An assessment of the students' performance will determine necessary adjustments in next year's program. Students' academic performance in school and on their Standards of Learning tests will also be tracked over several years. Hill said the success of this summer's pilot program will likely lead to a larger-scale project throughout the school year.
