University of South Carolina
February 14, 2013
A publication for faculty, staff and friends of the university
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Changing outcomes: SI leaders help peers succeed
By Megan Sexton
M
ike Dukes knows chemistry is a difficult subject. He also knows many of the students in his Chemistry 112 class are too shy or intimidated to ask a professor for help. But Dukes, the undergraduate director for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, knows other students can often be the key to helping their peers succeed in the university’s historically difficult subjects. That’s why he’s a believer in Supplemental Instruction (SI). SI doesn’t identify high-risk students; it focuses on high-risk classes, those that have the highest rates of D or F grades and withdrawls. SI leaders — undergraduate students who have earned an A in one of those tough courses — agree to retake the course and lead study sessions. “Most students feel more comfortable talking to another student,” Dukes said. “The SI leaders were in those seats the year before, so they know the fears and the apprehensions. I’ve found the SI staff does a great job recruiting people. I’ve never heard anyone complain about an SI student, and in chemistry, we’re a big user.”
Heather Meraw, a senior in the South Carolina Honors College, excelled in Dukes’ Chemistry 111 and 112 classes during her freshman year. The marine science and chemistry double major has been his SI leader ever since. She holds three hour-long SI sessions a week. “I try to make sure students feel comfortable, so they know that it’s not a bad thing to ask me questions,” Meraw said. “In a 250-person lecture, they don’t want to ask. But they can come here and say, ‘He did this in class, and I don’t understand why.’” SI leaders go through a two-day collaborative learning training session each semester. They are taught ways to tutor students rather than simply repeat the lecture, said Dana Jablonski, the assistant director of peer learning in
USC’s Student Success Center. USC started its SI program in 2006 with 40 SI leaders. This semester, 100 SI leaders are helping in the classes that historically have a 30 percent or higher rate of students receiving a D or F grade or withdrawing from the class. Students who attend SI study sessions have a 10 percent lower DFW rate than other students, Jablonski said. Victoria Jacks, a freshman Capstone Scholar from Aiken, was sitting in the front row for a recent SI session led by Meraw. “The SI leader helps us know what’s important and what we need to really know,” Jacks said. “She helps us know what to focus on. She’s able to answer all my questions and help me feel more prepared for tests.”
Chemistry professor Chuanbing Tang knows the value of good mentor. In high school in his native China, Tang’s chemistry teacher encouraged him, pushing him to participate in Chemistry Olympiad events. As an adviser and coach, “he was phenomenal,” Tang said. He was able to place in some national competitions because of his coach’s guidance. “I didn’t win at the national level — I wasn’t quite good enough for that,” Tang said with a laugh. “But I came in second. And I remember how he really motivated me.” By Steven Powell It’s a lesson Tang has taken to heart in working with students at many levels. “I try to motivate our students — whether in my research group, or in the classroom — to always try to do more, not just in chemistry but generally in science.” Helping students get the most from their potential, though, sometimes means recognizing non-academic barriers and working to help remove them. When he arrived at USC in 2009, Tang saw some of the obstacles that students in South Carolina faced, and he used his contacts in a national scientific society to offer them some help. Working through the American Chemical Society, he established the first and only Project SEED program in the state.
Project SEED targets high school students from economically disadvantaged families, giving them the opportunity to work alongside researchers in the lab over the summer. “In families with lower incomes, high school students might have to work in the supermarket, at Walmart, or in fast food over the summer,” Tang said. “They lose an opportunity to compete with students with more advantages.” The program offers students a reasonable salary while also teaching them science, he said. “We hope to stimulate their interest in going to college and also in majoring in the sciences,” he said. Starting with two high school students in the summer of 2010, the annual program has grown to include seven students and six other chemistry faculty mentors. “It was a great experience,” said Laurentz Florit, who spent the summers after 11th and 12th grade in Tang’s laboratory on an organic chemistry project. “By the time I got to organic chemistry lab, I’d already seen all this equipment and knew how to use it.” Adam Wirth, who worked the summers of 2010 and 2011 in Tang’s lab, echoed the sentiment. “Especially working with NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) was helpful,” he said. “It’s a really important thing to know in organic chemistry, and when we learned about it in my organic class, I was already familiar with it and it came easily.” Wirth and Florit, the first two students to go through the program, are both sophomores majoring in chemistry at Wofford and USC respectively. “That’s what we’re hoping for,” Tang said.
Opening doors