STEP PROGRAM TAMUCC Fall 2012

Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) Talent Expansion Program 2

Who are the STEP Students? 3

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Are players NOT observers –To become a Master in chess it takes between years (9 hours/day playing time) Participate in in-class group discussion and activities Collaborate with others to learn (sink or swim together) Seek help when needed (there are no bad questions) STEP Students 6

Learn Together 7

Explain their work 8

Have Fun Together 9

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Success of STEPers 11

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Why Attending Mentoring? Most of students who attend at least –TEN mentoring sessions in Biology make a B or better grade in the class. –ELEVEN of the special mentoring sessions in Calculus I make a B or better grade in the class. The more you participate actively in class and mentoring the better you DO 16

What students say about STEP 17

“It’s taught me how to be a student, I think. Just to know when to read something and to understand what you should be grasping from the chapter and what you should kind of just leave alone.” 18

“One thing that’s really helped me out as well this year, I actually did like a study session. I helped someone else do it and I used the same technique, and it really helped me as well. Outside of the STEP sessions we can break off into little study groups with other friends and we can teach them what we are learning.” 19

“I think it makes you continually figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. So it will make you…it made me see how important a study group is. So, like outside of class or STEP, we’ll go study in the library in a group to prepare for like a TLA or something. You end up learning which member of your group understands certain types of things. So you know you understand one part of the bio chapter, and then another person will understand this other part, so you help each other.” 20

“At the beginning of my Biology, I’ll admit my grade was not too great. My study methods weren’t go great. So I started going to STEP. They taught me pretty much how to speed read for certain situations, because (faculty) is a very visual type of guy, so he likes his pictures quite a bit. So we went to STEP, they pretty much taught us what to look for in the book, and then we applied it. It’s just constant circulation…” 21

“Once you experience the STEP program itself, you keep learning. You learn more, and you understand things better. Plus, the mentors are really cool to relate to and stuff, and it just makes you want to keep going back to it.” 22