Junior to Undergraduate Mentoring Project

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Proposal 0431561Junior to Undergraduate Mentoring ProgramCentral State UniversityCadance A. LowellThis project (Junior to Undergraduate Mentoring Program, or JUMP) is working with high school students in their junior and senior years with B and C averages from the Dayton Public Schools who have expressed an interest in careers in STEM fields. It helps these students, who are already motivated, successfully matriculate to postsecondary education at CSU and major in the natural sciences, computer science, manufacturing engineering, water resources management, or mathematics. Each year, twenty students are recruited into the program by the spring of their junior year and receive academic training and mentoring for the remainder of their high school studies. These students participate in a four-week summer academic program that develops test-taking, applied mathematics, and science methodology.Intellectual Merit. The project promotes increased participation and retention of African-Americans and women in STEM fields by recruiting high school students who have an interest in STEM fields but not intense course work in science and mathematics. These students go through summer instruction and academic year research mentoring. Students who matriculate to CSU are tracked and mentored through existing retention strategies in STEM fields. Through the summer instruction and academic year mentoring on science fair projects, JUMP students learn to develop and test scientific hypotheses, employ appropriate experimental and laboratory techniques, analyze results with appropriate statistical tools, and communicate the results in written and oral form. They are given instruction to improve their standardized test scores (ACT) and math skills so that they may matriculate to CSU STEM majors with enhanced preparation and at a higher level than that typical of the majority of CSU students.Broader Impacts. Because of the program's additional training and retention intervention strategies, these students are expected to graduate and continue on to successful careers in STEM fields and become mentors and role models to the next generation of undergraduate students. In addition, these undergraduates will influence their peers to become interested in STEM careers.