Talk about starting off with a
bang.
A STEM Summer Boot Camp introducing a
group of Cuyamaca College students to the dedication required in studying
science, technology, engineering and mathematics got under way July 24 with a
classic whodunit – the discovery of a “victim” felled by a bullet and a
directive to work as a team in collecting blood samples, analyzing DNA and
engaging in an abundance of research over the following three weeks to solve
the faux crime.
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Lab tech Niall-Conor Garcia poses as a victim as Professor Laurie LeBlanc points to evidence |
Call it CSI Cuyamaca College. Seventeen students
are taking part in the boot camp, which runs through Aug. 11 and involves
extensive lab work combined with a crash course in technical reading and
writing.
The boot camp is the first chapter of a five-year, federally-funded effort aimed at boosting the number of Cuyamaca College science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates who transfer to a California State University or University of California campus. “The goal is simple,” Chemistry Professor Laurie LeBlanc said of the three-week exercise. “We want to give these students the tools that will help ensure they transfer as soon as possible and as successfully as possible. We want them to go on to become superstars in the STEM field.”
Cuyamaca College is receiving nearly
$1.2 million annually through the U.S. Department of Education’s Hispanic-Serving
Institutions STEM and Articulation Program, a program assisting Hispanic
Serving Institutions. Hispanic Serving Institutions are colleges or
universities where Latinos comprise at least 25 percent of the school’s
full-time equivalent students and that have adopted strategies to help low-income
and Hispanic students. Nearly one in three students at Cuyamaca College is Latino,
almost half of whom are low income and first-generation college students.
Consuelo Torres is among them. The El
Cajon Valley High graduate is an incoming freshman at Cuyamaca College, where
she will major in biology and take the first steps toward her dream of becoming
a pediatrician. “I’m enjoying this,” she said. “I like working with the other
students. But it’s not just a boot camp. We’re also interacting with the
instructors and the counselors and getting a lot of guidance on what classes to
take and how to stay on track.”
The boot camp began on a quiet Monday morning with Cuyamaca
College Biology Professor Kathryn Nette providing an overview of the curriculum
and discussing techniques for success in rigorous STEM coursework. Just minutes
into the introductions, a lab assistant burst through a door in a panic, urging
Nette to follow her into a nearby storage room. Nette, students in tow, walked
followed the lab assistant to find the body of a man suffering what appeared to
be a fatal gunshot wound. A bullet casing lay on the concrete floor. Blood was
spattered on the wall.
Students acknowledged they knew
immediately that the crime was a cover up for an engaging lesson plan. They
soon found that over the following three weeks, they will take the lessons they
learn to engage in DNA, fingerprint and blood spatter analysis in an attempt at
detailing how the victim met his fate. The boot camp will conclude with
poster-style presentations displaying scientific-based reasoning and
conclusions.
“It’s a different way of engaging our
students,” said LeBlanc.
Besides the boot camp, the Hispanic
Serving Institutions grant will fund a student coaching program to help ensure
the STEM majors succeed in their studies; create a partnership with the
California State University system and UC San Diego to develop several
associate degrees for transfer in STEM subjects; and provide faculty training
to adopt effective teaching practices that address low academic performance.
The STEM award was one of two
significant Hispanic Serving Institutions grants Cuyamaca College secured
within the past year. Cuyamaca College last August was awarded a nearly $2.6-million, five-year
grant
to expand educational opportunities and improve academic achievement among all Hispanic
and low-income students. That
grant will fund a new program dubbed The Pathway Academy aimed at minimizing
the times students spend in remedial classes, expanding student support
services, and providing additional professional development for faculty and
staff.