REcitation Sections & Mentoring for GateKeeper CoUrsEs

Background and Significance
Knowledge and understanding of important areas of biology, chemistry and physics are hierarchical. Students must build their understanding through levels of increasing complexity. Success at each level is not necessarily achieved with equal student effort insofar as experience shows that there are identifiable pinch points which we designate as “gatekeeper” courses which hold back significant numbers of students. Investing extra educational resources to address student problems at these points in their progress can both increase the numbers of students who maintain a reasonable rate of progress toward graduation and also raise their confidence levels and thereby grades. Viewing the long-term RISE program goals, strong grounding in the subject matter of these “gatekeeper” courses is critical to student success in graduate school and research endeavors.

Since students experiencing difficulties with coursework are often predisposed not to seek help from course instructors owing to fear of embarrassment, or for other reasons, Project RESKUE offers help by identifying and employing peer tutors chosen by course instructors or RISE faculty by virtue of their previous demonstration of mastery of specific gatekeeper courses.

Project Goals & Activities
This project addresses student retention and performance in the so-called gatekeeper courses. The principal goal is to reduce the proportions of students dropping or receiving D grades in gatekeeper courses in biology and in chemistry which serve as major challenges to the timely progress of students in their majors. The measurable goal in this project is to increase the pass rate to numbers more typical of other courses.

The courses targeted as “gatekeeper" courses are:
Introduction to Biology (Biology 171)
Cell Biology (Biology 250)
General Chemistry I (Chemistry 155)
Organic Chemistry I (Chemistry 251)

  The peer-tutoring activities take place in room SCI-206 (for chemistry and biology) and in SCI-113 or SCI-206 for physics. Students wishing to avail themselves of the RESKUE tutoring services should check the tutoring schedules.  These are posted outside the doors of the rooms cited above.  The schedules may also be downloaded by clicking here.

Selection of RISE Peer Mentors
Course instructors or RISE faculty select prospective peer mentors from the ranks of students who have demonstrated mastery of specific gatekeeper courses. These mentors attend orientation and recitation sessions with the course instructors that they are assisting and are additionally assigned hours when they will be scheduled to be available for tutoring to all students registered in the gatekeeper course. For these activities, peer mentors are paid at the rate of $10 per hour.

While the majority of peer mentors are selected by course instructors or RISE Program faculty, students who have participated in other RISE Projects and/or have achieved good grades in any of the four gatekeeper courses and are interested in nominating themselves for a mentoring position are welcome to apply to either of the RESKUE PI or the MBRS Program Director.

Responsibilities of RESKUE Peer Mentors
At the beginning of the semester, mentors attend an orientation session with the RESKUE PI and the course instructor that they are assisting. They also attend all the course recitation sessions and are additionally assigned hours when they will be scheduled to be available for tutoring to all students registered in the gatekeeper course. Mentors are expected to commit to not less than 5 hours per week and not more than 15 hours per week, including the class recitation sessions. The mentors maintain logs of all students and topics that they tutor during the tutoring sessions. They hand in these logs at the end of each pay period so that the course instructor can evaluate where course students are encountering the most difficulty.

RESKUE Mentor Benefits
For their RESKUE activities, the peer mentors will be paid at the rate of $10 per hour. Further, they gain experience in teaching techniques. Many of the mentors have reported that they gain greater insights into the course materials than they had when they were previously enrolled in the courses. This is especially helpful when the mentors progress to higher-level undergraduate courses and when they prepare for and enter graduate or professional programs.

Dr. Kristy Mardis
Chemistry and Physics Department
RESKUE PI
Room: SCI-239
E-mail: kmardis@csu.edu

  Reminder:  To see the RESKUE tutoring schedules for this semester, click here.

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This page was last updated on 09/12//07