Inspiring Young Female Scientists

The 2nd annual "Inspiring Young Female Scientists Camp" took place at Ohio State Mansfield July 16-27. The purpose of this camp is to encourage 7th and 8th grade girls to consider a career in the sciences. Each day the students explored a different area of science: biology, physics, chemistry, physical anthropology, and geology.

For more information on this program contact Donna Farland (farland.3@osu.edu).

Ohio State Mansfield Faculty Heather Tanner and Lee McEwan receive 2008 Excellence in Engagement Grant

The Mansfield Young People's Project (MYPP) is a unique partnership among The Ohio State University at Mansfield, Mansfield City Schools, the Algebra Project (a national math literacy program founded by civil rights pioneer Bob Moses), and its associated national after-school program, the Young People's Project. MYPP will recruit, train, and deploy high school and college Math Literacy Workers. MYPP will prepare in its first year 20-25 eighth graders from the lowest academic quartile (or other identified at-risk eighth graders), and up to three college team leaders to be math literacy workers, in conjunction with YPP. In the second year, led by college team leaders and overseen by the MYPP director, the trained math literacy workers will conduct weekly math literacy workshops for up to 50-100 third through sixth grader students. Building on the younger students' initial interest in math, these workshops will develop their transition from arithmetic to algebraic thinking with culturally relevant and fun activities. The first two years of the MYPP will be funded by an OSU Excellence in Engagement Grant.

The MYPP is part of a larger initiative, the Mansfield Algebra Project (MAP). MAP aims to bring thorough and enduring reform to the transmission of math literacy, with special emphasis on those who are most hurt by educational neglect. The sustained multi-year commitment will challenge low income and minority students to demand of themselves and their educational system greater success in acquiring the skills necessary for achievement in college and for preparation for the 21st-century economy. The underlying motivational principle is that mathematics literacy is the key determiner of success in these realms. To achieve it, MAP will work in partnership with The Algebra Project as part of a National Science Foundation grant (the NSF announces which grants it will fund in October 2008). Our premise is that no single fix is sufficient to change patterns of mediocrity and failure; a full gauntlet of initiatives is necessary to change the status quo. But getting young people to take charge of their own learning is central to these efforts.

In each year of MAP, a new cohort of 20-to-25 ninth graders will be developed as Math Literacy Workers (MLWs). The Mansfield Algebra Project will consist of the following elements for each cohort:

• Students committing to MAP for four years, including two summer institutes, continuing as MLWs and role models for their peers in the MYPP.
• 90 minutes of specialized math instruction every day, five days a week, for four years, in curriculum developed by AP founder Bob Moses and leading university mathematicians.
• Tracking of student success in passing state mandated tests, acceptance into college, and placing into non-remedial college math programs.
• High school teachers receiving support from OSU Mansfield math faculty and professional development from AP. OSU Mansfield math faculty will also train with AP professionals in order to support Mansfield City Schools MAP teachers and, later, become able to train teachers in this and other neighboring districts.