Poster Abstracts

Virginia Commonwealth University

Project PRISM: Producing Results in Science and Mathematics

We report the initial results of the project, PRISM: Producing Results in Science and Mathematics. This five-year project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Title III Program, aims to improve learning outcomes in gateway math, chemistry, and biology classes at Virginia Commonwealth University. We use a multifaceted approach requiring the commitment of faculty, administrators, and students. A new learning center provides free tutoring from trained tutors, an expanded number of supplemental instruction sections, and intensified problem-solving recitations for biology classes. Faculty have written course objectives for the gateway classes and are implementing student-centered approaches to teaching in their classes, including classroom polling and ConcepTests, guided activities, and web-based, graded homework sets. For the first time, the faculty teaching these freshmen courses are meeting to discuss common problems and areas of content overlap. VCU's administration has committed to support PRISM financially at the grant's conclusion.