view . spring 2012
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served as a mentor in 2010. She says that the Mentorship
and Learning course provided her “with the additional skills
and strengths to make the most of my education. It has
provided me with passion, purpose, strength, motivation
and confidence.”
The question of how to fuel first-year student success is
being addressed in other faculties as well.
For instance, many first-year science and engineering
students lack the knowledge and necessary skills to
succeed in the University’s core, first-year chemistry
course, says Dr. Phillip Dutton, head of Chemistry &
Biochemistry.
To assist first-year students in preparing for chemistry,
the 2011/12 SPF approved $108,000 over three years
for the Chemistry & Biochemistry “First-Year Success
Program”. Under the proposal, a summer term chemistry
course will be offered beginning in 2012 to help bring
students up to speed.
About 80 per cent is a review of everything they’ve
learned so far, says Dutton, “but it is intense. Our target
is to bring people into the core chemistry courses with a
better chance of success.”
In addition, the Faculty of Science reduced the first-
year General Chemistry I 59-140 class size by dividing the
more than 500 enrolled students into classes of 160 to 200.
SPF provided the funding to hire additional instructors.
A multitude of distractions face today’s student in the
classroom, says Dutton. These include hand-held devices,
computers, Facebook, note-taking and open discussions
in class with other students. Being in a large class only
exacerbates the problem, he adds.
First-year student Erin Plumb, agrees, noting that,
although she enjoys her first semester chemistry class, she
attended less frequently during the last few weeks of the
term: “The level of noise in the room often rose steadily
after the first 30 minutes and the lecture became difficult to
hear and frustrating.”
Dutton says that,“In large classes, it has been getting
progressively more difficult to control the noise level.
The smaller class size should enhance professor-student
contact.”
Through these initiatives, the Faculty of Science
is building on a foundation for student support that
began with the 2010-11 round of SPF projects. In that
competition, it successfully proposed a project to assist
students in computer science, mathematics and physics.
Dr. Marlene Koschinsky, dean of the Faculty of Science
and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, says that
a significant use of this funding has been to determine
how to ensure the success of first-year students. “Working
with faculty, teaching assistants, and the students, we have
been able to design innovative methods and approaches to
learning which have already shown positive results,”
says Koschinsky.
The student support programs being championed by
Science and FASS are just a few of those available across
campus. Others include, for example, the Social Work
Learning Centre, the Writing Improvement Neighbourhood,
