Rockford high school students visit NIU
to imagine careers as engineers, scientists

by Mark McGowan

Thirty-two students from Rockford Jefferson High School who spent a week on NIU's campus last month are ready to make good this fall on the spark their teachers saw behind their struggles.

Meanwhile, NIU has gained a better understanding of how to help those teachers stoke sparks into fires.

The teens, all of whom recently completed their freshman years, enjoyed a close-up, hands-on taste of what a college education could bring them.

Now, said Judy Cox-Henderson, coordinator of clinical experiences in the NIU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, they understand the changes necessary to turn from indifference toward focus.

“With kids in high school who don't have any goals beyond high school, it's pretty easy for them to get disengaged,” Cox-Henderson said. “In the evaluations we got, a lot of them are saying they really want to go to college. They want to work harder now. They have career goals now.”

June's camp, a “summer institute” paid for by the federal grant of $4.875 million that funds NIU's Project REAL partnership with the Rockford Public Schools and Rock Valley College, is the latest step in an effort to “transform the culture” of Jefferson High School.

“We wanted to target freshmen so we could get to them early,” Cox-Henderson said. “We're hoping to change some of the culture – not paying attention, not caring – by putting a focus on thinking about college.”

The students spent their days immersed in math and science with faculty from the colleges of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Health and Human Sciences and Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Nights were spent enjoying the fun of campus life, from bowling, shooting pool and playing arcade games at the Huskie Den to listening to a local rock band to competing in volleyball and basketball at the Student Recreation Center. The students lived in Grant Towers North.

Cox-Henderson and the counselors – all NIU students who had worked at Jefferson through Project REAL – watched an “amazing” bonding of the teens who were “not necessarily friends” before coming to campus.

Monday's classes offered engineering experiences with robotics, thermodynamics, manufacturing and design and wind tunnels. Students made their own nameplates and paper helicopters, which they then redesigned to improve efficiency as they dropped them from the third floor of the Engineering Building .

Visitors from Rock Valley College later spoke to the campers about engineering careers available in Rockford .

Tuesday brought activities in audiology, clinical laboratory sciences and nutrition.

Students recorded their own voices to hear pitches, worked with blood and urine samples, measured their body mass and density and spent time in the kitchen making cheese and mayonnaise and determining what would cause oxidation to chopped fruit.

Wednesday transformed the students into forensic scientists popularized on television's “CSI” shows, said Professor Jon Miller of NIU's Department of Biology.

Focused on age-appropriate forensics, the campers studied and analyzed footprints, dental impressions and fingerprints. They also examined skeletal models of bones to determine the gender and stature of the person. In the afternoon, they encountered and investigated a mock crime scene in the woods near Montgomery Hall.

Thursday brought a return to the Engineering Building to construct bridges out of balsa wood and test how much pressure each could withstand and an afternoon tournament of Acuity, the online trivia game developed in the College of Health and Human Sciences to keep aging minds sharp.

“These kids were focused and engaged and very well-behaved,” Cox-Henderson said. “I actually had a kid come up to me and say, ‘I really like these hands-on activities. It's so much better than listening to someone talk.' That will help the teachers at Jefferson get to these kids.”

Cox-Henderson and her Project REAL team at Jefferson , which includes about 50 undergraduates who observe classes, assist teachers and tutor students, will meet with the campers monthly during the 2005-06 school year and push them toward the one-on-one attention of tutoring.

Despite their new-found interest in academic success, she said, they all need to work hard to improve their math, writing and study skills. They are trailing their peers in math, she said; most were recruited from pre-algebra classes their friends likely completed in middle school.

Teachers also will hear about the success of the hands-on experiences. “There were no discipline problems. That should give them something to be excited about,” she said. “These are kids who can succeed and are college-bound.”

June's campers also are expected now to help in the transformation of their learning environment.

“We're definitely looking toward doing this again, and they'll talk to other kids about the program. Freshmen will know it's coming, and they'll need a recommendation from a teacher. That's some incentive to do well,” she said. “This group really, really wants to come back, so maybe we'll have a camp for them as well.”

Jason Akst contributed to this report.

7-5-05