It's a Saturday morning in December, and most of his elementary school classmates are probably still sleeping or watching television. Not Justin Bullock-Hines. He's spending this precious weekend time in Ithaca College's new science building, checking out frog embryos.
"In a few weeks, I've learned more about science and math in this place than I have in school," he says.
"This place" is the Saturday Science and Mathematics Academy, a joint program of the College's Center for Teacher Education and the Ithaca City School District. The academy is providing students of color in grades five through eight with opportunities to appreciate science and math as an integral part of their everyday lives.
"It's different from school, where we mostly just sit and listen," says Bullock-Hines. "Here, after we hear someone talk, we walk around and use the computers, we set off sparks, we dissect things. We really get to learn."
"These grades are critical times in students' psychological development, especially in defining their future academic interests," says William Scoones, director of the Center for Teacher Education. "Because of recent budget cuts in the Ithaca district schools, there is an even greater need for more personalized attention and reinforcement of classroom activities such as the academy can provide."
The academy was held for a year at Cornell University before funding ran out. The Center for Teacher Education was able to obtain a two-year, $30,000 grant from the GTE Foundation to bring the program to South Hill. Twenty-five elementary and middle school students were selected to attend the academy (another 25 will be chosen next year), based in part upon a written application from the students and their parents.
The academy staff includes director Denise Lee, M.S. '86, science teacher Orlando Holness, math teacher Terri Santi, and parent coordinator Lynne Saulsbury. Ithaca College students serve as mentors, Ithaca faculty as guest instructors.
"We want to help these young people have a successful experience in middle school, because it sets the stage for where they will be placed in science and math in high school," says Lee. "We would like to see all of these students college-bound, so what happens to them now has a great effect on their future."
Sessions are held on campus two Saturday mornings per month, with occasional field trips to such places as the Sciencenter and the Paleontological Research Institution. Session topics range from multicultural mathematics to art and symmetry, bones to chemical reactions. Students have also attended Ithaca College programs like the Professionals Symposium and a talk on promoting minority students in science by visiting multicultural fellow Davon Kennedy '78, an assistant professor of chemistry at Georgia State University.
Lee believes these kinds of presentations can show positive examples for students to follow. Currently a second-grade teacher at Cayuga Heights Elementary School, she sets her own excellent example. Armed with an undergraduate degree from Cornell and master's degree from the State University College at Cortland, she began teaching full-time in 1973. While continuing to teach, she became a student herself at Ithaca College, earning a master's degree in speech-language pathology and audiology in 1986.
"It wasn't easy, but I had the confidence in myself that I could do it," says Lee, who notes that a brother and sister have also graduated from Ithaca College and her son Jibraan is currently a sophomore majoring in television-radio. She says her confidence comes from her experiences as a child of about the same age as the Saturday academy participants.
"I was a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum, and I'd go there every Saturday. I didn't just look at the exhibits, I got to work with the curator on them. He made me feel important, like I was really somebody."
Lee says she's already seeing the positive effects of the Saturday academy, not only in the students' newfound knowledge but also in their attitudes.
"I'm extremely pleased with how the students are feeling about themselves. We have broken the ice with these young people so they feel more self-confident and have more self-esteem. It's not so much a matter of learning test material but of building relationships, of learning to work cooperatively with their peers and with college students, and of learning new career possibilities."
Parental involvement is integral to the design of the Saturday academy. "Parents need to be empowered to ask questions about their child's schooling," says Lee. "We're helping them learn how to question teachers and administrators about their child's placement, about their course load, so they can make sure that their child and all children are getting the very best education possible."
Parents participate in workshops and joint sessions with the children, dealing with such themes as self-esteem, study habits, motivation, and parent-student-school communication.
"Being involved in my children's education is majorly critical, because it lets them know what I consider important in life," says Colleen Davis, who has a son at the academy. "And by taking part in this we have a better idea what he is learning, so we can continue the education at home."
Davis and her husband, Bill, have been involved in the academy in other ways as well. The owners of an animation production company, they gave a presentation on computer graphics and animation. "We know that not all kids are necessarily interested in animation or drawing, but they were sitting at computers and doing things that opened up new worlds to them," she says. "If they can be creative on a computer, they can be creative using other tools."
Computers figure prominently in Saturday academy sessions-"The kids take to them like ducks to water," notes Scoones --- because they fit in neatly with both the math and science components. Maurice Brown, a seventh grader at DeWitt Middle School, enjoys doing computer art and "surfing" the Internet. But he says there's more to it than just having fun. "I learned how to download, because if you download the right information you can use it for a report to help you with school."
Some decidedly low-tech tools have also been used at the academy. For example, professor of mathematics and computer science Martin Sternstein had students playing mankala, which Sternstein says is considered the national game of Africa.
"Mankala teaches not only about counting and arithmetic, but also about skills like self-control, defense, cunning, and resilience that players can apply to other aspects of their life. It had an impact on Africa much like the impact chess had on Europe."
Santi says that playing such games is a useful way for students to learn a larger message. "The fact that other cultures have contributed to mathematics is not something they would probably find in their school textbooks. With this they can see that there are different-though equally valid-methods of reaching a solution to a problem.
"A lot of the kids come in thinking that they are either good in math or they are not good in math, that it is something you are born with," she continues. "I try to get them to realize that even if they don't go into a mathematical field, math is in everything we do and we cannot ignore it. So rather than approach it as something that is hard, I try to get them to see it as something that they can enjoy."
The early successes of the Saturday academy have not gone unnoticed: In December the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission presented the program with its 1995 Marjorie Penalver Education Award. Scoones notes that the academy is one of several Center for Teacher Education outreach programs intended to bring closer ties between South Hill and downtown.
"When Ithaca College was located downtown we used to have a much closer relationship with that community," says Scoones. "This is a wonderful opportunity to reestablish those ties and to integrate our students into the larger community in which the campus is located."
The students who serve as mentors on Saturday mornings were all enrolled last fall in a new course, Making a Difference by Teaching, taught by associate professor of mathematics and computer science Dani Novak. "I enjoy coming to the academy because these students are so motivated," says chemistry major Sunny Hill '98. "I do whatever is needed, whether it means getting supplies, helping someone log onto a computer, or just talking one-on-one. I've learned so much about working with people of different cultures; it has taught me a lot about what it means to be an educator and how we can make sure kids get the kind of education they need and deserve."
Jibraan Lee, who also mentors at the academy, believes that his presence helps send a positive message. "It's good for them to see a college person give back to them and try to help them become better students, and I'm happy to be considered a role model for these kids."
While some Saturday academy students were uncomfortable at first in such a majority-white setting, Denise Lee says that everyone involved in the program now feels like part of a family.
"We have forged the idea of this being a family. We expect them to have respect for one another, for their mentors, for their parents, and for the staff, and we'll call them on it if they don't. These are some of the important lessons that we are trying to instill."
Colleen Davis agrees. "One of the best things about the academy," she says, "is not necessarily that it is teaching the kids factual information, but that it is teaching them how to ask questions and how to find out the answers. My son goes into school and asks about things that were raised here."
That kind of talk is music to Lee's ears. "For students to be more inquisitive and outspoken, to have it all come together at home and in school-that's what it's all about."
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