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updated January 18, 2010
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Rose-Hulman’s Homework Hotline Serving as
National Role Model to
Enhance Math Education
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Tutoring Service Being Adapted by California’s Harvey Mudd College
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s groundbreaking Homework Hotline has
become a role model for helping middle- and high-school students learn
mathematics and science principles. Now, aspects of the free tutoring
service are being replicated by California’s Harvey Mudd College to help
secondary school students in the Claremont area.
This partnership features the two top nationally ranked educational
institutions that offer the bachelor’s or masters’ degree as their top
degree in engineering. The ranking is published in U.S. News & World Report
magazine’s annual college guide, based on a national survey of deans and
senior faculty members.
Rose-Hulman is a 1,900-student private college located in Terre Haute, Ind.,
that specializes in undergraduate engineering, science and mathematics.
“We’re happy to see Rose-Hulman’s Homework Hotline become a national model
for helping middle school and high school students in other areas across the
United States. This is another shining example of how Rose-Hulman, our
enterprising students, and our faculty and staff members are helping improve
math and science education,” says Susan Smith, director of Rose-Hulman’s
Homework Hotline and Learning Center. “Rose-Hulman and Harvey Mudd have a
lot in common and it would seem appropriate that we would work together to
utilize our students to help encourage today’s students to get the critical
math skills to become tomorrow’s engineers and scientists.”
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On The Other End Of Line: Homework Hotline Supervisor Bryan Poulsen, a
senior biomedical engineering major at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology,
helps a caller to the free, telephone math and science tutoring service. |
Rose-Hulman’s Homework Hotline has been helping Indiana students develop
better problem-solving skills since 1991 through tutoring via toll-free
phone calls, e-mails and online resources. The service, supported by the
Indiana-based Lilly Endowment Inc., has answered more than 280,000 calls
since 2002, including 21,506 in the first four months of the 2009-10 school
year. More than 30 students are available between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. each
Sunday through Thursday, from September through May.
Harvey Mudd has hired a program administrator (Gabriela Gamiz-Gomez),
received a $125,000 startup grant from donors James and Marilyn Simons, and
plans to launch a pilot program in February. By calling a toll-free number,
students will be able to work with college student tutors who are trained to
provide help in mathematics.
Darryl Yong, Harvey Mudd College’s associate professor of mathematics,
points out that access to tutoring helps close the gap between educational
opportunities available to students from affluent families and students from
lower income families.
Rose-Hulman staff and students see the new program as an open partnership
and are supporting the development of HMC’s new program by agreeing to share
training materials, promotional strategies and other resources. Rose-Hulman
is interested in helping other colleges and universities develop similar
tutoring programs to assist students in the near future.
“We hope this partnership with Harvey Mudd College paves the way for other
Homework Hotline programs throughout America,” Smith said. “The Homework
Hotline takes advantage of our students, which are gifted in math and
science, and trains them to help secondary students to improve their
problem-solving abilities and become more confident in their math skills.”
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