University of Waterloo tutors help younger students from across Ontario with math, science

The University of Waterloo's engineering outreach program is givinghigh school students in Waterloo regiona helping hand this yearin math and science through a free tutoring program calledHive Mind.

"We've heard some of the concerns from the students coming in that they were just struggling with these courses in particular in anew environment, the quadmester, where they are doing everything in a really compressed format," said Leanne Predote,senior manager of UW's engineering outreach department.

Since the launch of the program in February, Hive Mind has done over 400 one-on-one tutoring sessions with high school studentsin Grades 10 through 12 in Waterlooregion and across the province.

"I think we reached out directly to about 400 high schools in the province," Predote said.

The tutoring program supports students taking courses like calculus, chemistry and physics, and currently has over 140 students registered.

Predote said some studentscome for just one session, but many have come back week after week.

She said the department tasked three first year university students to create theprogram and have since made an effort to recruit first yearstudents astutors, or learning assistants.

"This is an experience they went through last year in Grade 12, so they're familiar with the struggles and what some of these high school students are facing," Predote said.

Predote said theHive Mind program will continue to supportstudents throughout the summer with possible plans to include younger grades if registration is low at the high school level.

"Perhaps we'll offer some younger tutoring session to help with the summer slide and keep kids on track with their math over the summer," she said, adding the program would re-focus back on high school students come fall.