Courvoisier Bell and Deaisha Lee react as they and other local middle schoolers participating in the GEAR UP program dissect sharks in a biology lab at UTC.A number of dedicated students spent the first few weeks of their precious summer vacation not at the pool, but in the classroom. Doing math.
For the past two weeks, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s GEAR UP program hosted a summer Math Blast Off to help rising eighth- and ninth-graders get a head start on next year’s geometry and Algebra I classes.
“The best predictor for college success is early passage of Algebra I,” said program director Hunter Huckabay. “We know if we can get these guys through Algebra I in ninth, and hopefully eighth grade, we know their chances of success in college go up.”
Huckabay said only 18 percent of ninth graders from Howard and Brainerd High schools, two of GEAR UP’s target schools, enroll in college after graduation.
GEAR UP — Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs — works to increase those numbers by placing graduate and undergraduate students from UTC at four underserved middle schools to help teachers during the school year and to mentor students on the road to college.