Teaching minority middle-school students to solder

We aspired to teach minority middle school students to solder. We found that important variables affecting our ability to do so included: student-to-teacher ratio, venue of instruction, relationships with community partners, and understanding of the structure of the student's worldview. Once the effects of these variables had been understood, we found the students readily learned to solder. We now want to see whether the acquisition of the skill of soldering leads the students to be more interested in technical careers and in going to college.