A Freshman Science Cohort Class for Underprepared Students

A troubling fraction of students in STEM majors flounder at the introductory level. The most compelling reason for this is a lack of adequate intellectual preparation. On a fundamental level, science is done by thinking critically about the natural world. Students with weak quantitative reasoning skills will struggle in quantitative science fields. The talk will discuss the depth of the problem, a teaching strategy implemented at Winona State University which is designed to enhance these skills, and initial results, indicating a substantial increase in student ability and retention in STEM fields.