Training And Performance Assessment Of Minority Students In Stem

The proposed study is designed to implement and test the efficacy of an intervention developed as part of an NSFfunded project by the team of investigators at Longwood University and Virginia State University. This intervention develops the underlying thinking skills in students necessary for success in STEM courses and careers. Rather than relying only on classroom content and high-level thinking skills, this intervention also includes a classroom component involving an innovative video game programming curriculum developed by the investigators. The impact of this intervention will be assessed at a critical developmental period: the entry into high school (9 th grade). Over the three-year period of the project, the groups of participants have been assessed on a number of different variables to develop a model of how these variables impact the cognitive interventions. These variables have all been implicated in lowered academic performance, and the information provided by the model will allow the development of future non-academic interventions associated with these variables to enhance the impact of cognitive training.