A great increase in student enthusiasm has allowed for greater student and teacher utilization of the Science Learning and Instructional Center (SLIC) in Room 3104. This year SLIC is open during 26 out of the total 28 blocks in the week for any students that wish to work on science with teachers, peer coaches (science TAs) and classmates. SLIC also contains many science textbooks and new computers available for students to use.
SLIC was established in the fall of 2007 “with the idea that peer support is one of the most effective means for improving student learning,” according to its website. Students would be able to go to SLIC and work with classmates or receive one-on-one guidance for their science classes.
SLIC was the original vision of science teacher Alan Crosby, who is the current overseer of the center.
“Something I’ve wanted to do ever since I [arrived at South] was to develop a student support center for the science classes. I think students need a place to work together with science,” Crosby said. “Science can be difficult and, spending more time with it, especially in a nurturing and helpful environment, breeds success.”
In the past two years, however, lack of staffing has prevented SLIC from being as effectively used as Crosby had hoped.
“Staffing was always an issue,” Crosby said. “In the past we had 6 blocks where SLIC was occupied by teachers and the opportunity for students to use it was much lower. Teachers didn’t even feel confident recommending SLIC [to their students] because there was a high risk that there … would be no one to help them in the blocks that they were free.”
This year SLIC has become much more popular due to a tremendous increase in the number of students interested in becoming peer coaches. More than 15 juniors and seniors work in SLIC as peer coaches.
The student-run SLIC was first opened to students this October and has rarely been empty.
“The reason it’s successful now is that it’s staffed. There’s someone there all the time … We’ve got enough help that students can show up any block and find someone there. And that’s really the key,” Crosby said.
He believes it is beneficial for students to receive help from other students who have gone through the same classes.
“Someone who has been through the class and succeeded is able to better guide students through the learning mechanisms,” Crosby said.
Once a week, the SLIC staff meets with Crosby to touch base with him on how things are going in SLIC, bringing to him any concerns they may have about a particular student.
Sophomore Marissa Rodenstein is a student in Crosby’s honors chemistry class and claims SLIC is her second home.
“I kind of live in the SLIC room,” Rodenstein said. “I come here for all my studies and sometimes during J Blocks or if I have a free [block].”
Rodenstein finds the individual support that the peer coaches at SLIC provide helpful.
“I find it really helpful to get one-on-one help with the TAs because, in a class of 25 kids, you can only get so much individual help. The [peer coaches] can really walk you through a problem step by step if you don’t really understand it, and they tell you the key ideas to remember,” Rodenstein said.
Sophomore Ruthy Allard also takes Crosby’s honors chemistry class.
“I usually try to come [to SLIC] at least once a week because I like to understand fully what I’m doing before I start the homework,” Allard said.
Sophomore Jack Summers goes to SLIC to receive help for his chemistry assignments and thinks it is helpful to receive aid from upperclassmen that have already been through the class he is currently taking.
“It’s helpful to come here and talk to someone who has gone through the course before and steer me in the right direction,” Summers said.
Currently, the target students for SLIC are freshmen and sophomores, mainly because mostly juniors and seniors run the center.
“Our target audiences are freshman physics and sophomore chemistry because the juniors and seniors who work there have all had freshman physics and sophomore chemistry,” Crosby said.
Upperclassmen, however, have also been able to make use of SLIC.
Senior Gina Lu finds SLIC a quiet and resourceful place to study and goes to SLIC right before her AP physics tests to work with the many of the peer coaches who are her fellow physics classmates, as well.
“I think going to SLIC is more efficient than going to the library. [My friends and I] get together there to study and do group work,” Lu said. “But at the same time, because I go to SLIC, I never go to J Blocks with my physics teacher anymore. I think it’s easier to go to SLIC and work with peers because you’re kind of all in this together. The teacher knows the concepts really but your classmates are the ones who really go through the same struggles as you.”
Senior Mika Braginsky, who works in SLIC as a peer coach, believes that one of the ways the center can be improved is by raising greater awareness among students on the existence of SLIC.
Science teacher Alyssa Cifuni tries to make her students aware of SLIC by giving them an incentive to go there.
“There was one test where I gave [my students] half a point of extra credit for going to SLIC. I was trying to get them into the habit of going to SLIC and using the resources there. They don’t get extra credit any longer, but I think a lot of them are developing the habit of going there,” she said.
Junior Adam Isselbacher is one student of Cifuni’s who has developed this habit.
“I went to SLIC for the first time in order to get extra credit on my old test and also to receive help on the next upcoming test that would be a big part of my grade,” he said. “Since then I’ve been coming back to receive more help. There are a lot of textbooks and computers [at SLIC] and there’s always a [peer coach] there if you have any questions.”
Isselbacher has seen a great improvement in his grades since using SLIC.
“Overall I think [SLIC] is a pretty good program because, after going to SLIC, I got a 90 percent on my next test, compared to my 55 percent [on the first test]. So I definitely improved with the use of SLIC and its resources,” Isselbacher said.
Students who go to SLIC for help aren’t the only ones benefiting from the center. The peer coaches themselves are learning as well.
“The students who are rendering assistance get a lot out of [SLIC] too,” Crosby said. “They review material that they’ve seen before, which puts it back in their mind so it doesn’t get forgotten. And they have to rethink the material in a way to help other people get more structured and organized about that material, which really helps their own thoughts get more organized as well.”
Science teacher Patrick McFarland agreed with Crosby.
“SLIC is good for students receiving help and the students giving help. It’s amazing what you learn when you teach; teaching really exposes the small misunderstandings that come to the surface when you try to explain something to someone else,” McFarland said.
Junior Jolie Yu, a peer coach at SLIC, believes her work at the center has helped her improve in her own science class.
“I’m taking AP biology this year, and when I’m helping students who come to SLIC, I teach them how to write more concise answers. It helps me be more concise when I’m answering questions for my own class,” Yu said.
Crosby thinks the increased popularity SLIC has received this year comes from an increase in enthusiasm as well as staffing.
“The key is student enthusiasm, both from students who are willing to offer help and from students who are happy to work with someone to learn,” he said.
“Every day we have at least one student showing up every block to get their questions answered and their work done,” senior Hasith Vidanamadura, a SLIC peer coach, said.
Some students, such as sophomore Antonia Nichols, said that there are sometimes too many students in the center and that they would like to understand things more fully when leaving.
Cifuni, however, believes SLIC has been a tremendous success so far and will continue to improve in the future as the system becomes more permanent and the SLIC coaches get more used to it.
Yu agrees with Cifuni. “[The peer coaches] try our best for everyone that comes. A lot of people are coming here consistently so I think we’re making progress. But this is the first year we’re doing this, and not everything can be perfect,” Yu said.
“Before the end of the year, we will have a review process and try to formalize the system, as in if we’re going to make any changes and how we’ll reorganize things for next year,” Crosby said.
Many students hope that SLIC will be here to stay as a part of the South science department in the years to come.
“I’d like to see that SLIC is here next year, benefiting the people who need help,” Isselbacher said. “People have free blocks all the time and going to SLIC is a great way to get extra help. It’s a really good resource that anyone taking a science class could use, and more people should really start using it.”
