Rice student mentors switch gears, go online

BrainSTEM aids Houston secondary school students learning basics of neuroscience

Rice University’s BIOC 129 class was always a model of “paying it forward,” but extraordinary circumstances have prompted it to go the extra mile in a quest to help underserved K-12 students learn the basics of neuroscience.

The class led by Jon Flynn, an assistant teaching professor of neuroscience, teaches Rice students how to communicate complicated scientific concepts by having them mentor groups of secondary school students at several Houston-area charter schools.

“We had 30 students going weekly to high schools and middle schools around Houston to teach neuroscience,” Flynn said. “This allowed our students to build relationships with the classes they mentored, and also got them outside the hedges to engage with the community.”

Rice undergraduates work with a class of Houston middle school students on behalf of BrainSTEM. The program is shifting online to tutor students in science disciplines. Photo courtesy of BrainSTEM

But the program, which served scores of students with lesson plans and activities during weekly visits to three schools, came to a halt just before spring break when the COVID-19 crisis hit. Much like Rice faculty had to do, the class decided to adjust its regimen to an online model.

“I still had many students who wanted to apply what they’ve learned to continue tutoring,” Flynn said. “They realized their students are suffering from being out of school. We also know public school teachers we work with are overworked to the point where they’re not sure how to utilize all the resources being offered to them.”

Flynn said undergraduates in his class — the core of the Rice-sponsored BrainSTEM outreach program — and graduate student volunteers are producing a series of 10-to-15-minute videos for the students they tutor. Combined with small-group Zoom sessions, they plan to carry on mentoring kids doing their work online on a variety of STEM topics. “We hope this will take some of the pressure off teachers,” he said.

Flynn said 13 Rice students continue to aid small groups of students from the Baylor College of Medicine Biotech Academy at Rusk, a middle school in Houston’s Fifth Ward, through online sessions. But once the new materials are in place, he feels the program will be well-positioned to serve both more Rice mentors and Houston students who can benefit from tutoring.

“I’m not trying to overplay what we’ve done here, but once you start something like this, you want to see it grow,” he said.

For more details about the BrainSTEM program, visit www.tmcbrainstem.org. For details about volunteering to mentor during the COVID-19 crisis, or utilizing Rice volunteers, please visit www.rimi.blogs.rice.edu.