By Bill Zeeble
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-745956.mp3
Dallas, TX – Was it scary moving from your normal-sized middle school into that huge high school? What about your most dreaded subject that was about to get harder? Fort Worth ISD has done something about both. It's offered a short summer program to help incoming freshmen navigate both tough topics and confusing hallways. KERA's Bill Zeeble prepared this report on the district's transition program. Matthew Rose, Tennis Coach, Environmental teacher: Wrap it around the end of the probe, you'VE got to do that first. Everybody find your isopropyl sample. Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter: Like the coach he is, tennis instructor and environmental systems teacher Matt Rose delivers orders to several dozen teens wearing smocks and goggles in a first floor lab class at Arlington Heights High School. They cram around beakers, test tubes ,chemicals & other gear. Matthew Rose: Put your filter paper into the iso sample, just hold it down inside. Zeeble: The academic focus for these free, week-long programs at Arlington Heights centers on math and science. That's because in the past, students here have tested poorly in both. Some incoming freshmen, like Cameron Holmes, are here to get a jump start on science. Cameron Holmes, student: In a way I think it can help me get ready. The equipment here is different than what we had in middle school. I think that can help. Zeeble: Other students, like Brit Spears - who emphasizes her name is NOT Britney - needs a little more than that. Brit Spears, student: I suck at math and science so I came because I didn't want to look clueless in my first week of school. Zeeble: Part of the plan here is to have fun. Experiments mimic a crime scene investigation, inspired by TV's popular C-S-I shows. Matt Rose says students are trying to solve a fictional kidnapping. Rose: Now we're looking at an accelerrant used to cover the evidence. So the kids get to use some advanced temperature measurement, more advanced than a thermometer. They'll get to use a TI84 calculator instead of a stop watch. Zeeble: Rose is convinced the program works on several levels. His freshmen last year all went through it. Rose: I just had one class of 9th graders, but that one class outshined , they even beat the honors kids in all test evaluations. The kids I taught, I knew them before I had them in my 9th grade class. Zeeble: Thanks, he says, to this program. It's also intended to get students ready for the big, crowded school, which can be its own challenge. Rose: I see such a huge transition problem getting from 8th grade into high school, it's such a big jump, a system shock. You went from being a big fish on campus as an 8th grader to an unknown as a freshman. Zeeble: Kristina Dickler gets it. She's not only new to the school, but the district. Kristina Dickler. I don't know anybody here. It's probably better to go into high school with people that you know than just going into a totally different school and a totally different school district and knowing no one. Zeeble: Incoming junior Margaret Renfro went through the transition program a few years ago and benefited. So now she's helping new students. She says freshmen don't usually ask her academic questions but more personal ones, like what's the dress code? Margaret Renfro, student mentor: And what time do we get out & what teachers are mean, which are nice, who to avoid.They want to know from us how it is. How school is, how to really think of it, what classes can I not text in. Zeeble: Most questions Renfro can help with. THAT one took even her by surprise. Bill Zeeble KERA news.