Deprived of daily school activities, students can lose weeks or months of learning when they return to the classroom after summer vacation. The phenomenon is known as the "summer slide."
Reversing that slide is just one aim of Cincinnati's Hughes STEM High School Bridge Program, which shepherds 8th graders into high school culture.
The mandatory program is a three-and-a-half-day session where about 200 students learn through group activities. In the process, the students bond with each other, ease into the school year and get to know their teachers, says Kelly Obarski, University of Cincinnati/Ohio STEM Learning Network and Hughes's assistant academic director.
"We have students from 49 different middle schools coming together who have different learning experiences and different cultures and … it does provide a framework for them to get to know one another and start the school year off right," Obarski says.
This year's program began Aug. 3, and Hughes has partnered with the Cincinnati Museum Center and Camp Joy Outdoor Education Center, which specializes in leadership and learning activities for youth.
An example of the group activities offered is a "marble luge" game where students are divided into teams. Each team has part of the luge, they have to move the marble through each section of the luge without touching it, requiring communication and collaboration.
"They can't accomplish this without talking to each other," said Hughes Principal Virginia Rhodes. "You see the different styles of communication and compromise, some will hang back, some will try to take over, but they all have to work together."
The Bridge program supplements Hughes' other summer learning requirements for incoming 9th graders. Each student has been required to read and complete several homework assignments related to 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens book.
Sources: Kelly Obarski, University of Cincinnati/OSLN and Hughes' Assistant Academic Director, and Virginia Rhodes, Hughes principal
Writer: Feoshia Henderson