Webcasts to prepare for ACT
Link to ACT Prep webcasts
Central Wyoming College's Gear Up program has produced a series of webcasts to prepare high school students to be successful on the math and language arts portions of the ACT exams.
To be eligible to receive the Hathaway Scholarship, Wyoming students need to obtain particular scores on the ACT exam. Gear Up, CWC's program to prepare middle and high school students for higher education, has created these podcasts to help students taking the exam to succeed.
Roger Melton, a professor emeritus
at CWC, is the author and presenter for the math series, while CWC English
Professor Dave Gray gives tips and tricks to students to prepare for the
language arts questions on the test.
Gear Up Curriculum Coordinator Joanne Slingerland is the developer of the project and has also spent a great deal of time editing the material to make them as "concise and to the point" as possible.
The webcasts are available to be
viewed on the CWC website and can be reviewed over and over to help
the
students with commonly occurring formulas on the math tests and helpful
information to prepare for the language arts portion.
CWC has provided face-to-face workshops to prepare for the ACT in Lander and Riverton, but Slingerland decided to use the web technology to reach more, particularly students living in the rural areas served by Gear Up.
High school teachers may also access the videos to prepare their students, she said. While Slingerland calls the videos "podcasts," students do not need an MP3 player to access the videos but rather an Internet connection.
Melton, a longtime math professor at CWC known for demystifying the daunting study of math, has created step-by-step methods of solving commonly used formulas of the ACT exam. One of the videos is specific to test taking strategies.
There are a total of 15 short math presentations, ranging from three to seven minutes in length. The students are encouraged to download and print accompanying documents located on the webpage to assist in their learning.
Other subjects range from "Solving Linear Equations" to "Systems of Equations."
The videos have just recently been posted to the CWC web page so Slingerland can only estimate how they may affect ACT scores and the overall success of the project. "The students can play them over and over to reinforce the information," she said, adding that a student who got early access to the videos told her they were very helpful and that he liked the format.
"High school instructors are very excited that this is available to students," Slingerland said, noting that Lander Valley High School has a link to the webcasts on the school's homepage.
CWC's Dual Credit program offers to pay for the test for high school students in Fremont and Hot Springs counties, presenting students an opportunity to improve their scores before applying for Hathaway scholarships.
The webcasts are a culmination of a year-long project between Gear Up, CWC's Information Technology staff and the faculty experts. Slingerland presented the project at a regional Gear Up conference and the response was overwhelming. She anticipates the webcasts will be used to provide information on other aspects of Gear Up, such as career preparation for college.