Aiken Standard

Wednesday February 12, 2003

By ROB NOVIT	success, they said. The soft-	“There is a class all seven
Staff writer	ware was created by the	periods, and some students
	Augusta-based National Sci-	are here at 7:15 a.m. to make-
For dozens of Aiken High	ence Center Foundation.	up work or get ahead."
School students, Algebra I is	NSCF's new president, Dr.	Rhoden works with five of
anything but conventional	James Vinson, and education	the classes and Morgan the
these days.	programs director Lisa	other two. One is always avail-
Seven classes are taking the	Macuch, visited one of the lab	able to help students as need-
course in a laboratory setting,	classes at Aiken High Monday.	ed.
utilizing an interactive, com-	"This school is one of the	Vinson described the pro-
puterized math program	outstanding examples of how	gram as self- and mastery-
called "Learning Logic."	to use this program," said	based. As each topic is com-
Freshman Terra Robinson	Vinson. "The teachers really	pleted on a computer, the stu-
said she finds the approach a	are at the forefront of improv-	dent must get at least 80 per-
lot easier than sitting in an	ing the instruction of math."	cent correct to proceed to the
actual classroom and listening	The students are happy	next topic. The homework is
to a teacher.	with the program, said Mor-	printed out, with each student
"I feel that I pick up certain	gan. She frequently hears	getting a different assign-
things quicker;" said Terra.	"ooh's" and "ah's;' when a stu-	ment. The program also
"If I listen to the teacher	dent completes a topic suc-	prints out tests.
repeat what she said, I feel	cessfully.	"The failure rates are usual-
that I'm wasting my time.	The school received a grant	ly 8-9 percent," said Rhoden.
With this program, you just	from the Westinghouse Savan-	"In regular book classes, it's
read the information you need	nah River Company to start	about 25 percent.
and then take a test to make	the lab approach nearly a
sure you know it."	decade ago.
For the past nine years	"We wanted to do some-
teachers Suzanne Rhoden and	thing to help our students get
Betty Morgan have used	a good foundation with future
"Learning Logic" with great	math classes," said Rhoden.