A subset of students in a large-lecture first semester introductory biology course were offered special mentoring sessions by an undergraduate student skilled in facilitating mentoring sessions as part of the Science Talent Expansion Program (STEP).  Four mentoring sessions were held each week of the semester. 

Results/Conclusions

Of the 57 students in the program, 17 attended no sessions, 14 attended five or fewer sessions, 8 students attended between six and ten sessions and 18 students attended 11 or more sessions during the semester.   Student attendance at mentoring sessions was a major predictor of student success in the course.  For example, for the third exam, an ANVOA indicates that student’s major was not a significant factor in predicting exam score (P = 0.38), but number of sessions attended (P < 0.0001) and STEP math course the student was enrolled in (P = 0.0006) were significant factors in predicting exam scores.  A post hoc Tukey’s test indicates exam scores for students enrolled in calculus were significantly higher than students enrolled in either of the other two math courses, and exam scores for students enrolled in pre-calculus were significantly higher than students enrolled in college algebra.  We believe these differences are largely indicative of student preparation for college work.  Although our data indicate a very positive effect of attending mentoring sessions, we understand that this is partially confounded with student motivation which is very difficult to quantify.  Based on these results, we are attempting to increase session attendance and active participation of students in sessions for the spring 2009 semester.