U. students 'STEP' into school classrooms

Participants in the Penn STEP program help teach computer skills to elementary school students. Only a decade ago, words such as "word processor," "spreadsheet" and "Internet" seldom crossed the minds of grade school students. But now, through the Penn Science and Technology Program, University students are using their expertise to teach West Philadelphia students at Alexander Wilson Elementary School a little something about computer technology. Penn STEP -- a semester-old community service project sponsored by the School of Engineering and Applied Science -- began again yesterday and will continue throughout the semester at Wilson, located at 46th Street and Woodland Avenue. Through the program, University students volunteer for 1 1/2 hours each week as either computer class teaching assistants or classroom technology liaisons. According to Penn STEP founder Oufreez Argenta, the level of computer literacy required to participate in the program is minimal. Argenta said the demand for computer instruction is continuously increasing. "We're hoping to expand Penn STEP? to meet the needs of individual students," the first-year Engineering graduate student said. Approximately 25 undergraduate students participated in the project last semester. The number of volunteers for this spring has doubled, with students from all of the University's schools -- both undergraduate and graduate -- signed on to teach. College sophomore Dan Fleder, co-coordinator of Penn STEP, said, "People used to say it's important to learn about computers for the future. But I would change that to it's important to learn about computers for now," stressing that many of the children have no access to computers outside the school. Wilson is comprised of nearly 400 students, from kindergarten through fifth grade. Children in kindergarten, as well as the first and second grades, spend 45 minutes each week in the computer lab, while those in grades three through five spend 90 minutes each week in the lab. There are 30 students enrolled in each class. This fall, the volunteers helped students in kindergarten and in the first and second grades with the basic operations of At Ease -- the security program of the computers -- which consisted of turning the computers on and off and locating programs. The children also learned some word processing. For one assignment, the students typed their names and song lyrics and then adjusted the font styles of the words. During the holiday season, the participants of Penn STEP introduced the students to drawing and graphics programs -- which the children used to design greeting cards. The older students -- in grades three through five -- developed spreadsheets. Using a program called ClarisWorks, they transformed multiplication tables onto the computer. Joy Anderson, the first computer science teacher at Wilson and a 1996 College graduate, said that the project allows the students to integrate their mathematical and computer skills. "The volunteers have been a definite help to me," Anderson said. "The students really enjoy having the volunteers there.? One student even wrote an essay about the Penn students." "The kids get really attached to us," said Engineering junior Betsy Hamme, co-coordinator of the program. "There's no way that one teacher can give them the individualized attention that we provide." A number of new projects are in store for the remainder of the school year. Anderson said that she plans to have some of the kids help her to design the school's World Wide Web site, which will include profiles of the teachers. In addition, volunteers will teach the students to use the Internet to gather information for reports. "Overall, the program has so much potential," said Anderson. "It's still in its infancy, but we're working out the bugs quickly." Through its involvement with Co-NECT -- a national organization committed to helping communities innovate technologically-rich programs to improve academic results -- Wilson plans to see a heightened development in technological projects over the next couple of years. "Technology is a daunting thing to take on," said Anderson. "After the teachers saw all the help from Penn, they got excited and saw that they too could get help.? [They] want to learn the technology."

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