East Norriton- The beat was loud and pulsating. Inside a gymnasium of East Norriton Middle School, rapper Grand Hank (alias Tyraine Ragsdale) cajoled the students to move their bodies and clap their hands. A few teachers couldn’t help but to move their shoulders a bit.

Amid the flashing lights and rhythmic prose, Grand Hank proclaimed the value of mathematics and gave a crash course on African-Americans scientists. The school assembly last week kicked off the Merck Mentor Program, in which volunteers from Merck & Co.’s Manufacturing Division in Upper Gwynedd are going to East Norriton to help students improve math skills. Using rap music to motivate math students may be unusual, but Ragsdale said it is effective.

The rap program was brought in, said Merck program coordinators Alicia Harper, because Ragsdale, a scientist at the Robert Wood Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development Center in Spring House, is a good role model.

Through his company, Grand Hank Productions, based in Philadelphia, Ragsdale has appeared at area schools, hospitals and research companies. “I feel that rap music has been getting a bad rap,” said Ragsdale. “It is very important that we use it as a medium to teach.”

He used it to introduce and discuss such African-Americans as Garrett Morgan, who developed the traffic light; Benjamin Banneker, mathematician and astronomer; and Charles Drew, who founded the American Red Cross blood bank.

A sample lyric:
Here’s how Elijah McCoy became so great.  He made devices to help engines self lubricate. As a result machinery could run longer and faster. His name will live on in the here and after…"To be successful,” he told students, "you must have clear and stated goals. To be the best takes everything you’ve got.” Some students need a push. “Given extra attention, they can achieve academically,” said East Norriton teacher Angela McIver.

To that end, the assembly and the Merck program have a common goal getting minority students interested in math and science careers.

“The goal is to increase the number of African-American students placed in algebra by freshman or sophomore years by high school,”

Mclver said. “The number of African-American students from the borough [of Norristown] are not as many as we want in the college track. The benefits to kids are that they get to work in small groups.”

East Norriton teachers have selected 16 students based on interest, promise, or need to meet with a pool of 30 mentors every Wednesday morning. The mentors also accompany students to special events such as bowling or picnics.

“It helps me with my math,” said seventh grader Lance Wilson, who is beginning his second year in the program. He was particularly impressed with a tour of Merck, especially when students got goggles. Sixth grader Viola Sibly said she wanted to be a math or chemistry teacher. “I liked meeting a real scientist,” she said.

The program is offered only at East Norriton and concentrates on reinforcing basic mathematic principles. The tutoring is tied to the curriculum, which focuses on problem-solving rather than computation, said Mclver.

Mentors are formed throughout Merck. Mentor Michael Aldridge, a maintenance supervisor, recalled that “there was no one there when I was in school, and I saw a lot of people struggle. I was lucky that for me, math came easy, but others fell through the cracks.

“This is about more than math,” said Aldridge. “It shows school does pay off.” For Merck industrial engineer Regina Briggs, the mentor is a chance to help encourage members of minority groups to become engineers and scientists. “We wanted to have an active part in that,” she said.