Volunteer Tutor From 3M Helps Tartan Students See Connection Between Math and 'Real Life'

Since 1996, every Thursday after school, students have been able to count on 3M physical chemist Doug Dunn to be around to help them with their math homework.

Dunn, a 26-year 3M employee with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, said leaving work for one to two hours each week to volunteer at the school is a win-win—the kids get help on their math homework, and he gets to do something he enjoys.

“I find it enjoyable to interact with the kids,” he said. “They just have a different and usually interesting perspective on things.”

Dunn started volunteering at Tartan when his daughter, now 29, started school there through a 3M tutorial program, he said, which allows employees to take time off work to tutor in the schools.

He followed his daughter and son through school, volunteering at Carver Elementary School, Maplewood Middle School and then Tartan he said.

Not only does he enjoy it, but he said helping the kids with their work is a good refresher for him on math skills that can be valuable in his work in 3M’s safety security and protection services business lab.

“It’s good practice,” he said. “Unless you practice, you lose some of your ability.”

Besides the homework help, students benefit simply from coming in contact with someone who uses math skills in “real life” said Tartan counselor Andrea Kaltved.

“It gives them an opportunity to make that connection between high school and the world of work outside of high school,” Kaltved said. “I think that they can see then, ‘Oh, these are skills that people use outside of high school; these are things that people do as a career,' so I think it helps them see what the world of work might entail.”

It varies how many students show up for help each week, Kaltved said. Sometimes it’s just one, and sometime they have to open up the conference room because eight or nine students need help, she said.

Besides just tapping into his math skills to help students, Dunn said sometimes he points them to resources in their books that they didn’t realize were there. It’s good practice, he said, because when they get to college not everything will be in their class notes and they'll have to figure out some things on their own, using their textbooks, he said.

Although Dunn’s children graduated from Tartan years ago, Dunn said, he expects to keep volunteering there for now, and likely even after he retires.

“What I’m hoping, when I do it, which seems rewarding to me, is that I’m being able to be a positive influence on these kids as they’re growing up,” he said. “Maybe at some point they can think back on some interaction they had with me that helps them make an important decision.”