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GREENSBORO - Beads of sweat drip from the kids' faces, which are tight with concentration. The bass of a rap song thumps as they throw their knees up to their chests.

Their hands clap and their feet stomp in rhythm with each other and the song. It shakes the small exercise room in the fitness and wellness center on the N.C. A&T campus.

This is summer school. This is science and math. This is the living history of black railroad workers. It is learning, and the kids love it.

About 30 Kiser Middle School students are participating in Stepping It Up, a l earning program aimed at helping rising eighth grade students stay sharp through the lazy days of summer.

The program, paid for in part through a grant from the Department of Public Instruction , is the brainchild of professor Dorothy Browne . Browne was looking for a summer program that could address many of the current health and education issues facing children. Obesity, violence, poor academic performance - Browne believes Stepping It Up can help with them all.

"A lot of these problems that we look at with these kids have the same factors," she says.

Better-educated students are less likely to get pregnant, join gangs or use drugs, Browne says.

"Stepping" is a dance routine usually performed by a group. It involves stomping, hand gestures and even acrobatics. Popular among African-American fraternities and sororities, the dance has its roots in the traditions of black railroad workers, according to Browne's research.

Stepping It Up incorporates the dancing into math skills, principles of science and research methods. Students research the history and evolution of stepping and even solve math using the steps. They're also choreographing a step routine inspired by a memoir that they're reading in their language arts class.

For this first year of the program, A&T has partnered with Guilford County Schools, the Black Child Development Institute and AmeriCorps. Kiser Middle was chosen because it is near A&T. Teachers selected students they thought could benefit from the program, Browne says.

Students spend half the day alternating between a math class, a language arts class, and a few days each week, a science class taught by two A&T engineering graduate students. After lunch, the students practice their step routine.

The students are in their third week of the eight-week program and will perform the routine for audiences at several upcoming events, including participants at Kiser's open house.

Despite all the work, the kids don't think of the program as school.

"It doesn't feel like we're in school," Nishell Patrick, 13, says. "You don't step dance in school."

Kim Martin teaches the math portion of the program but teaches science at Kiser during the year. She knows most of the students in the program, and she already loves the results she is seeing .

Students often come back from summer vacation remembering very little of what they learned the year before, she says. That means much of the next year is spent recovering the material.

"It's like blowing the dust off," she says, blowing imaginary dust into the air.

Martin believes programs like Stepping It Up can help save time for teachers and students when school reconvenes.

Martin also likes that the program is being held on A&T's campus and that several college students are working with the kids. It makes going to college seem more tangible she says.

The students will continue the program after school begins, switching to after-school sessions. Browne says the students, who were tested prior to the program, will be tested again six weeks after it ends.

After evaluations and some tweaking, Browne says she will apply for additional grants and begin planning for next summer's Stepping It Up.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com.