Northbound Meridian · Partner Course
Meridian runs alongside a STEM course, not instead of it. Students learn the problem-solving and study methods that their coursework assumes they already have. By week four, they are running those methods independently.
Currently in pilot. Accepting a small number of partner courses and institutional collaborators.
What this is
Courses teach content. Meridian teaches the layer underneath: how to encode it, how to retrieve it, and how to apply it to problems you’ve never seen.
Most students who struggle in STEM courses are not failing because of the material. They are failing because the study habits that worked in high school (rereading, passive review, working through examples without variation) collapse under college-level workloads. Nobody told them this, and nobody showed them what to do instead.
Meridian runs as a companion to an existing course. Students bring their actual coursework into every session. The problem-solving framework and study methods are learned on the material they are already responsible for, not on abstract examples that transfer poorly.
By the end of four weeks, students should be applying the method on their own. The sessions phase out not because the program ends, but because independence is the goal. A student who still needs daily sessions at week four learned the content, not the method.
The curriculum
01
Study habits
Retrieval practice, spaced repetition, and active encoding, all applied to the specific demands of the course. Students build a study plan in the first session and refine it throughout the four weeks as they learn what actually works for them.
02
Learning methods
How to take notes that support later retrieval, not just transcription. How to build mental models for new concepts. How to use mistakes as diagnostic information rather than evidence of failure. These transfer to every course after this one.
03
FGS problem-solving
Find, Given, Solve is a three-step framework for approaching problems you don't recognize. Applied directly to the course's problem sets and exams. When students reach physics and engineering, it extends into FGPS without relearning from scratch.
The schedule
Most programs add sessions as students struggle. Meridian removes them as students improve. The goal is a student who doesn’t need the next session, not one who depends on it.
← scroll to see full schedule
Week One
Every day
Week Two
Every other day
Week Three
Two days between sessions
Week Four
Three days between sessions
5 sessions · 30 min each
3 sessions · 30 min each
2 sessions · 30 min each
2 sessions · 30 min each
01
Week One
Every day
Foundation
Daily sessions build the baseline. Students learn the study habits they should have had, the learning methods that actually work under STEM pressure, and the first steps of the FGS problem-solving framework. All of it is applied directly to the course they are enrolled in. Daily contact matters here because new habits need immediate reinforcement before they slip.
Why their current study method is failing them
Retrieval practice and spaced repetition applied to their course material
FGS introduced on problems from their actual class
A baseline study plan they build in session one and refine each day
02
Week Two
Every other day
Application
The gap between sessions is intentional. Students now have one full day to try the methods independently before returning. Sessions shift from instruction toward correction: reviewing what they tried, where it broke down, and why. FGS is applied to harder problems. Study habits are being practiced, not just discussed.
Error analysis: what went wrong and whether it was method or content
FGS on unfamiliar problem types from the course
Concept encoding: building mental models that make retrieval faster
Adjusting the study plan based on what the first week revealed
03
Week Three
Two days between sessions
Independence
Two days on their own before each session. By now, the methods should be running without prompting. Sessions focus on exam preparation strategy and on the transfer problem: applying what they've learned to problems that don't look like the ones they practiced on. This is where FGS proves its value.
Exam preparation structured around retrieval, not rereading
FGS on problems that cross topic boundaries
Self-assessment: identifying remaining gaps before the exam
Building a feedback loop they own, not one that depends on the sessions
04
Week Four
Three days between sessions
Autonomy
The final week has the longest gaps. This is the test: not of the content, but of whether the student has internalized the method. Sessions are diagnostic. What is the student doing when nobody is watching? The goal is to leave them with a system that runs on its own, not a dependency on the next session.
Full exam autopsy if applicable, with notes on what each mistake reveals
Confirming the study system is self-sustaining
Documenting what worked for this student and this course
Next steps: what they carry forward and where the gaps remain
Pilot phase
Meridian is in its early phase. That means being direct about how it runs and what it requires from both sides.
Small cohorts by necessity
Each cohort runs with a small number of students. The course-specific preparation (learning where students currently are, adapting the material to their actual assignments and exams) takes real time. That time is a feature of what makes this work, and it limits how many students can be served well at once.
Course integration is real work
Meridian is not a generic study skills program dropped into a course. The instructor learns the syllabus, the problem types, and the common failure points before the first session. That preparation is what makes the FGS application feel relevant rather than abstract.
Motivated students get the most
The program is designed around students who want to improve. Students who show up because they're required to and disengage between sessions will see limited results. Early partners should direct students with genuine motivation toward this program, not students who need to be convinced it matters.
What the pilot produces
Real data. Pre/post outcome measures, session-by-session notes, and a detailed report at the end of the engagement. Early partners get a view into exactly what worked, what didn't, and what the program looks like at scale. That evidence belongs to the institution.
These are pilot constraints, not permanent features. The course-specific preparation, small cohort size, and single-instructor model are what the early phase requires to generate clean data. What scales is the framework, the materials, and the outcome evidence. The constraints do not.
The partnership
What we need from you
Access to a small group of students enrolled in the course. Voluntary, extra-credit, or recommended by the instructor.
A faculty or staff point of contact who can share the syllabus and relevant course materials before the program begins.
Permission to collect outcome data from participating students for the duration of the pilot.
What you receive
Four weeks of structured learning instruction for your students, at no cost to the institution during the pilot phase.
A full outcome report: pre/post score changes, engagement data, and session-level observations.
A research-ready intervention with documented methodology, usable for IRB-approved study if faculty have interest in formal publication.
Get started
If you run a course, an academic support program, or a STEM department with students who are capable of more than their grades are showing, this is the conversation to have.
partnerships@northboundtutoring.com