Impacting First-Year Engineering Retention

摘要

Abstract First Year Engineering Summer SessionRecruiting, teaching, and retaining students in engineering programs are national issues thatcontinue to be addressed in many, varied ways1. A retention program implemented by theUniversity of xxx is designed to improve the retention of high achieving, first year engineeringstudents. Funding for program instruction and materials was provided through NSF EPSCoR, sothere were no costs to the participants.Since many students leave engineering without experiencing the excitement of engineeringdesign, a two week program, Exploring Engineering (E2), was initiated summer 2012 forincoming engineering students. E2 introduces students to interdisciplinary engineering topicsranging from robotics to composite materials. The simulation tool, LabVIEW, which is widelyused in engineering curricula, is used to program LEGO MINDSTORM® robots. Thiscombination provides immediate, visual, verification of project solutions. The students quicklygain skills and facility with both tools, addressing the various assigned tasks in creative ways.The students explore instrumentation, sensors, and control using Lego Robots. They also useLabVIEW, in conjunction with the Lego Robots, to investigate material properties and behaviorfor metals, polymers, and composites. Each topic is introduced by a series of short lecturesfollowed by hands-on interactive laboratory sessions, culminating in an open ended designproject.An accompanying thread for the program is enhancement of critical thinking skills. Basicconcepts of the affective and cognitive principles and strategies essential to critical thinking areintroduced to the students and reinforced in workshop activities.As a result of strong teaming experiences in the workshops, the students work more effectivelyand collaboratively in their coursework. The students also interact one-on-one withundergraduate and graduate engineering students who share their enthusiasm for engineering.These relationships continue into the academic year, providing a support community for the newstudents.Highly motivated, inquisitive incoming freshmen were identified for the program, based on ACTscores, high school GPAs and completed high school coursework (math, chemistry, and physics).Admissions decisions are based on academic achievement and interest. About 25% of eachfreshman class (approximately 60 students per year) have been invited to participate; 12 studentsattended the first year and 14 attended this past summer. Due to cost constraints, the programdoes not include a residential component which would portend that most of the participantswould be from the local area. However, half of the participants reside outside the local area;they either moved into their assigned rooms on campus or stayed with relatives.1 Rising Above the Gathering Storm Two Years Later, Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy,National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, National AcademiesPress, Washington D.C. , 2009.Results are extremely positive, with both faculty and students highly satisfied with programactivities. Participants are genuinely excited about learning new things – and they are able toquickly pick up concepts. Critical thinking skills are assessed prior to workshop activities andagain following the activities. An average 10% gain in critical thinking skills was observed. Themaximum increase was more than 30%, for an underrepresented minority student. This suggeststhat these types of activities may be quite successful for underrepresented populations and willbe investigated further.The program has greatly impacted the retention of freshmen students. Over 90% of the E2participants remain in STEM majors at the university. The other non attendees in the upper 25%serve as a control group. In this group, 15% have changed majors within engineering, 10% havechanged to non-STEM majors, and 12% have left the institution. Hence, nearly 25% ofincomin