Engineering Students’ Performance in Foundational Courses as a Predictor of Future Academic Success* (original) (raw)
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2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
Student graduation and retention rates are among the metrics that many academic institutions of higher education closely monitor because of their impact on the success of recruiting students and in some U.S. states, they can impact the level of state government funding of public academic institutions. For these reasons, many academic institutions explore innovative ways to improve their graduation and retention rates to levels as high as 95%, respectively. An example of an innovative and transformational approach to improving these metrics is presently taking place in a mid-western university, and the cornerstone of this approach are the development and implementation of engineering technology foundations and applications course for all incoming students. While this course uses active learning approaches and team projects, the scope of their contents distinguish them from similar courses that seek to achieve improved graduation and retention rates. For instance, in this course, soft skills such as technical writing, use of Excel, developing an individual academic plan of study, cooperative education, internships, cultural diversity, quality, safety, and ethics are covered. Basic technical skills covered include math, mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering technology. The rationale for this course is to expose students to these subjects and topics before they enroll in core engineering technology courses such as applied statics. Assessment of learning: While the author plans to conduct this study for at least a four-year period, when the students presently taking the engineering technology foundation course would be graduating so as to compare their graduation and retention rates with those of former graduates, preliminary results presented in this study compare performance of students taking the engineering technology foundation and application course with those of their classmates who were not presently enrolled in this course but were enrolled in the same 100-level engineering technology course.
In this paper, we will look at how the engineering skills acquired by the students in the freshmen Foundations of Engineering I (ENGR111) course helped them in their higher level courses in the university. As ENGR111 developed skills in students that they had previously not been exposed to, it was essential to understand their effect. Students in the sophomore, junior and senior were surveyed to collect this information. Results show that the students have found the impact of these skills in their higher level courses to be positive.
Increased Retention and Graduation Rates of Engineering Students
2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
School of Engineering. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Eindhoven on a research study into improving the participation of female high school students in physics. She holds a master's degree in physics from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She taught physics and mathematics in Dutch secondary schools and colleges and mathematics as an Adjunct at Pace University. She performed curriculum evaluation and academic and educational advising at
First-year Engineering Students and Their Perceptions of Academic Progress
2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings
Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Binghamton University. He has worked for Lockheed Martin, IBM, General Electric, BAE Systems, and Celestica Corporation. He has 25 years of experience in these companies designing military and commercial power electronic circuits and as a systems engineer for airborne and land vehicle electrical systems. He is a licensed professional engineer. He also received a B.A in philosophy and a M.Ed. from the University of Vermont. Before becoming an engineer he was a high school mathematics teacher.
Today's engineering graduates will solve tomorrow's problems in a world that is advancing faster and facing more critical challenges than ever before. This situation creates significant demand for engineering education to evolve in order to effectively prepare a diverse community of engineers for these challenges. Such concerns have led to the publication of visionary reports that help orient the work of those committed to the success of engineering education. Research in engineering education is central to all of these visions. The Need Research on the student experience is fundamental to informing the evolution of engineering education. A broad understanding of the engineering student experience involves thinking about diverse academic pathways, navigation of these pathways, and decision points-how students choose engineering programs, navigate through their programs, and then move on to jobs and careers. Further, looking at students' experiences broadly entails not just thinking about their learning (i.e., skill and knowledge development in both technical and professional areas) but also their motivation, their identification with engineering, their confidence, and their choices after graduation. In actuality, there is not one singular student experience, but rather many experiences. Research on engineering student experiences can look into systematic differences across demographics, disciplines, and campuses; gain insight into the experiences of underrepresented students; and create a rich portrait of how students change from first year through graduation. Such a broad understanding of the engineering student experience can serve as inspiration for designing innovative curricular experiences that support the many and varied pathways that students take on their way to becoming an engineer.
Measuring the Effects of Pre-College Engineering, Year 3
2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2000
where he is a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and IDoTeach, a pre-service STEM teacher preparation program. His work focuses on the transition from pre-college to university engineering programs, how exposure to engineering prior to matriculation affects the experiences of engineering students, and engineering in the K-12 classroom. He has worked as a high school science, mathematics, and engineering and technology teacher, as well as several years of electrical and mechanical engineering design experience as a practicing engineer. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Swarthmore College, his Master's of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts, and a Master's of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Doctorate in Engineering Education from Purdue University.
Measuring the Effects of Pre-College Engineering Experiences, Year 2
2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015
where he is a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and IDoTeach, a pre-service STEM teacher preparation program. His work focuses on the transition from pre-college to university engineering programs, how exposure to engineering prior to matriculation affects the experiences of engineering students, and engineering in the K-12 classroom. He has worked as a high school science, mathematics, and engineering and technology teacher, as well as several years of electrical and mechanical engineering design experience as a practicing engineer. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Swarthmore College, a Masters of Education degree from the University of Massachusetts, and a Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Doctorate in Engineering Education from Purdue University.
In this study, we examine the relationship between student enrollment in a precollege engineering course, Project Lead The Way, and student achievement in science and mathematics. Using multiple regression analysis (N = 176), controlling for prior achievement, free/reduced lunch eligibility, and gender, students enrolled in PLTW courses performed marginally significantly better in mathematics than those who did not enroll in the course at 0.10 alpha level. However, there is no significant relationship between PLTW course enrollment and student achievement in science. We discuss the implications for these findings and provide recommendations focusing on: making explicit integration between academic content and pre-engineering principles; developing assessments that adequately represent students' learning experiences in pre-college engineering; and examining the impact of student prior achievement and social backgrounds on students' later academic development and career opportunities in engineering.