EDGE 2013 Program – a Redesign Work in Progress

This paper presents a very brief description and history of the EDGE (Early Development of General Engineering) Summer Bridge Program that was initiated in 2003 and focuses on the latest iteration of the program. This project was initially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation and more recently by grants from Department of Education. At first the program was intended for well-prepared high school students in the 10 th and 11 th grades who would have participated in the San Antonio Pre-freshman Engineering Program (PREP) while in middle school. EDGE was designed to pick up where PREP left off by introducing them to college level course work as a learning community and providing activities to help them develop independent learning and teamwork skills with the goal of increasing their likelihood of earning a college degree in engineering, science, math, or other related field. The original courses offered were Introduction to Engineering and College Algebra. After continuing efforts to create a stable sustained program did not bear fruit, a comprehensive examination and redesign of the program was conducted for 2013. The new version would be developed as a two year program. The first year would prepare students for College Algebra by boosting their Math proficiency and helping them acquire a strong college student identity. The second year would introduce them to college level Engineering. For the 2013 edition of the program we offered only the first year component, with the intent of offering both components the following year, for returning students as well as the new ones. The robotics project, which had become very popular with students, was refined and diversified to include two sequential years of activities and challenges. This enhancement provides increased opportunity for our students to diversify their design and programming skills. The paper presents rationales for modifications and provides a detailed analysis of the program results along with the planned developments for the 2014 EDGE Program. Brief History of the Program The EDGE Program was started in 2003 1 and initially was intended to continue the work started in the established San Antonio Pre-freshman Engineering Program (PREP) 2 with a more intense focus on the Engineering profession. From the beginning its stated mission was: “The Early Development of General Engineering (EDGE) Program is designed to increase high school students’ awareness of various engineering fields and sustain their interest in the study of engineering. We recognize that Math is critical in the field of engineering; therefore, our program focuses on increasing students’ math abilities so they leave our program with the knowledge, skills, and confidence that will prepare them for successful engineering careers.” Despite the excellent reviews our program received from students, parents, and teachers, the expected enrollment numbers did not materialize as expected and the following years 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 brought changes and new developments designed to adapt the program to the needs of a different student population than it was originally intended for and maintain its attractiveness. Every year the goal was, and still is, to enroll approximately 50 students in two parallel sections. Since the program was initiated in 2003, there have only been two years when we had more than P ge 24446.2 one section. Since the desired student numbers did not materialize, we began making changes that we thought would make the program more appealing without sacrificing rigor. The greatest challenge has consistently been to find a way to accommodate students who were interested in the program but not prepared for College Algebra. The next program iterations included Introduction to Computing and then Introductory Physics as substitutes, along with self-paced computer-based math enrichment programs such as Plato. The substitute courses did not provide transferable credits (for STEM degrees) however, and as enrollments remained flat we continued to seek new program innovations. One of the annual modifications that turned out to be very popular was a robotics project. This element has become a permanent fixture of the program. During this period a multitude of engineering summer bridge programs were introduced in almost every school across the country and in our area 8,9,10, 11 . The students had multiple choices to spend their summers and enrollment reflected these competing options. Since inception the overall mission of the program has remained the same while specific components have been transformed to reflect the changing needs of our student population. A brief review of the academic accomplishments of participating students in previous EDGE programs as reported by National Student Clearinghouse in December 2012 is shown in Table 1. Education Level Enrolled in EDGE Not in Records Enrolled in a 2 Year College Graduated with Associate Degrees Enrolled in a 4 Year University Graduated with a Bachelor Graduated with a Master’s Degree # Students 228 29 61 23 85 47 2 Table 1. Academic Accomplishments of Past EDGE Students The 29 students that were unaccounted for are to be considered out of the system or still in high school. Of all the students that had obtained a degree, 61% of them received degrees in a technical field. The numbers do not necessarily add up because several students earned more than one degree, or after earning their associate transferred to a four years institution. Changes made in 2013 All students entering the college are required to take an assessment test to determine their readiness for college level work. From the beginning of our program this test has been the Accuplacer , supplied by The College Board. The student placement scores for mathematics have spanned a broad range, with the largest fraction in the developmental levels. Since this was an ongoing problem that restricted enrollment in the Introduction to Engineering course, a concerted effort was made to address the “mathematics deficit” in 2013. A series of discussions was initiated among members of the EDGE program committee, faculty, and members of the Math Department to formulate a new approach that could focus on introducing the Engineering profession while building mathematics skills. Some direction was provided by examining the role of Math in engineering education 12 as well as by the empirical evidence provided by two reports which suggest that the length of time students spend in developmental education courses relates negatively to degree completion 13, . This led us to affirm a strong emphasis on boosting students’ Math performance beyond developmental stages. Several P ge 24446.3 studies together with a rigorous one by National Center for Postsecondary Research provide the strongest evidence to date on the effectiveness of developmental summer bridge programs 16, 17 and . If we can find a way to minimize the time spent by the students in remedial math and do it in a way that brings to life the use of Math in the real world and, particularly, engineering applications, we can accomplish our mission in multiple ways. First, we may be able to dispel the proverbial “fear of Math” by demonstrating the intrinsic connection of Math with everyday problems. Then, we can show the students how engineers use Math to solve these problems. Lastly, we can hopefully help them discover the beauty of the engineering profession and guide them to choose the right field of Engineering. With these new ideas the committee started in the early 2013 Spring Semester to redesign the entire EDGE program. The high school juniors and seniors remain the student target population but due to the vast diversity in students’ Math preparedness it has been decided to make it a two year summer program. During the first summer the students will be focused primarily on Math to make them ready at least for College Algebra, enroll them in a student development class and expose them to a variety of STEM activities and field trips to make them familiar with the Engineering profession. For the second year The EDGE program will take the returning students to a higher level of Math while enrolling them in the Intro to Engineering class and involve them in more STEM activities and more field trips. We plan to rotate the field trips every other year in order to have different visits in both EDGE years. One of the best ideas was to involve the Math department early in the planning process. This way we could tailor the math courses to fit the needs of the applying students. As a result the following changes have been implemented: Students will be admitted to the EDGE program based on their Accuplacer scores, since Accuplacer is the primary evaluation and placement tool utilized by the college: o Low group – score 50-69 (Math 0302 – Elementary Algebra, placement requirement) o Medium group – 70+ (Math 0303 – Intermediate Algebra or higher placement requirement) All students will be grouped together for the math module portion of the program and separated into 2 groups for STEM activities (based on Accuplacer scores and the ALEKS 20 EDGE Math initial assessment results) The EDGE math program (3 hours/day) will use ALEKS, the online math assessment and learning system (ALEKS) which is also used for the P.A.S.S. program (Prep for Accuplacer Student Success, a special summer program to help students improve their math placement score). o The supervising professor will create remedial algebra (MATH 0302/0303) and college algebra modules for students (Includes 5 modules (objectives): geometry, measurements, beginning algebra (Math 0302), intermediate algebra (Math 0303), and college algebra (Math 1414). The syllabus is presented in Appendix 2. o Students that master Math 0303 topics (80% level) will get credit for Math 0303. o EDGE students will take an initial ALEKS assessment test to determine their math placement and learning go