Effects of Readiness Initiatives on Mechanical Engineering Retention and Success

Many students enter engineering programs with high levels of interest and excitement but change majors or leave early in the first two years. To assist the transition of students from high school to the rigor of college level engineering courses, The Citadel developed a math review program and changed the science curriculum to attract and retain more engineering students. The Citadel recently launched a new mechanical engineering program that saw over 10% of the incoming freshman class select it as their major. During the second year over 15% of the new freshmen class selected the mechanical engineering major. Both years had more than twice the enrollment of what was expected. The challenge was to make these students successful and keep as many of them in the program as possible. During the second year, the Math Review was offered and provided a two and a half week (10 sessions) review of Pre-Calculus designed to prepare students for different freshman math courses. An indirect benefit of the Math Review was the encouragement of good work habits early in the semester with daily work and learning where to find help. Implementation of the Math Review showed success in creating a sense of community among the mechanical engineering students and reducing withdrawals from math courses or changes of major at the same point the year before. A similar math review with emphasis put on engineering quantities and units was administered during the first few classes in the freshman mechanical engineering 101 course. Student involvement was reinforced by assigning computational homework after each class. In freshmen mechanical engineering courses, the faculty reinforced material and computations the students were also seeing in Physics and Chemistry, such as projectile motion and stoichiometry. Through these freshman engineering initiatives, students were able to see themselves as a mechanical engineering student and understand the types of knowledge and abilities essential to succeed. The objectives of this paper are to explain these readiness initiatives, to assess the first year program results quantitatively and qualitatively through retention data and surveys, and to discuss the future potential of the program. Introduction The basis for the program was created with the student development theory of Tinto’s Model of Student Retention in mind. Tinto’s model is formed on the idea of integration, and he cited that student persistence is predicted by how involved students are in academic integration and social integration. At The Citadel and most college campuses, students are pulled in multiple directions to be involved outside the classroom setting. The National Center for Education Statistics reported a total of 48 percent of bachelor’s degree students who entered STEM fields during 2003-2009 had left those fields by spring 2009. Approximately one half of those students who left declared non-STEM majors, and the remaining left college prior to earning a degree. Many factors contribute to why students leave their STEM major including: college preparedness, less success in STEM courses versus nonSTEM courses, type of institution (public or private) and dropping out of college. Prior to 2014 the only retention initiative in place at The Citadel was Supplemental Instruction (SI) sessions held each evening in targeted math, science, and engineering courses that receive a significant amount (50% or higher) of D, F, and Withdraw (DFW) final semester grades. The first two years of typical engineering curricula require courses that include sequences in calculus and science. Students who start at Pre-calculus have an additional half year of mathematics before they are ready to begin the Calculus sequence. Evening Math Review Entering freshmen STEM majors at The Citadel without AP math credit must take a Math Placement Exam (MPE) before enrolling in courses. The MPE is used as a filter to determine whether a student should be placed in Pre-calculus or Calculus 1. Students beginning their preparation for a degree in engineering at The Citadel must complete a series of math courses that include Calculus 1-3 and Differential Equations 1-2 for mechanical engineers. Even among those who declared engineering as their major, nearly 50% of students placed into the Precalculus math course. The results of the math placement test have serious and adverse consequences for these students’ timely completion of lower-division courses. It becomes quickly obvious that under-prepared students will face many challenges completing the mechanical engineering program. To assist in the transition of students from high school to the rigor of college level engineering courses, The Citadel’s School of Engineering developed a Math Review program to attract and retain more engineering students. Over the past two years, The Citadel saw over 15% of the incoming freshman class select the mechanical engineering major. The challenge was to make these students successful and keep as many of them in the program as possible. During the past year, the Math Review was offered and provided a two and a half week (10 sessions) review of Pre-Calculus designed to prepare and review students. An indirect benefit of the Math Review was the encouragement of good work habits early in the semester with daily work and learning where to find help. Veenstra et al. reported that success in an engineering program was highly correlated to “confidence in math and computer skills, actual math and science knowledge/skills, and career goals”. Faculty conducted one-hour math review sessions Monday through Thursday evenings for 10 sessions. All freshmen engineering majors take an Introduction to Mechanical Engineering course, so classrooms were identified based on the sectioning of the course. The faculty member who taught the section was the lead instructor for the Math Review sessions. When an instructor could not be present in the evening, another instructor was able to substitute in for the session. Instructors worked problems or had students work problems on the boards and discussed the solutions. Often when the session was over, students stayed in the rooms to continue working on actual math homework. Classroom Reinforcement The students were faced with topics in mechanical engineering about which they have no or some limited exposure in physics. In the Introduction to Mechanical Engineering course, students were encouraged to build a working relationship with other students in their major and meet the faculty. One aspect of this course that the faculty tried was to assign the instructor as faculty advisor for all the students in his/her particular section. There were some individual exceptions (two sophomores and one junior were assigned different advisors). This allowed the faculty member to inform advisees face to face for upcoming events and ensure advisees made appointments for advising before spring semester registration. At the same time, the students saw his / her advisor regularly, and this faculty member was not an unknown person. The overall goals of the Introduction to Mechanical Engineering course were: 1) for students to learn about mechanical engineering as a career and introduce the different areas of mechanical engineering, and 2) to gain some knowledge and tools, which will help them as mechanical engineering students. In order to accomplish goal 2 above, the faculty tried to reinforce computations the students were also doing in Physics and Chemistry, such as projectile motion and stoichiometry. The classroom work that occurred at the same time as the Math Review sessions was reinforcement of the same type of material covered in the Math Review, but with engineering context. Problems had physical meaning and were not merely number manipulation. The instructors wanted to reinforce ‘time on task’ and ‘learning by doing’ early in the semester. With few courses assigning homework and no major requirements in the first few weeks, there is a freshman student perception after a few weeks of college that they can survive by doing very little. Chemistry for Engineers The Grinter Report recommendations resulted in most engineering programs requiring at least one semester of freshman chemistry and many programs adding a second required course. In the 90s, Drexel University initiated an integrated curriculum which combined chemistry into larger modules with math and engineering content. Some programs created courses for specific majors such as “Chemistry for Engineers” courses while others were application-oriented, such as having an emphasis on materials. In most studies of the role of chemistry in engineering education, the emphasis is on the chemistry content. The Chemistry for Engineers course and its effect on the mechanical engineer program will be covered in another paper.