Mandatory but not Required: Examining Change in the Year Two Implementation of a Novel Engineering Mathematics Course

Abstract

Boulder. Her research focuses on ways to encourage more students, especially women and those from nontraditional demographic groups, to pursue interests in the eld of engineering. Janet assists in recruitment and retention efforts locally, nationally, and internationally, hoping to broaden the image of engineering, science, and technology to include new forms of communication and problem solving for emerging grand challenges. A second vein of Janet's research seeks to identify the social and cultural impacts of technological choices made by engineers in the process of designing and creating new devices and systems. Her work considers the intentional and unintentional consequences of durable structures, products, architectures, and standards in engineering education, to pinpoint areas for transformative change.

Minority Status and Belonging: Engineering Math as a Vehicle to Build Community

“…In 2019 there was additional emphasis placed on integrating real world engineering examples into the course. More details are provided in [30,[35][36][37].…”

“…A strong focus of the course in all years was to avoid deficit thinking and messaging [36][37][38][39]. This began with the first emails to students over the summer when they were enrolled, describing the course as an "authentic immersion" into engineering where they would be using real engineering tools in real engineering contexts to solve real engineering problems.…”

“…Two intersectional groups are also shown (URM females and URM plus low-income); statistical comparisons were not made for these small groups. 5.9 ± 1.1 6.0 ± .8 5.4 ± 1.0 6.4 ± .6 5.6 ± .9 2.8 ± .9 Female (104) 5.6 ± 1.0 * 5.7 ± .7 * 5.0 ± .9 * 6.2 ± .7 * 5.1 ± 1.1 * 2.8 ± .9 Female + URM (37) 5.7 ± .9 5.5 ± .8 5.1 ± 1.0 6.1 ± .7 5.2 ± 1.1 2.8 ± .9 URM (91) 5.9 ± .9 * 5.9 ± .8 5.3 ± 1.0 * 6.3 ± .7 5.5 ± 1.1 * 2.7 ± .9 Not URM (100) 5.6 ± 1.1 5.8 ± .8 5.0 ± .9 6.2 ± .7 5.2 ± .9 2.9 ± .9 URM + Low Income (57) 6.0 ± .9 5.8 ± .8 5.5± 1.0 6.4 ± .7 5.6 ± 1.0 2.8 ± .9 Low Income (80) 5.9 ± .9 * 5.9 ± .8 5.4 ± .9 ** 6.4 ± .7 * 5.6 ± 1.0 * 2.8 ± .8 Not Low Income (109) 5.6 ± 1.2 5.8 ± .8 5.0 ± .9 6.2 ± .6 5.2 ±1.0 2.9 ± .9 First Generation (80) 6.0±1.0 * 5.9 ± .8 5.4 ± .9 ** 6.5 ± .6 ** 5.6 ± .9 * 2.7 ± .9 + Not First Generation (109) 5.6 ± 1.1 5.8 ± .8 4.9 ± .9 6.2 ± .7 5.2 ±1.0 2.9 ± .9 statistically significant difference Mann-Whitney U-test vs. majority comparator, ** p < .001, * p < .05; + p < .1 ^lower n for math confidence (all 172, male 78, female 94, URM 83, not URM 89, low income 74, FG 72) Among the elements evaluated on the survey, the private regard scores were the highest, indicating that the majority of the students had strongly positive feelings about engineering and engineers. Private regard is one of the facets of engineering identity.…”

Intended and Unintended Consequences of Rapidly Expanding an Engineering Mathematics Intervention for Incoming First-Year Students

“…The same message was conveyed to the academic advisors in each degree program. However, the mandatory designation was not entirely accurate since the completion of Engineering Math was not actually required for graduation in any engineering major, an ethical and implementation issue discussed at length in another paper presented at this conference [8].…”

Approaching Math as a Tool for Engineering: A Bridge into College Engineering

“…At the University of Colorado Boulder there have traditionally been high DFW rates in the math courses typically taken by first semester engineering students (Table 1); DFW represents students who were awarded a grade below C-in the course or withdrew late in the semester (past the point of tuition reimbursement). In an effort to help engineering students struggling to be successful in math, the College of Engineering began to implement a course modeled on Wright State Math starting in 2017 [13], [14], [15], [16]. The course was variously (un)popular with students, some of whom perceived it as 'remedial'.…”