Scaling Up or Scale-making? Examining Sociocultural Factors in a New Model for Engineering Mathematics Education

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

“…While the primary intent of the course was to provide scaffolding for success in math and engineering, it was recognized that the course might also provide an environment where a diverse cohort of students could feel part of a supportive community. This sense of community was described previously in student interviews [30], but quantitative assessment results were not previously examined. The premise for the engineering math course was based on the Wright State Model (WSM) [31], with similar learning goals and course content.…”

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

“…In Y1, students felt comfortable inhabiting the dedicated Engineering Math Lab classroom at all hours of the day, as evidenced by end-of-semester feedback and reflection question data. Several students recalled the room as the site of the most memorable moments of the course, particularly when students fell asleep while pulling late night / early morning study sessions (see [10] for more details regarding room use in Y1). There were no other scheduled courses in the Engineering Math Lab during the entirety of the Y1 pilot, as it was a brand-new room completed in time for the start of the semester.…”

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

“…Late in the semester he was observed offering help to a peer in the dorms who was further along in the required mathematics sequence and expressed surprise that despite Esteban "only" being in Pre-Calc, he already knew MATLAB. (see [7] for more details on Y1 participant experiences)…”

“…Engineering Math and the WSM include using MATLAB in the context of guided hands-on laboratory experiences as well as on weekly homework assignments. In Y1, students completed these assignments and labs with minimal complaints and even felt excited to be learning MATLAB earlier than their colleagues in other math classes [7] . This contrasts starkly with Y2, in which students often asked, "why are we learning this if it isn't going to be on the test?"…”

“…As administrators and instructors of the WSM course pilot at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), we are interested in understanding the change processes wherein the WSM becomes institutionalized and integrated into the official course pathways of a large public engineering college. While prior research investigating change models in engineering education has discussed the importance of developing a shared vision, utilizing the power of stories, implementing change through just and fair processes, and viewing curricular change as the creation of alternative educational scales [4]- [7] , we acknowledge that these change strategies were neither explicitly adopted nor employed prior to making a significant policy change between Year 1 and Year 2 of pilot course implementation. Specifically, the status of the WSM class at our institution changed from optional in Year 1 to mandatory in Year 2 for all students entering the engineering college classified as not ready for single-semester Calculus 1, as determined by a standard incoming math placement assessment.…”