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Undergraduate Academic Experience for First-Year Engineering Students Through a Summer Bridge Program

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Conference

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Vancouver, BC

Publication Date

June 26, 2011

Start Date

June 26, 2011

End Date

June 29, 2011

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

FPD VIII: Crossing Bridges and Easing Transitions into the First Year

Tagged Division

First-Year Programs

Page Count

11

Page Numbers

22.1561.1 - 22.1561.11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--18700

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/18700

Download Count

451

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Paper Authors

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Jacqueline Q. Hodge Texas A&M University

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Jacqueline Hodge is a native of Giddings, Texas and currently the Project Manager for the Engineering Student Services & Academic Programs Office (ESSAP) at Texas A&M University (TAMU). In her current position, Jacqueline is responsible for Retention and Enrichment Programs for engineering students such as the Engineering Living Leanring Community (ELLC), Learning to Excel in Engineering through Preparation (LEEP), Success and Certificate Programs.

Jacqueline graduated from TAMU with a Bachelors of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. While obtaining her degree, Jacqueline was involved with several community service activities such as the Boys & Girls Club of Bryan, Help One Student To Succeed (HOSTS) and Habitat for Humanity. Upon graduation with her bachelors degree, she began work with International Paper Company and became active with the local College Bound Academy as an instructor. While employed with International Paper, Jacqueline obtained her MSBA from TAMU, Texarkana. After seven years of service in July 2004, she decided to resign her post at International Paper to pursue her masters degree in Mechanical Engineering at TAMU. In Fall 2005, Jacqueline accepted a fulltime position with the ESSAP Office and completed her Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering in May 2006.

Finally, Jacqueline continues to be committed to education and her community. She is the President for the Poplar Circle Neighborhood Association and member of the Brazos valley Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc .

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Margaret Hobson Texas A&M University

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Margaret Hobson, Ph.D. serves as an Assistant Director of Strategic Research Development for the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, a state-wide research agency of the Texas A&M University System. In this capacity she works with institutions of higher education across the state of Texas to strategically develop education and technical research proposals that will bring federal research dollars into Texas. Her office has garnered over $66 million in federal funding since 2003 for educational research, in addition to working with faculty who received individual technical awards, such as the NSF CAREER. Dr. Hobson has a B.S. from Texas Woman’s University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Educational Psychology (Dissertation: Teacher Perceptions of Change in Leadership Roles and Activities as a Result of Participation in a Science Education Leadership Program). Her dissertation study was supported by the National Science Foundation project Center for Applications of Information Technology in the Teaching and Learning of Science (ITS Center). Dr. Hobson also has extensive experience in evaluation. Prior to joining TEES, Dr. Hobson taught mathematics and special education in three Texas public school districts between 1976 and 2000.

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Bugrahan Yalvac Texas A&M University

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Yalvac received his Ph.D. in Science Education with a minor degree in Science, Technology and Society in 2005 at the Pennsylvania State University. Yalvac worked as learning scientist for the VaNTH Engineering Research Center at Northwestern University for three years before his current assistant professor of Science Education position at Texas A&M University. Yalvac’s research focuses on How People Learn framework, science and engineering education, authentic learning environments, cognitive and embodied learning theories, qualitative research methods, and sociology of science.

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Magdalini Z Lagoudas Texas A&M University

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Director, Engineering Student Services and Academic Programs, COlleg eof Engineering, Texas A&M University.

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Jefferey E. Froyd Texas A&M University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4426-2681

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Jeffrey E. Froyd is the Director of Faculty Climate and Development in the Office of the Dean of Faculties and Associate Provost at Texas A&M University. He served as Project Director for the Foundation Coalition, an NSF Engineering Education Coalition in which six institutions systematically renewed, assessed, and institutionalized their undergraduate engineering curricula, and extensively shared their results with the engineering education community. He co-created the Integrated, First-Year Curriculum in Science, Engineering and Mathematics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, which was recognized in 1997 with a Hesburgh Award Certificate of Excellence. He has authored or co-authored over 70 papers on engineering education in areas ranging from curricular change to faculty development. He is currently an ABET Program Evaluator and a Senior Associate Editor for the Journal on Engineering Education.

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Natela Ostrovskaya Texas A&M University

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Dr. Ostrovskaya is a senior lecturer in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, Texas A&M University.

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Tatiana Erukhimova Texas A&M University, Department of Physics and Astronomy

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Tatiana Erukhimova obtained her Ph.D. in Physics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1999. She worked as a research scientist at the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and at Texas A&M University. She is currently a senior lecturer with the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M. Her research interests include physics education, physics of the atmosphere, and climate modeling. She is a coauthor (with Gerald North) of an undergraduate textbook on Atmospheric Thermodynamics published by Cambridge University Press (2009). She received two Texas A&M University System Student Led Award for Teaching Excellence (SLATE) and the Distinguished Achievement College-Level Award in Teaching from the Association of Former Students.

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Cesar O. Malave Texas A&M University

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Dr. César O. Malavé is the Associate Dean of Engineering in the Dwight Look College of Engineering and Assistant Agency Director of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) at Texas A&M University. He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a M.S. in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He obtained a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of South Florida. He has taught in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering since 1987. Dr. Malavé’s current research interests are on the development of operational planning models for manufacturing systems. He teaches graduate courses and conducts research in the area of manufacturing systems modeling and control. At the undergraduate level, Dr. Malavé has taught the freshman introductory course in fundamentals of engineering, engineering economy, manufacturing operations analysis, and robotics. He currently teaches a freshman seminar in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. In the summer, he teaches the Studying Engineering course to students in the LEEP engineering program. In his capacity as Associate Dean of Engineering in the Dwight Look College of Engineering, Dr. Malavé leads all engineering efforts in study abroad programs and international agreements. He also serves as the coordinator of academic support activities with the engineering program at the branch campus in Doha, Qatar. Dr. Malavé also leads all undergraduate recruitment activities in the Dwight Look College of Engineering including the E12 targeted recruitment program. In his capacity as Assistant Agency Director of TEES, Dr. Malavé leads the safety program and the Strategic Research Development group. Dr. Malavé is the Co-Author of the recently published book, Global Engineering – Design, Decision Making and Communication. He has over 50 publications and has been PI or Co-PI of more than 35 million dollars in sponsored research projects. Dr. Malavé is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applications and Practices in engineering Education, he is also a member of ASEE, IEE, and INFORMS.

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William H Bassichis Texas A&M University

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Graduate of MIT and Case Institute of Technology.Previously faculty at MIT. Faculty at A&M since 1970. Author of DON'T PANIC, A Guide to Physics for Students of Science and Engineering

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Abstract

Undergraduate Academic Experience for First-Year Engineering Students Through a Summer Bridge ProgramResearch shows that first-time freshmen in general and first-generation college students inparticular who are underprepared in mathematics struggle to achieve academic success inengineering programs. Data also indicate that minority students are overrepresented in this groupof underprepared students. Across the US, many efforts have been undertaken to help improveall of the college students’ academic experiences and engineering retention.For many years, the Look College of Engineering (COE) at Texas A&M University has focusedon initiatives that enhance the academic experiences of freshmen. One of these initiatives, theLearning to Excel in Engineering through Preparation (LEEP) Program is aimed at improvingstudents’ academic readiness and retention in engineering, especially students fromunderrepresented groups. In this paper, the characteristics of the LEEP program and the lessonslearned over the four years are discussed.In 2007, LEEP was developed as a five-week summer bridge program to improve the preparationof students who are entering as first-time freshmen in an engineering discipline in order toincrease their academic success and retention in engineering. LEEP consists of 3 credit-bearingcourses focusing on mathematics, physics and engineering study skills. In addition tocoursework, participants engage in community building activities with their peers, upper classstudents, and university faculty and staff. Math SAT (SATM) and ACT (ACTM) scores providereadily available indicator of students who are likely to be underprepared for the freshman yearengineering curriculum. Students were invited to participate in LEEP the summer before theyenrolled in engineering at Texas A&M University based upon their SATM and ACTM. Fifty-five percent of the students who participated in 2010 LEEP program were first-generationcollege students.The program was piloted in Summer 2007 and has been offered each summer since with somemodifications on maximum SATM/ACTM requirements for participating students and coursematerial beyond math. The minimum math requirements were adjusted to follow those of theCOE while the upper math limit was set to 50 points above the minimum. However, in 2010 themaximum SATM/ACTM requirement was lifted to allow students with higher scores to benefitfrom LEEP as in the Challenge Program at Georgia Tech.This study reviews four cohorts of freshmen students who participated in LEEP between 2007and 2010. The assessment includes data for each cohort: demographics, SATM scores, and preand post evaluations to measure academic progress and attitudes at the start and conclusion ofthe summer program. In addition, we present data on the academic performance of the LEEPparticipants in their freshman fall semester as compared to comparison groups. Each comparisongroup consisted of students with similar backgrounds in terms of SATM scores, ethnicity andgender. The freshman fall semester data includes math grades and persistence in the COE foreach LEEP cohort and its corresponding comparison group. The overarching goal of this paper isto share with the engineering community the results of LEEP (see Figures) and its positiveimpact on persistence and success of engineering students.Figures. LEEP 2010 participants’ ethnicity and their pre and post Math Assessment Test scores.(The Math Assessment Test was designed by the Department of Mathematics, Texas A&MUniversity, and is used to help freshman students to decide which math course they should takein the fall semester.) LEEP 2010 Demographics Other 9% Black 23% Hispanic 32% White 32% Asian 4% LEEP 2010 Math Assessment Test (Pre - LEEP) 5% 5% 23% 15-18 19-22 41% 23-26 27% 27-30 30-33 LEEP 2010 Math Assessment Test (Post LEEP) 5% 5% 9% 23% 15-18 19-22 23-26 59% 27-30 30-33

Hodge, J. Q., & Hobson, M., & Yalvac, B., & Lagoudas, M. Z., & Froyd, J. E., & Ostrovskaya, N., & Erukhimova, T., & Malave, C. O., & Bassichis, W. H. (2011, June), Undergraduate Academic Experience for First-Year Engineering Students Through a Summer Bridge Program Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--18700

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015