Darbeheshti, M., & Edmonds, D. R. (2018, June), A Creative First-year Program to Improve the Student Retention in Engineering  Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--29672

\bibitem{asee_peer_29672}
  Darbeheshti, M., \& Edmonds, D. R. (2018, June), \emph{A Creative First-year Program to Improve the Student Retention in Engineering}
  Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah.
  10.18260/1-2--29672

Maryam Darbeheshti and Dakota Ryan Edmonds.  "A Creative First-year Program to Improve the Student Retention in Engineering".  2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah, 2018, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2018.  https://peer.asee.org/29672 Internet.  14 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_29672}
  Maryam Darbeheshti and Dakota Ryan Edmonds.
  "A Creative First-year Program to Improve the Student Retention in Engineering".
  \emph{2018 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah, 2018, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2018.
  https://peer.asee.org/29672 Internet.  14 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_29672
author = "Maryam Darbeheshti and Dakota Ryan Edmonds"
title = "A Creative First-year Program to Improve the Student Retention in Engineering"
booktitle = "2018 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition "
year = "2018"
month = "June"
address = "Salt Lake City, Utah"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/29672}
number = {10.18260/1-2--29672}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - ABSTRACT:

In this paper, we study the effect of a new first-year program on the student retention in engineering. First-year engineering students face unique challenges attending a university. Due to these challenges many of them leave the program after one year. Research shows that the drop out rate among first year students is the highest in engineering programs. With the main goal of increased retention, it is important to understand the reasons engineering students are not completing their programs. This is a rising concern in all Engineering programs across the nation. 
The lack of hands-on, team-based experiences in a typical first-year engineering curriculum is one of the main reasons students leave the program after completing their first year. It is difficult for the first-year students to connect abstract math and science with engineering. Therefore, we need a first-year engineering curriculum that can fill the gap between the fundamentals of the abstract math and physics and the application of those fundamentals in solving engineering problems. 
We have created a first-year learning community as a solution to low retention rate in engineering. In this learning community, the first-year students take the following courses together:
•	 An interdisciplinary freshman experiences course, in which we teach the concept of “Design-Build-Test-Improve-Collaborate” to the students. The students take the ownership of their group projects while working together and building friendships that last for a long time. 
•	An appropriate Math course (Calculus or Pre-Calculus), which is specifically designed to address the applications of math in engineering.
•	An English composition class, which focuses on “Writing in Engineering”.

The main goal of this research is to improve the retention rate of first-year engineering students, by developing a first-year engineering curriculum that can provide additional support and unique learning opportunities in students’ entry-level classes.  

AU  - Maryam Darbeheshti
AU  - Dakota Ryan Edmonds
CY  - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA  - 2018/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A Creative First-year Program to Improve the Student Retention in Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/29672
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--29672
ER  -