Mazzaro, G. J., & Skenes, K., & Wood, T. A. (2023, March), A Review of Multi-Disciplinary Introduction-to-Engineering Courses and Unified-First-Year Engineering Programs  Paper presented at ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--44980

\bibitem{asee_peer_44980}
  Mazzaro, G. J., \& Skenes, K., \& Wood, T. A. (2023, March), \emph{A Review of Multi-Disciplinary Introduction-to-Engineering Courses and Unified-First-Year Engineering Programs}
  Paper presented at ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia.
  10.18260/1-2--44980

Gregory J. Mazzaro, Kevin Skenes, and Timothy Aaron Wood P.E..  "A Review of Multi-Disciplinary Introduction-to-Engineering Courses and Unified-First-Year Engineering Programs".  ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia, 2023, March.  ASEE Conferences, 2023.  https://peer.asee.org/44980 Internet.  01 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_44980}
  Gregory J. Mazzaro, Kevin Skenes, and Timothy Aaron Wood P.E..
  "A Review of Multi-Disciplinary Introduction-to-Engineering Courses and Unified-First-Year Engineering Programs".
  \emph{ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia, 2023, March}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2023.
  https://peer.asee.org/44980 Internet.  01 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_44980
author = "Gregory J. Mazzaro, Kevin Skenes, and Timothy Aaron Wood P.E."
title = "A Review of Multi-Disciplinary Introduction-to-Engineering Courses and Unified-First-Year Engineering Programs"
booktitle = "ASEE Southeast Section Conference"
year = "2023"
month = "March"
address = "Arlington, Virginia"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/44980}
number = {10.18260/1-2--44980}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -      Incoming freshmen engineering students often select their discipline without significant understanding of the implications for future studies and career opportunities.  Without exposure to multiple disciplines, students can find themselves frustrated as they discover that their chosen major is not as rewarding or is not providing career opportunities as expected.  Currently, at the authors’ institution, all freshmen complete a discipline-specific introduction-to-engineering course.  To better align students’ expectations with their choice-of-major, the authors will develop a common first-semester engineering course to introduce freshmen to all engineering opportunities while it is still possible for them to change majors and maintain their original graduation timeline.
     Many institutions have maintained an isolation between engineering majors with zero overlap between curricula.  Some institutions have implemented a common first year which includes an introduction-to-engineering and problem-solving course in the Fall followed by a computer-aided problem-solving course in the Spring.  Still other schools split this difference; they offer a common Fall-semester introduction or a common Spring-semester computer-based problem-solving course.  The authors’ institution will offer a (new) non-discipline-specific introduction in the Fall; each discipline will build on this introduction in the Spring with its own (existing) computer-applications course.
     For a common freshman course to be implemented, a careful balance must be struck between materials which are not discipline-specific (and tend to lack depth) vs. materials which are specific to individual disciplines (and allow for deeper study of a particular major).  Some schools have implemented clever active-learning techniques and service-learning opportunities into their freshman-intro courses to foster interest, build a sense of identity amongst aspiring engineers, and increase student retention.  In this paper, the authors provide an extensive review of introduction-to-engineering courses and unified-first-year engineering programs across the United States.  A summary of lessons learned will guide development of an introductory course at the authors’ home institution and position it as the cornerstone of a unified all-engineering-major freshman year.
AU  - Gregory J. Mazzaro
AU  - Kevin Skenes
AU  - Timothy Aaron Wood P.E.
CY  - Arlington, Virginia
DA  - 2023/03/12
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A Review of Multi-Disciplinary Introduction-to-Engineering Courses and Unified-First-Year Engineering Programs
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/44980
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--44980
ER  -