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Evaluating Student Success in a Pre-college General Engineering Program

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

Pre-college Engineering Education Division Technical Session 15

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education

Page Count

16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34596

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/34596

Download Count

520

Paper Authors

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Duncan Davis Northeastern University

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Duncan Davis is an Assistant Teaching Professor in First Year Engineering. His research focuses on using gamification to convey course content in first year classes. Mostly recently, he has implemented a series of escape room projects to teach engineering to first year students through the process of designing, prototyping, and building these play experiences.

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Matthew Burns

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John Sangster P.E. Northeastern University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-6165-1358

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Dr. Sangster is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the First Year Engineering program at Northeastern University. Prior to joining Northeastern in 2018, he served for three years as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska. He received his Ph.D. in 2015 from Virginia Tech in Civil Engineering with a focus on Transportation.

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Constantine Mukasa Northeastern University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-1851-8073

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Constantine Mukasa received a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA in 2007, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA, in 2013 and 2017, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. His research interests include Engineering Education, Wireless Communications, satellite and mobile communication Systems, vehicular networks, wireless network connectivity, and interference modeling.

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Brian Patrick O'Connell Northeastern University

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Dr. O'Connell is an assistant teaching professor in the First-Year Engineering group at Northeastern University. His undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering came from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2006. He then worked for Kollmorgen Electro/Optical as a mechanical engineer developing periscopes and optronic masts. In 2011, he returned to academia at Tufts University, earning his MS and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering for his work with low-cost educational technologies and his development and use of technologies to aid usage tracking in makerspaces to examine them as interactive learning environments.

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Elizabeth Quinn Northeastern University

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Liz Quinn is the Director of Pre-College Programs at Northeastern University. Liz has worked in administration at Northeastern since 2008 and previously worked in international programs. Liz has a M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University and a B.A. from the University of Rochester.

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Alice Smith

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Kathryn Schulte Grahame Northeastern University

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Dr. Kathryn Schulte Grahame is an Associate Teaching Professor at Northeastern University and a member of the first-year engineering team. The focus of this team is on providing a consistent, comprehensive, and constructive educational experience that endorses the student-centered, professional and practice-oriented mission of Northeastern University.
She teaches the Cornerstone of Engineering courses to first-year students as well as courses within the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. She is a recent recipient of the Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Students Award and is interested in research that compliments and informs her teaching.

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Abstract

This Evaluation paper will discuss the intended and unintended outcomes of a pre-college general engineering program designed for high school students. These include effects on student interest in engineering, success in open-ended engineering projects, and the likelihood to apply to Northeastern University. The pre-college programs at this university are two-week residential programs that expose students to a variety of subject matter, including engineering, entrepreneurship, computer science, and design. The engineering program aims to introduce students to several engineering disciplines, the engineering design process, and common tools used in engineering. Students learn Arduino hardware, fabrication techniques including 3D printing and laser cutting, computer-aided design (CAD), and innovative project design through the lens of sustainability, robotics, manufacturing, and product design. Students are also exposed to discipline-specific engineering design work, field trips to industrial partners, and expert panels that showcase various engineering fields.

Using student surveys and testimonials, we gathered voluntary feedback from the participants willing to discuss their experience in the program. The engineering program compares favorably to other similar programs in the university and received high marks from students in the following categories:

1) Enjoyment and recommendation of this program to other students 2) Likelihood to apply to Northeastern University 3) The academic rigor of this program 4) Quality of professors, staff, and teaching assistants

Davis, D., & Burns, M., & Sangster, J., & Mukasa, C., & O'Connell, B. P., & Quinn, E., & Smith, A., & Schulte Grahame, K. (2020, June), Evaluating Student Success in a Pre-college General Engineering Program Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34596

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