Fawole, E., & Prado, G., & Ristenpart, W., & White, J. (2023, June), Impact of "The Design of Coffee," A General Education Chemical Engineering Course, on Students’ Decisions to Major in STEM Disciplines  Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43461

\bibitem{asee_peer_43461}
  Fawole, E., \& Prado, G., \& Ristenpart, W., \& White, J. (2023, June), \emph{Impact of "The Design of Coffee," A General Education Chemical Engineering Course, on Students’ Decisions to Major in STEM Disciplines}
  Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland.
  10.18260/1-2--43461

Esohe Fawole, Glaucia Prado, William Ristenpart, and Jason White.  "Impact of "The Design of Coffee," A General Education Chemical Engineering Course, on Students’ Decisions to Major in STEM Disciplines".  2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland, 2023, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2023.  https://peer.asee.org/43461 Internet.  07 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_43461}
  Esohe Fawole, Glaucia Prado, William Ristenpart, and Jason White.
  "Impact of "The Design of Coffee," A General Education Chemical Engineering Course, on Students’ Decisions to Major in STEM Disciplines".
  \emph{2023 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland, 2023, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2023.
  https://peer.asee.org/43461 Internet.  07 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_43461
author = "Esohe Fawole, Glaucia Prado, William Ristenpart, and Jason White"
title = "Impact of "The Design of Coffee," A General Education Chemical Engineering Course, on Students’ Decisions to Major in STEM Disciplines"
booktitle = "2023 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2023"
month = "June"
address = "Baltimore , Maryland"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/43461}
number = {10.18260/1-2--43461}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - 
The Design of Coffee is a popular general education course offered by the Department of Chemical Engineering at THE INSTITUTION that uses the roasting and brewing of coffee to teach chemical engineering principles to a broad audience. It was recently voted as the number one course by students in the "Best of CITY" yearly contest, placing ahead of other popular general education courses at THE INSTITUTION. Freshman design courses, like The Design of Coffee, are used to recruit and retain diverse students in STEM majors. These courses are intended to help students discover science and engineering majors as possible choices, especially among student populations who are unfamiliar with these majors. 

Survey data have suggested that there have been students who have switched into the chemical engineering major at THE INSTITUTION because of this course. In this study, the effects of this course on freshman “non-STEM majors” course selection behaviors and decisions to change majors were investigated. It was hypothesized that non-STEM students taking The Design of Coffee would be more likely to change into STEM majors non-STEM students who did not take this course due to the its experiential and approachable nature. Additionally, students who switched into chemical engineering after taking The Design of Coffee were identified and interviewed in order to probe particular aspects of the course that were influential in their decision to change majors.

In order to evaluate the hypothesis, data was collected from the transcripts of students who entered THE INSTITUTION in Fall 2013 or later (so that they would have had a chance to take the coffee course), have since graduated, were enrolled in a non-STEM degree program upon admission, and who took a STEM course towards their general education topical breadth requirement during their first year. Transcripts from individuals who did not meet these criteria were excluded from the study.
 
Students whose transcripts met the above criteria were divided into two groups: 1) Students who took a “core” STEM course (general chemistry or biology) during their first year before or while taking the coffee course or another comparable introductory food science related STEM course, and 2) students who did not take any core STEM courses during their first year. The purpose was to differentiate between students whose coursework indicated they may be inclined to pursue a STEM degree from those who appeared to not be inclined to take STEM courses or enter a STEM degree program. 

For each of these groups, the number of students who graduated with a STEM degree were tabulated for students who took the coffee course vs. students who took a comparable introductory food science related STEM course. Additionally, the impact of remote instruction was investigated by looking both at students who graduated before pandemic-related remote instruction began and those who were impacted. The statistical significance of the variation in type of bachelor's degree earned across the cohorts was determined using chi-squared tests with  = 0.05. 

At least 12 students were found have changed their major into chemical or biochemical engineering after taking The Design of Coffee and have since graduated. Those that we had the opportunity to interview spoke to the significant impact this course played in changing the trajectory of their academic journey and their career. More broadly speaking, non-STEM freshman students taking this course and had taken or were concurrently enrolled in a “core” STEM course were significantly more likely to change into and graduate in STEM majors as compared to students taking a comparable introductory food science course prior to pandemic-initiated remote instruction beginning in Spring 2020 (58.1% vs. 39.3%, p = 0.042). While the remote instruction period eroded this impact, it is our hope and expectation that as most classes at THE INSTITUTION have returned to in-person instruction, students taking The Design of Coffee will once again be motivated to change into and persist in STEM majors, adding much needed talent to the pool of perspective scientists and engineers.

AU  - Esohe Fawole
AU  - Glaucia Prado
AU  - William Ristenpart
AU  - Jason White
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Impact of "The Design of Coffee," A General Education Chemical Engineering Course, on Students’ Decisions to Major in STEM Disciplines
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/43461
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--43461
ER  -