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Providing Connections Between Lower Tier and Upper Tier Courses at the University

Craig James Gunn Department of Mechanical Engineering Michigan State University East Lansing, MI

Introduction Perhaps one of the most difficult experiences that freshmen and sophomores face in their initial contacts with the university is the issue of connectedness of lower tier courses (freshman/sophomore) with upper level courses (junior/senior.) The general university curriculum requires a broad range of courses that should be completed before a student reaches the junior and senior years. These courses include humanities, composition, social studies, and a complete set of math, physics, and chemistry courses. Problems can arise when students enter classes where no attempt is made to draw distinct connections between what is being done in those early courses and the courses that will come in the major field. Students become concerned when they are told that they are to simply learn the material because it is “good for them” or that is “to be learned for its own sake.”

Vast numbers of students move through the university system accomplishing all that is asked of them, graduating with seeming relative ease; but when discussion takes place, one discovers that there are underlying difficulties in the system. Students are quick to comment off the record on the difficulty of taking courses that fail to draw connections to either the real world or future courses in the student’s major. They find them baffling in many respects until someone makes the effort to draw logical connections between those initial courses in the academic system and the later major driven classes.

The current work in progress involves that body of students who feel that they have an interest in engineering as a career choice. The group consists of any students who have qualms over what they are being required to learn in courses like mathematics, chemistry, physics, or language arts. The projected initial numbers of students impacted could be as many as 3,000 students with as many as 1,500 added to the group each year. Faculty members and students are being surveyed and spoken to concerning the items to be placed in the brochures and on the web.

Current Work An effort is being made at Michigan State University to prepare documentation, both written and web based, to provide younger engineering students with connecting strands between courses taken at the lower tier of study and the upper tier. It is a work in progress; and the details of the project, its current status, and future directions will be explored.

“Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Gunn, C. (2002, June), Providing Connections Between Lower Tier And Upper Tier Courses At The University Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10911