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Session 2630

Transferring the Knowledge in a Bridge Program: Engineering Students Become Coaches

Maria A. Reyes, Mary Ann McCartney, Mary R. Anderson-Rowland Arizona State University

Abstract A unique, very successful summer bridge program was held for incoming underrepresented minority freshman and transfer engineering students at Arizona State University (ASU) during the summer of 1996. The Minority Engineering Program (MEP) Summer Bridge Program was a two week residential program designed to ensure academic success for the 44 student participants. The program was supported by a grant from the Coalition to Increase Minority Degrees and ASU’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS).

Unlike typical Bridge Programs taught by faculty and staff, the curriculum for this program was delivered by undergraduate engineering students. Three students, two women and one man, formed “Dream Team I” for the curriculum development and delivery for each day from 8:00 am to 5:00 p.m., when the dinner hour began. The evening hour activities from 6:00 p.m. until midnight were developed and supervised by “Dream Team II”, composed of four additional undergraduate students, three males and one female, who were selected from the three underrepresented minority societies, AISES, NSBE and SHPE.

The program content was developed by both teams, with the support of the Director and the Program Coordinator of the CEAS Minority Engineering Program (MEP) and a faculty member. In particular, the curriculum was designed by Dream Team I in consultation with a CEAS Associate Professor. The coach professor met with the students on several occasions to plan the program, made himself available as a consulting coach during the first week of the program, and allowed the students full autonomy over the instruction during the second week.

The curriculum team determined that the students would be teamed to develop a Web Page to be presented at the conclusion of the program. After each module, the curriculum team reconvened to discuss progress and to make modifications for the following sessions. At their own initiative, each day, the two dream teams met during dinner in a transition meeting to evaluate student progress in the program and to better plan for the evening’s activities.

The participants related very well to instructor “peers”. The instructors had credibility since they had been through the same type of curriculum. Student evaluations of the program were extremely positive with particularly high points for the instruction portion of the Web Page development. Although the student instructors taught teaming, at the same time, they were forced to learn a lot about teaming and teaching. They had several conflicts to resolve among

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McCartney, M. A., & Reyes, M. A., & Anderson-Rowland, M. (1997, June), Transferring The Knowledge In A Bridge Program: Engineering Students Become Coaches Paper presented at 1997 Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 10.18260/1-2--6842