14th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience (FYEE) Conference
University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee
July 30, 2023
July 30, 2023
August 1, 2023
5
10.18260/1-2--44854
https://peer.asee.org/44854
145
Erin is a Research Assistant Professor and Lecturer in the Engineering Fundamentals Program at the University of Tennessee. She completed a postdoctoral/ lecturer position split between the General Engineering program and the Engineering & Science Education Department and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Clemson University. Erin’s research interests include preparing students for their sophomore year, minority student engineering identity development, and providing mentoring relationships to help foster student growth and success.
Darren Maczka is a Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor in the Engineering Fundamentals program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He received his PhD in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech.
At our University, students that were not calculus ready did not enter into an introductory engineering course when they started as first-year students. Due to this, student contact with engineering faculty was limited and we observed that only 60% of these students ever made it to their first engineering course. With an increased focus at the University level on student success and well-being, our first-year program created a two-course sequence that incorporated the first semester engineering course along with content related to student success and well-being to engage non-calculus ready students in their first year. The course meets five days a week with three 50-minute active learning sessions and two 75-minute lab sessions each week. As an instructional team, we have dedicated time to incorporate activities related to topics such as study skills, time management, well-being, and resources for mental health. For each of these topics we invite campus partners to talk about each topic and present the resources available to the students. Feedback from the students on incorporating these topics into the class has generally been positive. To better understand the integration of success and well-being into the course and its effects on students’ problem-solving self-efficacy, our research team developed a mixed methods study utilizing quantitative surveys on problem-solving self-efficacy, stress management, and well-being. The research team will be conducting classroom observations and focus groups to better understand trends from the quantitative data. We are currently in our first round of data collection and plan to conduct a preliminary analysis of the quantitative survey results and classroom observations upon the completion of the Spring semester. From this analysis we will identify participants for focus groups.
McCave, E. J., & Maczka, D. K. (2023, July), WIP: A focus on well-being to increase non-calculus ready students' problem-solving self-efficacy Paper presented at 14th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience (FYEE) Conference, University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--44854
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