First Year Engineering Education

The first year of engineering is one of the most critical components of undergraduate curriculum development. The need to foster independent and creative thinking for solving design problems results in the use of teaching methodologies that may be unfamiliar to first year students. In this crucial year, most students find it hard to manage the unexpected change in level of difficulty and pace in subjects such as math, chemistry, and physics. The confusion that is the result of the student"s unanticipated difficulty in engineering, math, and science courses and the uncertainty about the major they wish to embark influences the retention rates experienced by engineering programs. Programs have acknowledged that the students entering engineering come from many different learning backgrounds. It is an ongoing challenge to develop introductory engineering courses that not only meet the needs of the university but also take into consideration the educational background and diversity of students. Many engineering programs have implemented courses that take into consideration the various types of students that they encounter in order to improve the learning process for first year students. These courses provide basic and informative steps and processes for students to assist them in the transition from the high school studying mindset to a college one. This paper examines a course that promotes early and informed student decision regarding their declared majors, brings real world engineering problems into the classroom, and anchors the curriculum in the context of engineering problem solving. To achieve these goals, the paper describes instructional techniques that transform the pre-college uses of math and science as systematic observations of natural phenomena to instruments for engineering design. Finally, this paper will discuss advising techniques, learning communities, motivation of students, and methods to address low retention rates so that other universities may consider incorporating similar courses into their programs.