Session 2c4 Metamorphosis: Freshman to Successful Student James G. Ladesic, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, Aerospace Engineering, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Catherine A. McClellan, M.Ed., Mathematics Coordinator, Student Success Center, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Abstract Background A majority of incoming freshmen are ill-equipped for the The preparedness of today’s aerospace engineering col- level of academic achievement expected of them by col- lege freshmen is less than that of students from previous lege faculty. A philosophy is forming among the faculty decades while the amount of material that is included in the involved in AElOl that the first semester of the fresh- topics representing the engineering bachelor-level degree man year should be dedicated, in a focused and or- has significantly increased. New faculty hiring in engineer- chestrated way across all freshmen courses, to teaching ing colleges across the nation has slowed in recent time, freshmen first how to be successful students, with the re- a result that reflects both industry and governmental pro- mainder of their college program concentrated on their gram trends, leaving most mathematics, physical sciences education and the development of a lifetime of leam- and engineering departments with a more mature aggre- ing. gate population. Often these faculty teach freshmen level AElOl, a course originally intended to introduce fresh- courses where the non-success rate (grades of F, D, With- men Aerospace Engineering students to topics of their drawal, Incomplete or Audit) can be as high as 55%. As program and to elements of their chosen profession, has a rule, these faculty do not consider topics that address evolved into an ensemble of activities, actions, plans and remedies for the students physical and emotional adjust- intrusive interventions into the college freshmen’s lije. At- ments to the college environment or the lack of student tempts to help entering freshmen adjust to college life have skill preparedness appropriate material to include as part of uncovered some surprising insights into multijariousprob- their technical courses, relying instead on courses in the hu- lems today’s freshmen ofen encountex They have produced manities and on university counseling personnel or dean’s a preliminary diagnosis of a major problem many of the assistants to address such troubles. The net outcome has students have, and have had unexpected byproducts in syn- been a substantial misunderstanding on the part of the fac- thesizing teaching effectiveness discussions across previous ulty as to why students fail to perform in their classes and departmental barriers and in reducing parochial interests. an associated decrease in freshmen success. The net effect has faculty pro-actively working as a team Historically there has been consistent agreement to find new solutions to an old problem: changing fresh- among educators and employers that most high school ed- men into successful students. The scope of this introductory ucation is deficient in preparing individuals for college life course has changed in many aspects, from introducingfun- and for jobs [ 1, 21. Today the situation seems to be at an damental topics to dealing with the deaths of loved ones all time low. In an attempt to compensate for national and in the students’ lives, from classical college lectures to intemational variations in high school course content, indi- group discussions of personal problems and from taking vidual grades from different teachers and interpretations of class attendance to physically tracking down absent stu- SAT scores, colleges have adopted the use of placement ex- dents in order to determine the causes of their absence. ams as popular methods for evaluating freshmen students. Involvement in the program has increased faculty aware- These have become the primary instruments employed in ness of a host of previously unrecognized obstacles in the determining the “proper entry level placement” for English, freshman yeal; and hopefully started faculty on the track physical sciences and mathematics. These exams may be to getting freshmen past them and on to academic suc- standardized or may be authored within the institution. We cess. have used both at ERAU and have had similar results. */.*p,, 1995 Frontiers in Education Conference I E 0-7803-3022-601995 IEEE 5, “4°C ql$ 2c4.9 E U. Evidence indicates that placing entry level students with deficient study habits and poor time management skills in any college course, regardless of previous exposure to the material, has contributed very little toward bolster- thorough ing their success rate. As an example (Figure l), screening by way of the placement exam in mathematics at ERAU frequently has placed students with good grades in high school courses like pre-calculus and advanced al- gebra in our MA140 “College Algebra”. The non-success rate of these students, who some say are evidently under- challenged, has been approximately 548, on par with those who were placed in these same courses without similar high school preparation or who were repeating the course or even those who had taken remedial courses at a lower level prior to taking the course. Although the percentage of non- success changes and varies anywhere from 20% to about 62%, depending on the discipline and course, this trend is preserved. Figure 1 illustrates the non-success trend for MA140 “College Algebra” over a three year period. Figure 2 gives the course placement suggested as a result of the freshmen the placement exam as contrasted with the actual enrollments for the Fall 1994 school term. The reason for the trouble appears to lie in the stu- dent notion that habits they found adequate for their high school successes will be sufficient for meeting college-level expectations. The material they encounter during the hst few weeks of their first term may serve to reinforce such a notion, and the entry level courses they take do little to cul- tivate the skills needed for future college success. Instead, only course topic material is presented from the first day of class onward, some material that may be very familiar to the individual and thus further substantiate the notion that “college will be easy”. Others who struggle from the on- set may have difficulty talking about their troubles or what they do not understand and simply accept their predicament as the “way it should be”. As the course pace builds and becomes more demanding and as the material compresses, both groups find the level of effort required is keener than they anticipated and by the kst exam they are all gener- ally beyond the point of successful achievement due the accumulated knowledge and skills deficit. They are unsu- pervised for the most part and are free to chose where and on what they will spend their time. They are unfamiliar with time management concepts and are apt to be myopic in their planning, if they plan at all, and unfortunately there is little substantive material contained in their courses to help them overcome these deficiencies. To further aggravate this problem, freshmen engineer- ing students, being young and generally impatient, often become disillusioned with the prospect and scope of their education. Not seeing immediate ties between their chosen discipline and the English, science or mathemtics courses they must take, they all too often become bewildered and 60 50 %40 Percent Non-sucessful 30 20 10 CI ” ITerml F91 Is92 b92 b93 $93 494 I Figure 1. MA140 Non-Successful Completions. Placements Beg./Int. Algebra College. AlgebdTrig. Enrollments Calculus 2 For Fall’94 - 117 AE Students, - 124 Enrollements Figure 2. Math Placement Results. give up on such courses, adding to the poor course success rate. The teachers of these courses normally do not share the engineering interest of their students and may not pose motivators, beyond their applications, exercises intended as own personal non-engineering interests. Students simply do not possess the maturity nor the skills to absorb much of the mazerial they are presented with nor do they retain it for later application in their discipline courses. AElOl-The Former Course Structure At Embry-Riddle, AElOl is a two-credit course originally intended to introduce freshmen Aerospace Engineering (AE) students to topics of their program and to elements of their chosen profession with the intention of providing some of the relevant associations. Formerly this included brief discussions about the profession with introductions to aerodynamics, aeronautics, propulsion and structures, along with a simple design project at the end of the term, all in a classical lecture classroom setting. Without excep- tion, it was the design project that the students consistently thething they enjoyed most about the course. Class rated as size would often range up to 65 students. For the most part, AElOl was like so many other courses-a stand-alone, E E I 1995 Frontiers in Education Conference 2c4.10 Figure 3. First Semester Course Relationships Before AEl Ol/Student Success Integration. information-oriented course where, to the faculty, student identities where relegated to a roster list and a group of faces. It was one of five essentially autonomous courses stu- dents took in their first semester, as illustrated in Figure 3. 1 Hour Lecture: Personalized Instruction Personnel Preparation During the Spring term of 1994, in an attempt to improve student success along with retention, AElOl was integrated into the Student Success program, a University-wide fresh- men success program funded by the U.S. Department of Education under a Title I11 Grant for Strengthening Insti- tutions. Five of the senior members from the Aerospace Engineering department, who had been repeatedly recog- nized for their outstanding teaching abilities and the interest Figure 4. The Revised Introduction to Aerospace Engi- they take in their students, were asked to participate in this neering Format. program as faculty mentors. All five took part in a 30-hour training course offered by the Student Success Center that helped them become aware of freshmen student issues and needs. One of the faculty members was assigned academic advising and inter-department coordination responsibilities Lectures, intended to represent the format and envi- for the entire freshmen group, approximately 160 students, ronment common to most college courses, were “chun- in order to maintain continuity. The rest were assigned to a ked” into 10-15 minute mini-presentations where the topics part of the AElOl course delivery and shared some of the were shifted from student success to engineering in order advising duties. In addition, four junior-level undergradu- to maintain interest. The weekly themes on topics such as ate students, who themselves had successfully struggled for note-taking techniques, time management methods, profes- survival as freshmen, were recruited and completed similar sional success, determining the individual student ’s atten- training to function as peer mentors for assigned freshmen tion span, self help, stress management, etc., were used groups. along with engineering conceptual topics like the appli- cation of Newton’s laws to a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) Course Reorganization rocket. To act as a catalyst in the process, two “freshmen design projects” that were tackled by precept teams were The AElOl course was re-organized into two parts: a used to launch engineering discussions and to control and weekly one hour group for 40 to 50 students which would coordinate the direction of the many smaller precept meet- be taught in a lecture format by one of the faculty mentors ings; one using an SSTO rocket and the other a simplified and an array of smaller weekly “precept” groups consisting airplane preliminary design. Theories related to the projects of no more than 15 students with one of the other faculty were the origins of the topics used in the lectures. Every mentors in charge. A peer mentor was assigned to each attempt was made to associate these project topics to the precept and also attended one of the lectures each week. appropriate basic science or math topic the students would A schematic of this concept is illustrated in Figure 4. Each be experiencing in their other courses. The lectures were week the topic of the lecture discussion centered on a com- used to introduce concepts supportive of the design projects mon theme that would be explored, exercised and discussed and to give the students an interactive opportunity to de- in some detail in the precept according to the common in- velop their note-taking skills, quiz-taking skills and to work terests of the faculty mentor, peer mentor and the student on improving their attention span within a lecture format group. period of 50 minutes. .:,ma’, ,.”D %,*O!p$ 1995 Frontiers in Education Conference E I 24.1 1 E E I.* Figure 5. AEI 01 Organization For Coonlinating and Monitoring Freshman Courses. Coordination and Monitoring In order to coordinate the activities between lectures and precepts and also to track student progress in other courses, weekly monitoring sessions were conducted with represen- tatives from the graphical communication courses, math courses, physics courses (It is planned to also include the freshman English courses in the future.) and all of the in- volved AE faculty and peer mentors. The interactive asso- ciation of this effort is illustrated in Figure 5. The subjects of discussion focused on student performance, attendance and problems. In the beginning there surfaced, from time to time, a mild hostility between faculty members from dif- ferent departments, which apparently stemmed from tradi- tional parochial departmental interests anddominion issues. As the effort matured such hostility dissolved and genuine cooperation between department representatives was ob- served. Action items were assigned to the appropriate indi- vidual for follow up for each critical assessment made. The scope of the AElOl introductorycourse was adjusted to ac- commodate or react to any need that was identified. Recog- nition of student problems covered a wide range of involve ment, mentoring, counseling and referral. Cases ranged from the deaths of loved ones, to problems stemming from attention deficits in classical lecture situations, to broken ro- mances and confidential discussions of individual student personal problems. Sometimes the problem was repeated absences and it became necessary to dispatch a peer men- tor or faculty member to physically track down the students involved in order to determine the causes for their absences. First Semester Redesign The collective results of all these activities produced a restructuring of the entire freshman first semester. Dis- cussions from the Monitoring Sessions led the Physical Sciences Department, in cooperation with the Department of Mathematics, to propose converting its two course, ten credit hour engineering physics sequence into two three- hour and one four-hour course. The first three-hour course designed to be topically harmonious with the first has been semester calculus course, providing supportivephysical ex- amples and applications of differential calculus in parallel with the calculus course. The first course of this new physics sequence also replaces a five credit chemistry course, a course where the non-success rate has been as great as 50% and the chemistry course will be moved into the third term where boththe student maturity and the topical relationship with other courses is more logical. The rationale for moving the chemistry forward in the curriculum and replacing it with the three-hour physics course is based on the fact that the majority of the AE fresh- men traditionally report a sincere dislike for chemistry and, from observations made, the majority of the same students are motivated by the application of mathematics to physical problems more so than from the pure elegance of mathe- matical closure. The close association of the material of the physics course with the topics of the math course should understanding and use of the aid in developing the students’ calculus. The graphical communications course replaces classical graphics and is designed to help students visual- ize, learn to sketch artistically, to aid them in understanding free body diagrams in physics, and to learn to communicate throughpictures they draw, all skills truly needed by today’s typical engineering student. It is hoped that the immediate reinforcement built from the math-physics couple will be further bolstered by applications in -101 design projects and the use of graphics throughout will prove to be syner- gistic, enabling students to retain more of the fundamental principles they will need in later courses. I E E E 1995 Frontiers in Education Conference 2c4.12 Figure 6. First Semester Course Relationsips After AEIOI/Student Success Integration. An unexpected result of all this has been a demon- stration of how faculty from different disciplines and de- partments can overcome departmental barriers on issues of domain and pro-actively interact as a team to develop new solutions to old problems: changing freshmen into success- ful students. Figure 6 illustrates the fundamental changes an the inter-relationships between the new first semester courses as they transpired from this exercise. all educational objectives and intellectual development of the group to more effectively prepare them for a lifetime of learning. The engineering freshmen year must be de- signed to compensate for lack of student preparedness from high schools until the high schools themselves begin to ef- fectively address the problem. The freshman experience should ramp the individual student skills upward, in the direction of faculty expectations. To this extent this ex- perience must still address the classical fundamentals in English, mathematics and the physical sciences but, if in- creases in the percentage of students that successfully com- plete an engineering program are sought, then it must also include: Motivational activities for students to demonstrate the personal benefits of goal setting and & goal attainment. These should be coupled with methods for prioritizing the students activities. Units that introduce students to the concepts of time management along with a demonstration of the tech- niques used in planning and scheduling processes to the extent that students are actively involved in process and their progress is accordingly monitored. Discussions on learning and teaching styles they are likely to encounter to help students understand the is- sues of both. Exercises to develop note-taking, test-taking and study skills during this transition period with illustrations of how effective these skills can be to encourage students to form habits necessary for their success. Young students clearly need to feel they are a part of something, so it makes unequivocal sense to introduce them to their chosen discipline, to familiarize them to ac- tivities that provide opportunities for professional growth, and to involve them in constructive extra-curricular activ- ities that will apply to and strengthen their resumes upon graduation. The Aerospace Engineering faculty that were involved in the program described have increased their awareness of a host of previously unrecognized problems and obstacles students encounter in their freshman year. Working individually, faculty from other departments (En- glish, Math and Physics), while familiar of many of these student problems because of their long time association with the freshmen courses, have had only limited suc- cesses. The combined awareness and efforts of this collec- tive faculty group have yielded a pedagogical environment where students are improving their academic performance in the freshman year. It is hoped that such awareness and continued cooperation will propagate throughout the fac- ulty ranks, getting all freshmen on track to academic suc- cess. E Results and Conclusion Results of the first year experiment with just AElOl and the math and physics monitoring were encouraging. The results of the fall 1994 physics will be used as a baseline measure, as the AE freshmen did not previously take their first physics course until after the first calculus course, nor- mally in the second or thirdsemester. The success rate in the first semester calculus course was 62.34%, a slight decrease from the previous three years' average of 63.06%, a value not too surprising owing to major adjustments in material delivery that were needed because of the math and physics co-requsite and the newness of the program. The bright note appeared in the percent of students who, in spite of what grades they had received, decided not to quit but continue their engineering program studies. The percent of students enrolled in the AE program that did not return to ERAU after their first semester drop to 5.6%, i.e. one half, of what it had been in previous years. A positive sign of the impact of the program is that a significant increase in overall fresh- men grade point average was detected, measured against freshmen grades (The the previous three fall semesters AE statistical index of significance being at 99.5% or alpha = 0.005). Many of the faculty who have been involved in this AElOl experiment are in agreement with a pedagogical model that would focus the first semester and perhaps even the entire first college year, in an orchestrated way across all courses, to teach freshmen first how to be suc- cessful as students before attempting to saturate them with concepts, laws and fundamentals. The remainder of the students' college program could then be progressively in- tensified in the specific discipline, attaining better over- **\\Lb*z,, 1995 Frontiers in Education Conference ma;.: ;'OH * 2c4.13 Q%,,,y*0\"3 I E E References [l] Gardner, J. N., Jewler, A. J., “Your College Success- Strategies for Success,”SecondEdition, & Wadsworth Pub- lishing Co., 10 Davis Drive, Belmont, CA, 1995. B. L., Strommer, D. W., “Teaching College Fresh- [2] Erickson, men,” Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 & Sansome St, San Francisco, CA, 1991. .?,no, ,$”’>,, I E %,*Iqvpj 1995 Frontiers in Education Conference 2c4.14 E %, ,Io*