Amy Monte

A student mentoring and development program for underrepresented groups in engineering

The graduate, undergraduate initiative for development and enhancement (GUIDE) program creates a supportive environment for first year engineering students from underrepresented groups. This 4 year NSF program has just completed its second year of funding. GUIDE provides first year students with student mentors, financial assistance and faculty advisors to assist them with the transition to university life. In addition, the GUIDE scholars attend engineering seminars and career workshops. This paper describes the GUIDE program and the skills students gain from participating in the program. It also outlines the logistics involved in a student mentoring program that is coupled with seminars and workshops.

Work in progress - getting off the high horse, student over confidence with computational tools

Michigan Technological University is one of the nationpsilas largest engineering schools (900+ first year students) and houses a large common first year engineering curriculum. The goal of this curriculum is to introduce many of the fundamental components of engineering. One of these goals is the use of modern computational and programming tools to solve engineering problems. This paper focuses on the studentspsila confidence with the use of computational tools. On the first day of class in the Fall of 2007, students were surveyed on their proficiency with the use of spreadsheets. Students self reported levels of proficiency from expert to no experience. Students were then asked a simple question regarding a spreadsheet cell equation. Only twenty percent of the students selected the correct answer, even though eighty percent ranked themselves as either: familiar, proficient, or expert spreadsheet users. Even more troubling is the fact that only one third of the self reported expert users selected the correct answer. A gender bias was noted, women under estimated their skills, while the opposite occurred for men. This study is significant because it lays the groundwork for creating an assessment plan to identify the preparedness of incoming students and skill at the end of the course.

Work in progress — What are you thinking? Over confidence in first year students

Michigan Technological University is one of the nations largest engineering schools (900+ first year students) and houses a large common first year engineering curriculum. The purpose of this curriculum is to introduce many of the fundamental components of engineering. One of these components is the use of modern computational and programming tools to solve engineering problems. This paper continues a long-term study that began in 2007 and focuses on student confidence with the use of computational tools. On the first day of class, students were surveyed on their proficiency with the use of spreadsheets. Students self reported levels of proficiency from expert to no experience. Students were then asked a simple question regarding a spreadsheet cell equation. Over three years only 16% of the students were correct, while 90% self ranked as familiar or better. A gender bias was noted as women under estimated their skills while men overestimated their own abilities. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge of gender confidence gaps. Additionally, it lays the groundwork for creating an assessment plan to identify the preparedness of incoming students and measure their skill at the end of the course.