Maria A. Reyes

Freshman introductory engineering seminar course: coupled with bridge program equals academic success and retention

Arizona State Universitys (ASU) Office of Minority Engineering Programs (OMEP) has hosted the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) Summer Bridge Program. The purpose of the program is to promote greater awareness of and recruit potential candidates to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at ASU. The program content and curriculum were designed to prepare underrepresented ethnic minority students for success in the College at ASU. The program focused on building community and utilized undergraduate student role models as instructors, while the curriculum focused on engineering design, technical communications, and a design project. Academic scholarships were awarded to all participants based on a team design project competition. The Summer 96 program saw only 12 out of 43 participate. The Summer 97 program participants were required to participate in the course as a stipulation to receive their scholarship. As a result, all 38 participants chose to register for the seminar course or the Foundation Coalition Match program at ASU. The academic success of these students during their first semester is evaluated, compared, and correlated with several measures including (1) a comparative analysis of seminar course success between the students who participated in the bridge program and those who did not; (2) students scores on the university mathematics placement examination and the students class grade earned in their beginning mathematics class; and (3) the students use of the MEP support system (i.e. tutoring program, academic excellence program).

North Americans' Attitudes Toward Illegal Drugs

Public opinion polls conducted from 1969 to 2003 found a variety of opinions on the use, possession, and legalization of marijuana. Public opinion about legalizing marijuana use is increasing, but it is also increasing toward harsher penalties for those who possess a small amount of marijuana. Public opinion regarding the legalization of illegal drugs appears to be influenced by the times. The majority of Americans increasingly believe that the country has made some progress in dealing with the problems of illegal drugs, but Americans are also reporting more difficulty within their families related to marijuana. This article examines trends based in public opinion polls on the use of marijuana in the United States and Canada and discusses the social and political history of marijuana and the biophysical effects, medical uses, definitions, and previous research related to marijuana.

Workshops vs. tutoring: how ASU's minority engineering program is changing the way engineering students learn

For the past five years, the Minority Engineering Program in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU) has channeled retention efforts through their Academic Excellence Program. This program housed two components: peer tutoring and mentoring and group workshops. While both produced successful retention rates among minority students within the College, both students and faculty strongly expressed a need for a more structured anti intensive program to assist engineering students with the more challenging courses. In fall of 2000, ASUs MEP remodeled their efforts at retention and created the Academic Excellence Workshop program. The workshop program replaces tutoring and mentoring programs with weekly workshop sessions. This nontraditional approach to academic support has necessitated a change in paradigm for staff faculty, and students. The response to this change has been promising. This paper discusses the AEW program structure and how the workshop concept has been promoted to students and faculty.

Student success: what factors influence persistence?

Arizona State Universitys (ASU) Office of Minority Engineering Programs (OMEP) has hosted the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) Summer Bridge Program for the past three years. The purpose of the program is to promote greater awareness of and to recruit potential candidates to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at ASU as well as to increase the retention rate of these students. In general, the students who participate in the bridge program and the seminar course do much better that those students who participated in neither. By far, the most successful students are those that also participate in tutoring and an integrated curriculum cluster class program. There are many factors that affect whether a student is successful or not. This paper attempts to discover the factors affecting retention through a series of focus group evaluations of the usefulness of the bridge program or the seminar course.

Engineering recruitment and retention: a successful bridge

Arizona State Universitys (USA) Office of Minority Engineering Programs hosted a very unique Minority Engineering Program Summer Bridge Program to promote greater awareness of and recruit potential candidates to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The program content and curriculum were designed to prepare underrepresented ethnic minority students for educational success. This paper describes the program, the curriculum and the participant evaluations of the program. In addition, the paper discusses the setting for the program in the university and the need for it.

A model for academia, industry, and government collaboration for K-12 outreach

This paper discuss how university faculty and engineering students, the US Federal Highway Association, and the Arizona Department of Transportation employees, and other technical industry members collaborated together to develop an effective program to increase interest in transportation.

A comprehensive programmatic approach to recruitment and retention in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Ensuring a diverse engineering workforce has never bean more important than now as technology impacts every aspect of both global businesses and our personal lives. At the same time general interest in engineering is at a twenty year low. The ability to attract students into technical fields begins very early with collaboration of teachers, counselors, parents, business partners, university faculty and community. Since engineering is not a part of a normal junior high or high school curriculum, special creative efforts need to be made to motivate potential students about the multiple career options they have in technical fields. Students very early on need to see the relationships between the things that interest them and how an engineering career is a vehicle to impact and to improve the future of that interest. The author describes how the Office of Student Affairs for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at Arizona State University (USA) has a three pronged collaborative, sustained program for the recruitment and retention of engineering students that addresses these concerns.

Minority engineering program computer basics with a vision

Basic computer skills are necessary for success in an undergraduate engineering degree program. Students who lack basic computer skills are immediately at risk when entering the university campus. This paper describes a one semester, one unit course that provided basic computer skills to minority engineering students during the Fall semester of 2001. Computer applications and software development were the primary topics covered in the course that are discussed in this paper. In addition, there is a description of the manner in which the course was conducted. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the effort and future directions.

Academic excellence for minority engineering students

The goal of the Office of Minority Engineering Programs (OMEP) at Arizona Stare University (ASU) is to build a climate that develops not only academic excellence, but, also, provide experiences for students that will build self esteem, competence, and flexible and marketable skills that will sustain them through the twenty first century. Comprehensive approaches to the development of engineering strategies are most often created not in isolation, but through collaborative, team building strategies. OMEP has the challenge of preparing students to meet the changing industry climate. Therefore, a program was called for that could reinforce engineering concepts in a team setting to improve academic excellence. Supported by the Foundation Coalition, the OMEP has now begun an Academic Excellence Program that clusters under represented minority (African American Hispanic and Native American) students enrolled in ECE 100, a course designed to teach engineering concepts and computer skills. Non minority students in the course are also invited to participate in these workshops. The students develop their own community of learners and collectively come to conclusions on how to process information. The Academic Excellence Workshops help to move away from traditional tutoring that is often a short term fix. Rather, these sessions enhance the mastery of engineering concepts as opposed to isolated problems. We feel this process prepares students for potential curriculum integration in the future, as well as for team participation in industry.