IntroductionThe study examines the impact of targeted educational interventions on the academic success and retention of engineering students identified as high-risk, with a focus on two student groups historically underrepresented in STEM: underrepresented minority (URM) and female students. These interventions included an alternative curriculum pathway, a co-calculus support course, and spatial visualization training. Building on our previous work, we evaluated the outcomes of interventions designed to improve retention and graduation rates among the most academically underprepared students from these groups, who were consequently categorized as high-risk.MethodologyWe analyzed data from 10 student cohorts, covering 5 years before and 5 years after the interventions were implemented. We utilized a two-population proportion test to compare the groups' retention rates, graduation rates, and success in early STEM courses during pre- and post-intervention periods. Additionally, we constructed logistic regression models to identify key factors influencing on-time graduation.ResultsOur results show that the interventions significantly increased both the 4- and 6-year graduation rates for high-risk URM students by nearly 20 percentage points. Although high-risk female students improved retention and graduation rates, these changes were not found to be statistically significant. However, their performance in early foundation STEM courses, particularly Physics I and Calculus I, significantly improved post-intervention.DiscussionLogistic regression models indicated a shift in the significance of the graduation rate predictors post-intervention, demonstrating the efficacy of these tailored strategies. The reduced importance of Physics I grades in predicting on-time graduation during the intervention years suggests a benefit of the alternative curriculum pathway, which decoupled this course from Calculus I for high-risk students. Additionally, the intervention mitigated the previously significant predictor of being non-URM for on-time graduation, indicating a leveling effect for URM students. These findings highlight the potential of customized interventions to enhance the academic outcomes and retention of high-risk students in STEM disciplines.

Introduction Student success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is a national concern. To increase engineering retention and graduation rates at a small private institution, a university council developed a binary classifier to identify high-risk students and proposed interventions that included decoupling first-year Physics and Calculus courses, support in introductory Calculus, and Spatial Visualization (SV) training. This paper aims to validate the binary classifier used to identify the under-prepared students entering their first year and assess the impact of the interventions. We provide a comparative analysis of student success metrics for high-risk engineering students across a decade of cohorts, including 5 years before (2006–2010) and 5 years after (2011–2015) implementation of intentional strategies. Methods We validated the binary classifier using an accuracy measure and Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC). We used the 2-population proportion test to compare STEM retention and 4- and 6-year graduation rates of High-Risk engineering students before and after interventions and compare student performance in early foundation STEM courses across the same time frame. Results The binary classification model identified High-Risk students with an accuracy of 63–70% and an MCC of +0.28 to +0.30. In addition, we found statistically significant improvement (p < 0.001) in the STEM retention rates, 6-year graduation rates, and first part of Physics, Calculus, and Chemistry sequences after the interventions. Discussion The methodology and strategies presented may provide effective guidance for institutions seeking to improve the overall performance of undergraduate students who otherwise might struggle in their first-year engineering curriculum.

Rural economically disadvantaged communities face unique challenges in engaging students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). School district administrators, teachers, and students do not have access to high-quality STEM opportunities compared to urban schools. This article describes a partnership between a small, private STEM university and a network of school districts scattered across the geographically isolated region of upstate New York. The partnership’s primary goal is to support the teaching and learning of STEM. This is achieved through actively engaging a range of university and community stakeholders in STEM enrichment and professional development. Programming includes summer camps and after-school activities, challenges and competitions that focus on inspiring students to pursue STEM careers, undergraduate and graduate student mentors, and a university curriculum designed to prepare teachers to work in high-need school districts. Activities are supported by the university’s Institute for STEM Education, which fosters collaborations for like-minded faculty and campus members to pursue grant opportunities and connect with community members. The paper describes various program components and how they work to support each other, discusses impacts of the program, and describes ways in which elements can be implemented elsewhere.

The COMPASS: CoOrdinated Math-Physics Assessment for Student Success program aims to improve students’ understanding of mathematical concepts using physical applications. COMPASS is a first-year calculus course that combines mathematics concepts with physical applications in an effort to improve student understanding of mathematics using their outstanding physics intuitions. The implementation of the COMPASS program is described briefly in this paper. %The COMPASS program was first launched at Clarkson University during fall semester of academic year 2015-2016. We design and experiment this novel calculus/physics instructional program to understanding whether it is possibly to benefit students in STEM disciplines. In this paper, we compare students’ reports on instructional strategies and beliefs about learning mathematics for COMPASS, COMPASS-eligible and non-COMPASS students during academic year 2017–2018. We track students’ performance in their continuing mathematics courses for the groups from academic year 2015-2016, for which most of the students completed calc 3 and Elementary Differential Equations during academic year 2016-2017. The data we collected shows that students who went through COMPASS program reported positive instructional experiences, increase in interest during their year-long training in COMPASS and they performed well in their continuing mathematics courses, regardless of their initial weaknesses in math prior to attending college. The study is likely to interest a broad group of engineering education researchers and/or practitioners to disseminate knowledge on engineering teaching and learning since mathematics is a common problem throughout engineering education. In addition, even though the improvement of COMPASS students in continuing math courses are not significant, their slightly better performance shows a great improvement in comparison with their low math test scores as high-risk category group students. The COMPASS program may improve instruction through the development of innovative materials and sound instructional designs.

Improving student success rates in introductory calculus and physics courses is critically important for our students’ path in STEM fields. Many of the students who have an intuitive understanding of physics fail calculus and are pushed to delay or drop their majors in technical fields. One way of addressing this issue is by adopting a program that is designed to identify students’ specific needs and provide direct assistance to help the students maximize their potential in STEM fields. At Clarkson University, a specific calculus section, COMPASS: CoOrdinated Math-Physics Assessment for Student Success, is designed to prepare students by introducing mathematical concepts using physical applications. The implementation of the COMPASS program at the institution for the academic years of 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 are described in this paper. This includes basic information on pre-tests, student identification tools, example lectures, and reports on the analysis of the students’ performance and assessment for two academic years. After 2 years of the COMPASS program, we recognize that students paths in STEM education need to be tailored to match their backgrounds and subjects of interest.

Rural, economically disadvantaged communities face a bigger challenge than urban communities in recruiting and retaining high school (HS) students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) because many of these students do not have access to high-quality STEM opportunities. In this article, we describe a mentoring program we developed as part of a larger New York State education grant. This program was implemented in a rural community to connect undergraduate STEM students with HS students to increase HS students’ interest in these fields. In this program, HS students visited colleges, explored their interests in STEM, and learned about opportunities available to them in college and beyond. Here, we share the challenges and the successful strategies in implementing a mentoring program in a rural, economically disadvantaged region. The ideas described in the article were designed so other educators can gain insight on how to set up successful mentoring programs to attract and retain students in the STEM pipeline.

Innovating Engineering Curriculum for First-Year RetentionWhile ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.,) specifically requiresthat engineers “meet a general education component that complements the technical content ofthe curriculum and is consistent with the program and institution objectives,” ABET alsosuggests a particular responsibility for engineers to study the social context of technology. In thespring of 2011, this small, technologically-focused research university introduced a course (onesection only) centered about the complex relationships among engineering, technology, andsociety as the first ‘prong’ of a two-pronged effort to modernize the engineering curriculum; thiseffort was then merged into a university effort to improve retention and engagement. While theprimary goal of this course is the engagement of first-year engineering (FYE) students withengineering faculty and the field of engineering in general, it also provides non-majors withexposure to the engineering profession. The course both satisfies general curriculumrequirements for engineering and non-engineering majors and offers engineering majors earlyexposure to key concepts relevant to several ABET Criteria. The second ‘prong’ of modernizingthe curriculum and improving the retention of FYE students was to move from a completelycommon first year curriculum to a first-year curriculum that offers two paths in order to increasethe chances of student success. The “second” path provides an alternative in the fall semester forselected FYE students not to take Physics 1 in parallel with Calculus 1; instead, studentsidentified through mathematics and physics proficiency test scores are enrolled in the new coursein the fall and Physics 1 in the spring. Beginning this year, the ‘new’ course has been maderequired for all FYE students (i.e. adopted by all engineering departments), and in response,eight closely coordinated sections of the course are being offered each semester with a typicalmakeup of 25 FYE students and 5 non-majors. University retention data show an improvementin the retention rate for FYE students to 93.8% in 2013/2014 from 86.5% in 2010/11. Further, in2013/14, the retention rate for first-year engineering students exceeded the university retentionrate of 92.2%.In the context of “engagement” as much as “retention,” significant changes are being made to the‘new’ course curriculum to increase the active learning opportunities offered to the students aswell as to link the various elements of the course (e.g., class activities, team-based designproject, and summative assessments) to the engineering challenges facing engineers and societytoday. This paper will emphasize innovations being made across the course topics in an effort toprovide the students with the opportunity to apply the book-based course content tocontemporary problems through 1) the careful design of integrated out-of-class assignments andin-class activities that build to 2) creatively-crafted formative and summative assessments.The course begins with an exposure to the history of engineering, an overview of the engineeringdesign process, and an introduction to the challenges facing engineers today (via the NAE GrandChallenges). One of the first course innovations was to link each (necessarily simple) designproject by theme to one of the NAE Grand Challenges (e.g., make solar energy economical) orother significant societal problem. Each semester, multi-disciplinary student design teams areassigned a design project in which they design, build, test, and demonstrate a prototype, thenpresent the process and test results. This segues to the topics of engineering ethics and ethicalproblem solving in the context of engineering decision-making (e.g., applying Codes of Ethicsand ethical theories) through a mix of textbook case studies (e.g., space shuttle Challenger andUnion Carbide, Bhopal, India) and more open-ended real-world problems.The course continues with extensive readings on and discussions of the role of engineering insociety and the challenges of developing and managing modern complex technologies that offerthe potential for both huge benefits to society and considerable, often unpredicted risk (i.e.,technological Faustian Bargain). Frequently, case studies are revisited and viewed from differentperspectives. For example, the Challenger is revisited in the context of both design decisions andthe challenges organizations face in managing modern complex technology; non-textbookexamples also are introduced (e.g., Deepwater Horizon). The impact of nontechnical factors ontechnical decisions, the role and influence of the public on the path of a developing technology,and design approaches for complex technology that minimize the inherent risk (e.g., redesign ofthe CFC industry following discovery of the hole in the ozone layer) also are explored.The objective is to demonstrate that the students are not only meeting expectations for the coursebut also for several key “ABET Criterion 3. Student Outcomes” through the exploration andstudy of real-world engineering and technological problems. The course addresses ABET criteria(c), (d), (f), (g), (h), and (j). Assessment results will be presented for (c), (f), and (j), which areemphasized in the course.References:"ABET's Engineering Criteria 2000 and Engineering Ethics: Where Do We Go From Here?"Online Ethics Center for Engineering 6/26/2006. National Academy of Engineering. Accessed:Sunday, October 19, 2014 www.onlineethics.org/Education/instructessays/herkert2.aspx"Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, 2014 - 2015." ABET. 10/26/13. ABET. Web. 19Oct. 2014. http://www.abet.org/eac-criteria-2014-2015/Geselowitz, Michael, and John Vardalas. Proc. of 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition,Liberal Education Revisited: Five Historical Perspectives. ASEE Conference ProceedingsSearch. ASEE. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.http://www.asee.org/search/proceedings?utf8=%E2%9C%93&fields%5B%5D=author&search=Michael+Geselowitz&commit=Search .

In this study, we use well-accepted conceptual assessment instruments, initial state data such as the SAT, and our own recently developed instruments designed to measure aptitude in mathematics to develop a machine learning-based predictive model for student performance. Previous analysis found the expected strong correlation between performance in the mathematics and physics courses. The mathematics assessment instruments were designed to provide a means for suggesting corrective measures for students to take to improve performance in mathematics, and it was demonstrated that these measures also have an impact on performance in physics. With the predictive nature of the collected data and the impact of the various corrective measures on final grade established, we use these data to form a predictive model for student performance. By adaptively imputing missing data from previous years, and forming a random forest model, we are able to predict those students who are most at-risk of failing the introductory mathematics and physics courses with acceptable accuracy. This analysis contributes to an integrated evaluation of the current programs, which has led to an assessment-based initiative to offer strategic guidance to incoming students, better placing them for academic and career success in their selected STEM disciplines.

We describe the structure, implementation, and outcomes of a Roller Coaster Science and Engineering Camp for students in grades 7 -- 12. The framework for the camp has been developed over several years with the goal of providing a unique experience in STEM education using the theme of roller coaster science and engineering. Students form simulated "roller coaster design companies," whose goal is to design a working roller coaster. To assist with the design process, we have developed a Roller Coaster Card Game that incorporates a series of track segments depicting starting hills, vertical loops, corkscrews, cobra rolls, horseshoe turns, and brake segments which can be assembled to initiate the design process. Based on scientific analysis, students exchange cards from the original design with cards depicting similar segments and corrected dimensions. Only certain card combinations result in a working model. The final design is then programmed into a commercial roller coaster software package, where it can be simulated from a first-person rider perspective. We discuss the impact of the camp on student involvement in other research projects and enrichment opportunities. While the specific impact of any single intervention is difficult to measure, we offer some assessment of student participant performance in math/science.

In this study we conduct an integrated assessment of first-year performance in introductory calculus and physics courses. We use well-accepted conceptual assessment instruments, initial state data such as the SAT, and our own recently developed instruments designed to measure aptitude in mathematics to develop a predictive model for student performance. The analyzed population was composed of undergraduate students at Clarkson University, cross-enrolled in the calculus-based introductory physics course and the introductory calculus course from 2004 to 2007. Both the mathematics and physics classes are large-enrollment, lecture-based courses. By analyzing the combined data sets, we found the expected strong correlation between performance (final grade) in the mathematics course and performance in the physics course. We analyze not only the predictive nature of the collected data, but also the impact of the various corrective measures on final grade. This analysis contributes to an integrated evaluation of the current programs which could lead to an assessment-based initiative to offer strategic guidance to incoming students, better placing them for academic and career success in their selected STEM disciplines.

A simple experiment can be performed to characterize the relationship between applied voltage and velocity (steady state and transient) for an electric toy train. The results can be used by teams of students to solve a series of challenges in which they attempt to predict the performance of a particular train. Some sample challenges might include having groups predict the position of the train at a certain instant in time, predict the time the train will reach a given location, and select the applied voltage that will ensure the train will reach a certain point at a given instant. This activity is centered on a team-oriented modeling-based project conducted at Clarkson University, which was published in the American Journal of Physics.1

A simple experiment can be performed to estimate a toy car's effective coefficient of friction without the use of sophisticated equipment. The results can be used to predict the car's turning points when traveling on an arbitrarily shaped track containing multiple hills and valleys in a 2-D vertical plane. This activity is based on a team-oriented modeling-based project conducted at Clarkson University, which was published in the American Journal of Physics.1

We describe the motion of an electric toy train engine that is powered by a time-dependent voltage and travels on a horizontal track. Effects such as friction, the electrically induced torque and electromotive force of the motor, resistance, inductance, and applied voltage are investigated to identify the impact of each on the train’s performance. The parameters that describe these effects are experimentally extracted by considering the train’s steady-state motion achieved for a constant applied voltage. An equivalent inertia parameter is obtained from transient velocity and current measurements. These parameters are employed in a numerical solution to predict the train’s velocity and current for a time-dependent applied voltage. The results are compared with measured values for several independent cases. This analysis has been successfully incorporated into an advanced group project for an introductory course in electricity and magnetism and can be adapted to accommodate students at different levels. Its implementation as an alternative to the traditional laboratory experience is discussed and an assessment of its effectiveness is presented based on the Conceptual Survey in Electricity and Magnetism.

An analysis is performed on the motion of a Matchbox car racing down an arbitrarily shaped track that resides in a two-dimensional vertical plane. The role of friction, track shape, and air resistance on the car’s performance is investigated. The parameters that describe the car’s effective coefficient of friction and drag constant are experimentally extracted by consideration of its motion on a flat, horizontal track. These parameters are then employed to make predictions of the velocity on an arbitrarily shaped track containing hills and valleys and compared with measured values. A rigidly mounted shield of varying cross-sectional area is used to enhance the effects of drag. This analysis has been successfully incorporated into an advanced group project for an introductory course in classical mechanics and can be customized to accommodate a variety of levels.

This paper introduces our partnership model for educational outreach among higher education and local school districts utilizing the Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) as the primary partner and liaison. This partnership has many aspects. Its primary professional development activities have been under the umbrella of the St. Lawrence County Mathematics Partnership and its recent successor the St. Lawrence County STEM Partnership program. The role of BOCES and the nature of Clarkson University are described within the context of our geographical and demographic environment. The breadth of our partnership programs is outlined. The major part of the paper describes the specific nature of the professional development program under the new STEM partnership.