Collaborative Research: Assessing Engineering Students' Mathematical Preparation to Create Engineering Solutions

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Reserach (91), Engineering (59) The goal of this project is the development of a prototype assessment instrument to evaluate how well engineering students are mathematically prepared for core engineering courses. The instrument is addressing the following related questions:1) What are the strengths of their preparation? 2) In what areas is improvement required?3) To what extent does any lack of mathematical preparation relate to the ability of the students to carry out well-defined computational procedures, e.g., solve a single equation in one unknown, solve a set of linear simultaneous equations, differentiate a symbolic expression, integrate a symbolic expression? 4) To what extent does any lack of mathematical preparation relate to the ability of the students to transfer their understanding of computational procedures to engineering contexts that they may not have seen in their mathematics and/or science courses? And 5) To what extent does any lack of mathematical preparation relate to the ability of the students to formulate a clear plan to solve problems? This project is benefiting from participation by engineering faculty members at Purdue University and Texas A&M University in electrical and mechanical engineering and a prominent mathematics educator from a third university.Intellectual MeritGiven the broad importance of mathematics in engineering, designing an effective assessment instrument requires a careful and rigorous development process. Engineering faculty who teach the core classes are contributing their expertise in the form of problems that characterize their expectations for the mathematics preparation of their students. The investigators are contributing their expertise in engineering education and assessment to refine these problems into a set of learning objectives and a prototype instrument. Careful analysis of student performance on the prototype instrument is being used to gauge the reliability and validity of the instrument. Both the development processes and the prototype instrument will be a foundation for future collaborations that will broaden the applicability of the instrument.Broader ImpactEngineering design requires prediction of the performance of a proposed design before its actual construction and mathematics skills are central to making accurate predictions. Thus, understanding the degree to which engineering students are mathematically prepared to enter their core engineering classes is critical to efforts to improve engineering education. A review of existing research has revealed the lack of instruments with which to assess the quality of mathematics preparation. By filling this void this project is providing the foundation for renewal in engineering and mathematics courses in engineering curricula.