A Discovery-Based First Year Electrical and Computer Engineering Course Emphasizing Real-World Projects that Benefit Society

工程-电气(55)该项目正在为以发现为基础的一年级电气和计算机工程课程开发学习材料和教学策略。它的设计是通过实践的、基于团队的项目来提高一年级学生的留存率和满意度，这些项目解决了现实世界中的问题，其解决方案有利于社会。学生们与不同教员组成的广泛合作伙伴进行互动，因为他们发现了电气和计算机工程问题的重要性，并分享了他们创造性解决方案的兴奋。用于生物医学应用的信号和图像处理、电力系统可靠性以及用于环境监测的无线传感器网络是当前材料中使用的问题领域的例子。教师专业发展活动和与社区学院的合作正在发展教师专业知识和传播教育创新内容。该项目包括将课程转移到社区大学的外联活动，并向社区大学和高中生、教师、辅导顾问和家长提供动手示范访问。评估工作由学院的常驻评估专家领导，使用学生调查、焦点小组和访谈来监测学生的信心和满意度；其他调查正在用于评估外展和教师发展活动的有效性。更广泛的影响包括传播教学材料和学习战略，特别努力在代表性不足的群体中增加学生的招生、留住和满意度，以及向社区大学和高中社区推广。

Engineering - Electrical (55)The project is developing learning materials and teaching strategies for a discovery-based, first-year electrical and computer engineering course. It is being designed to increase the retention and satisfaction of first-year students through hands-on, team-based projects that address real-world problems whose solutions benefit society. The students interact with an extensive partnership of diverse faculty members as they discover the importance of electrical and computer engineering problems and share in the excitement of their creative solutions. Signal and image processing for biomedical applications, power system reliability, and wireless sensor networks for environmental monitoring are examples of current problem areas used in the material. Faculty professional development activities and collaboration with community colleges are developing faculty expertise and disseminating educational innovations components. The project includes outreach activities to transfer the course to community colleges and to provide hands-on demonstration visits with community college and high school students, teachers, guidance counselors, and parents. Evaluation efforts, which are led by the College's resident evaluation expert, use student surveys, focus groups, and interviews to monitor the students' confidence and satisfaction; other surveys are being used to assess the effectiveness of the outreach and faculty development activities. The broader impacts include dissemination of the instructional material and learning strategies, special efforts to increase the recruitment, retention, and satisfaction of students in underrepresented groups, and outreach to the community college and high school communities.