Preparing Engineering Students for Three Gateway Courses

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The University of Alabama (UA) Tuscaloosa project titled "Preparing Engineering Students for Three Gateway Courses" leverages S-STEM scholarships to increase the number of graduates in selected engineering disciplines using an approach referred to as Learning in Advance (LIA). In the LIA approach, special preparatory courses are offered for selected courses (gateway courses) identified as key attrition points in engineering programs. Each preparatory course is taken the semester before the corresponding gateway course. A subset of the students who successfully complete the preparatory course will be selected to receive a scholarship based on academic potential and demonstrated financial need.The gateway courses identified at the institution include: Circuit Analysis, Data Structures /Algorithms and Statics. LIA introduces key concepts targeting common misconceptions before they become impediments to learning. The LIA program embodies three principles: (1) partnership with students after their freshman year; (2) preparation of students for critical gateway courses prior to their enrollment in those courses; and (3) mentoring of students during those critical courses and beyond. The intellectual merit of the project lies in the development and implementation of three preparatory courses to improve student retention in an array of STEM fields: Electrical, Computer, Aerospace, Civil, Construction, and Mechanical Engineering as well as Computer Science. The potential broader impacts of the project include increasing the number of graduates in targeted majors by a total of 35 per year and providing scholarships to 40 diverse students who demonstrate academic talent and financial need. A social science study set within the framework of the theory of embeddedness will be implemented in order to investigate the factors linking program components and student persistence in engineering.