CASCaded Mentoring And Design Experiences (CASCADE)

德州农工大学金斯维尔分校是一所拥有约5300名西班牙裔学生的服务机构，通过扩大之前的STEP奖项的进展，正在提高成功获得工程学士学位的学生的数量、质量和多样性。该项目正在土木和机械工程部门启动，并正在扩展到化学和环境工程部门。这个为期5年的项目的具体目标是：(i)将设计过程的概念融入工程本科课程的所有四个层次；（ii）将工程本科一年级、二年级和三年级的留校率分别提高到78%、68%和62%；（三）将六年制工程本科毕业率从44%提高到54%。第一个新的努力是让学生在他们的本科学术生涯中参与设计体验。大一新生以一种基本的、结构化的方式体验设计过程，然后与他们在大二和大三的经历垂直地结合起来。该大学的年度工程设计竞赛正在扩大，包括低年级学生的作品。为了提高学生在毕业前的留存率和毅力，高级顶点设计经验与大学的工程创新实验室相关联，以便获得真实的，现实世界的行业项目。第二项新尝试是采用级联同伴指导的创新配置，即本科四年级学生指导三年级学生，三年级学生指导二年级学生，二年级学生指导一年级学生。这些同侪导师在经过正式的申请程序和参加培训工作坊后，将与学生们一起参与设计项目。该项目由内部和外部咨询委员会监督，旨在推进有关保留西班牙裔工程专业学生的有效做法的知识。教师们更有意识地将本科教育和实践与行业问题或关注点相关的设计经验联系起来，特别关注那些可能对该地区和德克萨斯州的大部分西班牙裔公众产生的影响。该项目正在进行彻底的评估，并在全国传播其做法和调查结果。

Texas A&M University-Kingsville, a Hispanic Serving Institution of approximately 5,300 students, is increasing the quantity, quality, and diversity of students successfully earning engineering baccalaureate degrees by augmenting progress from a prior STEP award. The project is being initiated in civil and mechanical engineering departments and is expanding into the chemical and environmental engineering departments. Specific objectives of this 5-year project are: (i) infusing concepts of the design process across all four levels of the engineering undergraduate curriculum; (ii) increasing first-year, second-year, and third-year retention of engineering undergraduate students to 78%, 68%, and 62% respectively; and (iii) increasing the six-year engineering undergraduate graduation rate from 44% to 54%.The first new endeavor is engaging students in design experiences throughout their undergraduate academic careers. Freshman are experiencing the design process in a fundamental and structured way that is then aligned vertically to experiences in their sophomore and junior years. The university's annual engineering design competition is expanding to include the work of lower division students. To enhance student retention and persistence to graduation, the senior capstone design experiences are linked to the university's engineering innovation laboratory for access to authentic, real-world, industry projects. The second new endeavor is an innovative configuration of cascaded peer-mentoring, wherein undergraduate seniors are mentoring juniors, juniors are mentoring sophomores, and sophomores are mentoring freshmen. These peer mentors, after being selected via a formal application process and participating in a training workshop, are engaging with students around the design projects.The project, overseen by internal and external advisory boards, is advancing knowledge of effective practices on retention of Hispanic engineering students. Faculty are more deliberately connecting undergraduate education and practice to relevant design experiences linked to industry problems or concerns, with particular attention to those of likely impact on the largely Hispanic public of the region and state of Texas. The project is conducting a thorough assessment and is nationally disseminating their practices and findings.