September 10, 2008

The College of Engineering aims to increase the number of students graduating from its programs, with help from a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.

NSF’s Division of Undergraduate Education has awarded a $2.5 million grant to fund a collaborative effort between MSU and Lansing Community College (LCC).

In recent years, there has been a marked decline in the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students in universities across the nation. And there is a high loss rate of early engineering students—those in the first year and a half of their degree programs. Studies show that this is typically due to students experiencing academic difficulties, and/or perceiving the engineering environment as overly difficult or not engaging.

The five-year NSF-funded STEP (STEM Talent Expansion Program) grant supports efforts to increase the number of students completing programs and graduating with engineering degrees.

The grant will support a program developed jointly by MSU and LCC to increase the retention rate from the current 65 percent to 75 percent.

“This is more important than ever before because enrollments in engineering are going down,” said Jon Sticklen, co-principal investigator and MSU associate professor of computer science and engineering. “While we do continue to get students in our pipeline, we lose too many students before they graduate. Part of the reason we are losing students is because we have not connected with students in the first year.”

“The focus of this grant is to form connections early on to ensure that our incoming freshmen have all the academic care and support they need to get them successfully into the third year,” said Tom Wolff, principal investigator and associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Engineering.

To help make earlier connections, MSU’s College of Engineering has recently established two new programs. Cornerstone Engineering courses introduce freshman engineering students to engineering and design concepts during the first week of classes. The Residential Experience for Spartan Engineering, which will be fully operational by fall 2009, provides an immersive living and learning option that delivers cutting-edge education and hands-on experience.

“First-year engineering, the residency program, this grant—are all aimed at making connections a lot earlier than in the past,” said Sticklen.

The NSF-funded program has four major components.

The first is “supplemental instruction,” a more formalized approach to a student study group, a system that LCC has been using successfully for more than a decade.

"Supplemental Instruction (SI) has been very effective in increasing the success of our students taking pre-engineering courses such as algebra and calculus. We are excited to have this opportunity to assist the College of Engineering at MSU in establishing an SI program of their own," said Louise Paquette, co-principal investigator and LCC professor of math and computer science.

Using this approach, a student who has successfully completed a particular course will be recommended to sit in on the class with students who are taking the course for the first time. That student, with training, will then lead a study group that meets outside of regular class time.

Calculus and physics courses, for example, can often be stumbling blocks for some first-year engineering students, Sticklen explained. Supplemental instruction will give new students the opportunity to get help from someone who has already successfully navigated the material.

The program will also institute a concept called “connector faculty.” A number of faculty will be recruited to take on a mentoring role with a small group of students who are in their first or second year of study.

“Studies on retention indicate that one of the key factors in retaining students is connection to at least one faculty,” said Wolff.

“A concerned faculty member has enormous potential to help a student think through a crisis situation and help empower the student to make rational decisions,” Sticklen added.

Another aspect of the program is the development of course linkages, or “presaging” in the early engineering courses what students will be exposed to in physics, calculus and later courses. It helps students understand how all of their coursework is connected.

“The program provides a promising opportunity to work with MSU faculty to develop problem sets for the course linkages,” said Paquette. “In addition, students will benefit not only from the exposure to the connections between courses within different disciplines but also from the connections between the LCC and MSU learning communities.”

The last component is the development of diagnostic tools for the students.

One example is a “gateway exam” currently offered through MSU’s math department. This optional pre-test helps determine which concepts a student knows and where he or she needs help. Engineering students will be highly encouraged to take this exam.

The results of the gateway exam, a student’s overall grades, and other aspects of the academic record will be used to direct the student to multiple sources of help, which could include the Math Learning Center, or tutoring in the Guided Learning Center in the College of Engineering or through the college’s new Residential Experience program.

“All of these things taken together will help us determine how an individual student is doing so we can channel them more proactively into different avenues of assistance, if needed,” said Wolff.

“The academic progress of students is influenced by many factors,” Paquette said. “As the coordinator of the LCC diagnostic efforts, I am excited to work with MSU math faculty in the development of Web-based tools for assessment of student knowledge. Non-threatening diagnostic testing can assist students in identifying their academic strengths and weaknesses. Once these weaknesses are identified, it is essential to provide a supportive learning environment consisting of the classroom, mathematics tutoring labs, learning centers and other support services.”

The message from the College of Engineering to its students is: “We’re here to help you, but here’s what we want you to do, and here’s how it’s going to help you.”

“The goal is to get students to make use of all of the tools available to them. We’re developing a culture of success that will be contagious in our college,” Sticklen said.

“We’ve always done all of these things in a general sense,” added Wolff, “but the funding from NSF will allow us to do them in a much more structured, systematic manner.”

“This grant is a chance for the College of Engineering to plant our flag in the ground of pedagogical research on a national basis, to share with the rest of the world our successes in teaching,” said Sticklen.

“We are major contributors to the engineering talent pool through the graduation of well-educated engineering students who are ready to ‘hit the ground running,’” said Kim Wilcox, MSU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs and chair of the internal advisory board for this NSF-funded program. “The proposed work will accelerate our ongoing efforts as we strive to develop a strong learning community to increase the retention of students who will become future engineers.”

And the goals of this NSF-funded program are in line with Michigan’s goal of doubling the number of science and engineering graduates in the state’s institutions of higher learning. Michigan's Lieutenant Governor John D. Cherry said "it is essential to increase the number of individuals with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math to meet the needs of today's job market."

He pointed out that the successes of this MSU/LCC team would "be applied to other higher education institutions within our state, further helping to fill our current and future needs for a well-educated, technical workforce for the 21st century.”

                                                                                  -- Laura Luptowski Seeley