Spring Break
Program encourages retention
By: Abid Mujtaba
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: News
Don Maxwell, coordinator of the
ELEN 111 and ELEN 112 courses said, "Right now I'm doing a robotics project. The first step of it is invention: it rolls, it works. Then it has to be converted into something that meets specifications."
Students are asked to build a robot that will transport a full, upright coke can on a winding path up an inclined plane. When they inevitably fail on their first attempt, they are asked to "calculate the angle at which it flips over…[N]ow it needs a gear-train so they learn about forces and torques," Maxwell said.
"From a student's point of view, they get to see what engineers do," Srinivasa said. It also provides the students with an opportunity to review their career choice, "It helps them sort out what they want to do."
Maxwell said they wanted students to have the right perception of what engineers do. The real reason for a college education is not to make money, but to find a career that you are going to enjoy, he said.
As of 2006, all of the nearly 1,600 students that enroll in ELEN 111 every year are divided into teams of four students and introduced to engineering by a problem-based approach.
Teams are expected to report on the project's progress via memos, preparing the students for technical writing. A variety of projects, each with some societal importance and tailored to the particular type of engineering a student is enrolled in, give a preview of what is to come in the following years.
Srinivasa said, "Definitely the ELEN 111 and 112 class[es do] involve quite a bit of effort from the students, building something that behaves in a predictable fashion is not simple...but [with] anything like robotics, students [will always] have a blast." The departments assign teaching assistants and peer teachers, offer tutoring and summer schooling to help students cope with the work-load and ease students into the field of engineering.
William H. Bassichis, who coordinates STEP in the physics department, outlined the two main problems that surface when trying to teach physics to engineering students.
ELEN 111 and ELEN 112 courses said, "Right now I'm doing a robotics project. The first step of it is invention: it rolls, it works. Then it has to be converted into something that meets specifications."
Students are asked to build a robot that will transport a full, upright coke can on a winding path up an inclined plane. When they inevitably fail on their first attempt, they are asked to "calculate the angle at which it flips over…[N]ow it needs a gear-train so they learn about forces and torques," Maxwell said.
"From a student's point of view, they get to see what engineers do," Srinivasa said. It also provides the students with an opportunity to review their career choice, "It helps them sort out what they want to do."
Maxwell said they wanted students to have the right perception of what engineers do. The real reason for a college education is not to make money, but to find a career that you are going to enjoy, he said.
As of 2006, all of the nearly 1,600 students that enroll in ELEN 111 every year are divided into teams of four students and introduced to engineering by a problem-based approach.
Teams are expected to report on the project's progress via memos, preparing the students for technical writing. A variety of projects, each with some societal importance and tailored to the particular type of engineering a student is enrolled in, give a preview of what is to come in the following years.
Srinivasa said, "Definitely the ELEN 111 and 112 class[es do] involve quite a bit of effort from the students, building something that behaves in a predictable fashion is not simple...but [with] anything like robotics, students [will always] have a blast." The departments assign teaching assistants and peer teachers, offer tutoring and summer schooling to help students cope with the work-load and ease students into the field of engineering.
William H. Bassichis, who coordinates STEP in the physics department, outlined the two main problems that surface when trying to teach physics to engineering students.
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