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This work in progress explores the impact of activities developed to improve students’ persistence in engineering undergraduate programs as part of a five-year NSF grant. The Program for Engineering Access, Retention, and LIATS Success (PEARLS), has been running for one year in the College of Engineering (CoE) in our institution attempting to increase persistence, retention and graduation rates, and professional success of low-income, academically talented students (LIATS). This paper describes the design of a novel engineering learning community (ELC) introduced as part of the PEARLS project interventions. The ELC is fostered through activities included in a course designed for PEARLS first-year students. During the course, first-year and senior students engaged in different ways: through senior design and capstone projects, peer demonstrations of team projects, and lab visits. We discuss the course structure, activities, and early findings of its implementation.
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Building an Identity in the Makerspace
The purpose of this complete research paper is to analyze the impacts of an open makerspace on the development of students’ engineering identities. This paper seeks to build upon current belonging analyses about makerspaces and shift the focus towards students’ engineering identities. Our team interviewed 17 first-year engineering students attending a small, private university located in the American southwest. During the interviews, they were asked to reflect on their experiences in classes and involvement in engineering related activities. Some of the interview questions are influenced by previous models of engineering identity. Our research team noticed a pattern of students spending personal time using the Makerspace in their engineering department. This is an open workshop where students have access to free supplies to do what we’ve called “make” which is the act of problem solving, designing, and building using the tools provided. The high rate at which this space is mentioned in tandem with the students’ successes during the two semesters exemplifies the impact it has on student retention rates. We noticed a trend that students who have strong engineering identities tend to spend time making in the Makerspace. Any mention of the Makerspace itself or any connective context pieces relating to activities of the Makerspace spoken by the group of students were collected by our research team. This paper will examine how heavy of an impact, if at all, the Makerspace has on the further development of a student's ability to recognize themselves as an engineer if they came into college with an initial interest in making. Our analysis suggests the Makerspace provides an opportunity for students to display performance when making. This in turn causes students to see themselves as engineers when they experience internal and external recognition from being in the Makerspace. The results of this analysis will aid in the creation of effective intervention methods universities can implement during the first year engineering curriculum to increase retention rates.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2204726
- PAR ID:
- 10510039
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ASEE Annual Conference proceedings
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1-14
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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