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Recognizing a national and regional need for a highly trained engineering technology STEM workforce with baccalaureate degrees, the Engineering Technology Scholars – IMProving Retention and Student Success (ETS-IMPRESS) project provides financial support and an ecosystem of high-impact curricular and co-curricular activities to increase the success of academically talented students. A total of 12 first-time students will be supported for four years and 36 students transferring from community colleges will be supported for two years. The goals of the project are to (1) increase the number and diversity of students pursuing degrees in engineering technology (first-generation, underrepresented students, women, and veterans); (2) add to the body of knowledge regarding best practices in Engineering Technology and promote employment; and (3) contribute to the literature on self-efficacy. The project brings together engineering technology academic programs that are offered through the School of Technology and programs in the Honors College, an inclusive and unique college designed around high-impact educational practices. The project provides a unique opportunity to engage academically talented engineering technology students in activities designed to foster leadership, technical know-how, and employability skills for technology fields that actively recruit and employ graduates from diverse backgrounds and communities. By focusing on a broad range of students, the project will investigate the relationship between student characteristics and student success through (1) a mixed methods pre/post research design that examines differences in motivation, self-efficacy and professional skills and (2) a matched cohort comparison study of transfer students that examines participation/non-participation in engineering technology programs of study with honors’ college elective programming. The paper will address first year project activities including the ETS-IMPRESS recruitment, and advertisement plan to recruit first-year and community college transfer students. The paper will address the student eligibility and selection process, the recruitment of the first cohort scholars, and finally the orientation program including the summer bridge undergraduate research experience.
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This content will become publicly available on June 23, 2026
Exploring changes in metacognition, time management, and wellbeing among gen Z first-year undergraduate engineering students.
This full paper introduces a larger project exploring how the development of time management and metacognition skills may positively impact the agency of first-year engineering students and their success, which we acknowledge can be measure in traditional ways (e.g. persistence, achievement) and non-traditional ways (e.g. well-being). The ever-evolving characteristics of college students demand continuous actualization of educational strategies. It is known that most college students nowadays belong to Generation Z, who are technology-natives, ethnically diverse and are on track to become the most educated generation. However, they also struggle the most with their mental health, which is influenced by contemporary challenges such as mass shootings, money and work stressors, the political climate, and stresses and losses derived from learning within a pandemic. If we honor our commitment to support their success, we need to consider these strengths and weaknesses. As well as considering the critical role of well-being in their success. As part of the project, we collected baseline measures of the constructs of interest in a first-year engineering course at a University in the U.S. East, using established and validated instruments. The measures took place before and after students were provided with formal content about metacognition and time management within the Fall 2024 semester. Paired t-tests comparisons were conducted to evaluate gains in metacognitive and time management skills as well as to explore changes in well-being. Interpretations and implications of our results in the first-year engineering experience are offered.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2306270
- PAR ID:
- 10632114
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Society for Engineering Education
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Montreal, CA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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