This innovative practice WIP paper addresses the significant challenge of engaging first-year engineering students with diverse technical backgrounds in higher education. At Michigan Tech University, we tackle this challenge by implementing a flipped teaching model supplemented with active discovery team projects. In our approach, nearly 1000 first-year engineering students are equipped with their own Arduino kits from day one of class. With “kits in hand”, students can self-select different programming and design challenges. This “choose your own adventure” challenge-set accommodates varying technical experiences, ranging from simple tasks, like creating a single flashing LED using MATLAB and Arduino, to complex projects such as designing multi-axis stoplight systems with left turn lanes and pedestrian crosswalks. By offering students autonomy in selecting their project challenges, we observed heightened self-reported levels of engagement, enjoyment, and a deeper sense of utility attributed to the skills acquired from their learning experiences. Moreover, this approach obviates the need to persuade students about the relevance of programming in engineering practice, as they experience it first-hand. Our assessment, reflected in end-of-semester course evaluations, demonstrates a notable shift in student perceptions. The percentage of students strongly agreeing to feeling engaged increased from 14% to 27%, with corresponding shifts observed across agree and slightly agree categories. Similarly, the percentage of students strongly agreeing to enjoying the class rose from 14% to 24%, with discernible decreases in slightly agree, slightly disagree, and disagree responses. This abstract provides insights into a transformative pedagogical approach that not only enhances student engagement but also fosters a positive learning environment conducive to the development of essential engineering skills. This work is significant because it shares how programs can be scaled to add value and build foundational engineering skills no matter a student's technical background or engineering program enrollment.

In the spring of 2022, a formerly vibrant summer reading program had become moribund due to retirements and staff changes; roughly 1600 first year students were about to miss out on a longstanding and successful tradition. In response, a small group of faculty sought a way to link first-year courses between disciplines in order to boost student engagement. This group latched upon a fortuitous circumstance: the 101st anniversary of Karel Capek's play R. U.R., which gave the world the term “robot.” Thus was born Robot 101, an integrative experience connecting instructional content between courses and with a wide range of academic and artistic events outside the classroom, all centered around the multifaceted theme of “robot.” This paper details how a common theme can inform and enliven first-semester courses in engineering, composition, and computer science, as well as engage the greater university community. Our primary objective in establishing these overt connections between courses and other activities was to give students the opportunity to form their own covert connections, thereby deepening their appreciation of the interdisciplinary nature of big ideas in engineering, technology, and society. The program also provided opportunities for more advanced students to participate and make their own interdisciplinary connections. This work provides initial data and reflections on the effect of this program on student engagement and connectedness in first semester courses. We include recommendations for a scalable and sustainable program that continues thematic integration on an ongoing basis.

Today’s first-year college engineering students are no strangers to spending large amounts of time in the online environment. Social media and gaming have been found to be an arena where multitudes of students enjoy spending hours meeting, developing online social circles, and participating in interactive gaming with others around the world. In our first-year engineering program, we find a student that is very eager to engage in their college career, but one that may not know the many aspects that each engineering discipline has to offer. With roughly 1,000 incoming engineering students at Michigan Technological University, we find that many students can easily become disinterested by the programming heavy nature of our first-year curriculum. Keeping these students challenged, engaged and proud of their accomplishments while looking forward to their next year of college is of paramount importance.Programming courses in particular pose a distinct challenge to the instructor, as many students may consider them to be dry and uninspiring. With students in this age bracket so closely acquainted with the technology found in the online world, why not leverage this as a means to bring game-oriented programming into their first-year programming classes? In this paper, we assert that by incorporating game design into first-year engineering programming courses, we keep the student excited about their coursework, keep them challenged by their assignments, and give them a programming experience where they can look back on their final product with pride and a sense of accomplishment.During the first-year engineering experience, it is essential that students exhibit a positive, playful mindset in order to maintain engagement in their classes. With first-year students being very familiar with gaming and the online arena, this paper posits the implementation of game design into their first-year programming courses as a means to elicit excitement and intrigue. In this study, we take a look at three aspects of implementing game-based programming assignments into the engineering curriculum. First, we look at the excitement generated and eagerness to sign up for a class that advertises game programming. Next, we assess to what level the students become and stay engaged when immersed in challenging problems associated with game-based programming. Lastly, we examine the students’ assessment of their programming. and their opinions of how game programming affected their learning in an entry level engineering programming class.

This Work in Progress, Research-to-Practice report focuses on an overview of an extensive project to update the First-Year Engineering Program, Michigan Technological University. After three planning years, and multiple pilot course offerings, we rolled out at scale in Fall, 2017. Our core student outcome goals in the revamped first-year program include strengthening the ability for open-ended problem solving, enhanced facility with computational problem solving applied to engineering problems, and increased student growth in traits of self-starting learning and positive attitudes for life-long learning. In this report, we describe both the core components of our revised program and the process we have followed to gain support for our revised first-year program, thus promoting program sustainability. We conclude with a core list of research questions we will pursue beginning in AY 2018-2019.

Currently, classroom response systems (CRS) are being integrated into an increasing number of university courses. One of the least pursued usages of CRS is the ability to capture speed of student responses. Many of these systems produce a dynamic comma-separated value (CSV) file that presents all of this information in a database that can then be tapped for various uses. The system described in this paper combines the i>Clicker CRS, Mathworks MATLAB, and Microsoft PowerPoint to create an interactive trivia game for use in the classroom. The current implementation is used as an exam review in two first-year fundamentals of engineering courses at the university level.

It has been shown that spatial visualization skills are a critical part of engineering education. Methods to improve these skills are varied, but in general contain activities that have students attempt to visualize objects when translated or rotated from their original orientation. At Michigan Technological University, students take a two-semester engineering course sequence (ENG1101 and ENG1102) during their first year. Both courses have activities that help develop spatial visualization skills through hand sketching and 3D modeling. This paper describes two culminating spatial visualization activities that combine all the skills learned by the students in their engineering coursework. In one case, students are provided with an object that has four or more distinct parts. Students measure, sketch, dimension, and model a single component and then combine their object with their team member's objects into a completed assembly in NX. A more advanced boot dryer project allows students flexibility in their final design. Students are provided with several components to the dryer, but not all. Based on their measurements and models of the given parts, they can design and model unique boot dryer systems.