2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Core curriculum for engineering students should provide at least five things to lead to students’ further academic success and prepare them for the job market: (1) material mastery (2) communication and collaboration (3) software/programming skills (4) learning and metacognition (5) confidence. Students in traditional lecture-based classrooms may not be taught these skills (Henshaw 1991; Lang 1999). Numerous studies have shown that active and cooperative learning classes are better at addressing these than traditional lecture-based classes (Freeman 2014).

A traditional calculus class is often content-driven and does not prepare engineering students for further coursework and careers in engineering. In our engineering school, a two-semester engineering math course was developed to address common gaps in Calculus I and II skills and to cover Multivariable topics more thoroughly with applications and projects (Ma 2017; Pisano 2018). The motivation of this redesigned sequence was: 1) to expose students to more applied topics and real-world applications in Calculus, 2) to better prepare them to move forward for their advanced courses and their engineering career, and more importantly, 3) to promote their learning experience by incorporating more opportunities to develop their communication skills and teamwork experience.

Here we discuss (1) how, if at all, an applied math course can provide students with material mastery, collaboration, relevant computer skills, metacognition of learning, and confidence. (2) what relationship, if any, exists between who the student is at the start of class and the student’s experiences in class? Overall, students found that the course provided a deep conceptual understanding of the material, but also taught them how to communicate mathematical ideas to their peers. It appears that students’ view of math dictates their motivations for taking this course. Their view of math combined with their level of preparedness may play a role in their participation and how they interact with the material, with peers, and with the instructor and TAs.