2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This research explores scaffolding strategies employed at Washington State University Vancouver to support first-year students in succeeding in an introductory mechanical engineering course, with a particular focus on their subsequent performance in Statics. As in many undergraduate engineering programs student retention has been a concern, especially in the lower division of the mechanical engineering program. In the past two years the introductory mechanical engineering course has been redesigned to prepare students for the rest of their engineering curriculum by incorporating several design projects, involving senior students and faculty as mentors, and giving freshman a more robust preparation for the challenging second year course: Statics. The results show an improvement in student retention, with 92% of students passing the introductory course in the experimental years compared to 80% in the control years. Furthermore, the percentage of students passing Statics with a C or better increased from 47% in the control years to 54% in the experimental years. However, there was a slight increase in the rate of non-passing grades in Statics for the experimental years. Analysis revealed that students’ strength in math significantly influenced their success in the introductory course and Statics, highlighting the importance of sufficiently preparing students in lower-division courses for student retention.