2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The requirement of high school physics for admission to undergraduate engineering programs can be a barrier for underrepresented students. Students in rural or marginalized communities may lack access to qualified physics instructors. Persistent stereotypes and implicit biases against underrepresented groups, including women, Indigenous peoples, and visible minorities, may discourage these students from studying high school physics. By the time students become aware of engineering as a potential career, it may be too late to fulfill the physics requirement.

In 2019, [Institution] began offering an alternative admissions pathway to first-year engineering for motivated students lacking the physics prerequisite. Students are conditionally admitted to [Institution] based on their high school biology grades, provided they complete the [Bridge Program] (BSI), a 4-week summer bridge program. The BSI teaches physics fundamentals through a biology-focused lens. In this study, we investigated BSI student preparedness for first year, as well as success and retention in engineering as they progressed through their chosen engineering discipline. Additionally, we explored if teaching physics through a bioengineering context was beneficial for student learning, and if it encouraged students to pursue a biomedical engineering (BME) discipline after the common core first year program.

We conducted a mixed-method research study to examine BSI student performance, engagement and experiences. A longitudinal analysis was conducted on four cohorts of BSI students from 2019-2022. Average student grades in physics and physics-related first-year engineering courses (physics, statics, materials, fluids, circuits, and programming) were compared between BSI and general engineering students. Overall, GPA and retention information were collected for students as they progressed through their programs in their respective cohorts. A qualitative survey was distributed to BSI alumni to gain insight into primary reasons for enrolling in the BSI, experiences within the BSI program, preparedness for first-year engineering courses, engagement with BME, and career goals.

Initial results show that BSI students performed slightly under average than their peers. A larger performance gap was observed in 2019, the program’s first year, but this gap decreased for subsequent BSI cohorts, suggesting improvements to program delivery. As BSI students progressed through their engineering programs, the performance disparity decreased, with minimal difference in final-year GPAs. While most BSI students completed their engineering degrees, by Year 3, 22% of the original BSI students had left their program compared with 13% of students in the broader engineering program. BSI students were three times more likely than general students to enroll in a BME major, and two times more likely to enroll in a BME minor, although most BSI students did not enroll in any BME disciplines.

The success of the majority of BSI students in their engineering programs is highly encouraging. More work is needed to understand why a larger percentage of BSI students leave engineering, and how these challenges can be addressed. There may also be a need to further assess if integrating bioengineering concepts into physics instruction is an effective approach for engaging underrepresented students in engineering.