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Ohio State University Develops Freshman Pilot Program In 1992 at Ohio State, a group of faculty from multiple departments developed a three quarter program for engineering freshmen which was piloted for the first time in 1993. This program included Physics, Mechanics, Math, and a Fundamentals of Engineering course each quarter. The faculty worked together to coordinate the coverage of topics so that the students would see the connections between/among the three courses. In addition to engineering graphics and computer applications, the Fundamentals course included 18 hands-on labs that introduced the students to a variety of phenomena associated with the various Engineering disciplines. These labs provide the hands-on experience necessary for the team design-build-compete project in the third quarter. The design project revolves around building a robot for competition. The four-person teams design and build their robot, write progress reports, meet with the faculty for weekly progress reviews, write a final report (with reviewed drafts), and make a formal oral presentation. (See Audeen Fentiman and John Demel, "Teaching Students to Document a Design Project and Present the Results," Journal of Engineering Education vol. 84: No. 4, October, 1995.) Teamwork is required in the labs and classes in a variety of ways. The lab teams are comprised of different people each week so that each member of the group works at least once with each person in the class. In addition, in the Physics Robot designed by OSU freshman team portion, learning teams work together in the interactive large room activities (lectures), in the small room activities (recitations), and in the labs. This program has run each year with multiple sections. It has been approved by the College as the Honors program and is being taught to 70 students in the 1997-98 academic year. For the 1998-99 academic year, the College plans to have the Honors program for 100 students. The Gateway Coalition has been a driving force in the College of Engineering to change the Engineering Core program. The College has undertaken a much larger effort for a new program for all freshmen students as part of a new Engineering Core program. This new program incorporates many of the features of the Gateway (now Honors) program, including extensive use of teams and hands-on experiments. A pilot program for 100 students is to be offered beginning fall 1998, to be followed in 1999 with capacity for all entering freshmen.¨
John Demel |
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