1. FORTE Program External/Internal Board Meeting September 17, 2010 College of Engineering & Applied Science

2. Introductions John Reisel – PI Ethan Munson – mentoring / LLC George Hanson – Bridge Program Ed Beimborn – Bridge Program Hossein Hosseini – Faculty Mentors Marissa Jablonski – Coordinator

3. Project Summary Improve CEAS retention and graduation –Summer Bridge Program –Living Learning Community (LLC) –Peer Mentoring / Study Groups –Faculty Mentoring Evaluation – Assessment Rubric Foster Partnerships

4. Summer Bridge Program 4 – week program held June/July –Students lived in dorms. –Mornings consisted of math instruction using ALEKS software. –Afternoons consisted of 4 weekly engineering activities, including guest speakers and one field trip. In 2009 - 37 students participated fully. –24 students placed up (8 placed up 2 levels) –1 student received AP credit –68% (65%) improved math placement

5. Bridge Students – Fall 2009 Math Results Bridge Program students benefited the most in Calculus (Math 231) and Intermediate Algebra (Math 105). Advancing 2 courses might not be a benefit for all students. 3 students who did not get through both College Algebra (116) and Trig (117) did get a C or better in one of the two. Overall in Math 116: 40% of all students received a C- or worse.

6. Summer Bridge Program In 2010, 47 students participated in the program. –36 students improved math placement (8 by two levels) –3 students received AP credit –Students were allowed to appeal and retake the exam after further work (3 improved math placement after doing so.) –83% (77%) improved math placement

7. Summer Bridge Program Revised Engineering Activities: –Week 1 – Bridge Building –Week 2 – RC Car modification –Week 3 – Alice software – animation –Week 4 – Traffic Intersection design Offered scholarship money for participation level and contest winners. –Seemed to increase student participation and interest Evening Math tutoring available – used by some More direct teaming of mentors with students

8. Living-Learning Community Second year of “Innovation House” is just beginning. 46 students are participating. In 2009-10, 41 students participated in the LLC –32 students enrolled this semester in CEAS – 3 more at UWM. Each student had at least one course in common with others in the course. Study groups will be in the dorms. Fall – Robotics / Media creation program with Discovery World Spring – Regular guest speakers from industry

9. Peer Mentoring Designed as study groups for math and introductory engineering and CS courses. 2008/09 – poor participation –Completely optional, with recruitment occurring after the start of the semester. 2009/10 – Participation rose to 25-30% in Fall, dropped to 15% in Spring. –Students formally assigned to study groups –Results improved with more sessions attended (Fall).

10. Study Groups – Fall 2009

11. Program Evaluation Worked with Consulting Office of Research and Evaluation (CORE) to set up and maintain tracking database. Procedures for data collection have been ironed out, and a database for each of the last two year’s freshmen has been established. The 2008-09 cohort will act as a baseline, and the 2009-10 cohort is starting to be used to study the effectiveness of the interventions.

12. Faculty Mentoring Faculty have been approached and recruited as mentors. Program will start small, with an initial focus on the students who have received E-TECS scholarships.

13. Other Paper was presented on some initial factors influencing the summer bridge program at the 2010 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition (June, Louisville, KY)

14. Plans for 2010-2011 Summer Bridge Program: –Maintain basic program format –Enforce attendance for participation in the program.

15. Plans for 2010-2011 LLC: –Program with Discovery World Museum planned again for the Fall semester. –Spring semester will concentrate on guest speakers

16. Plans for 2010-2011 Peer Mentoring / Study Groups –Students are now assigned to a “course” for their study group to further increase participation.

17. Plans for 2010-2011 Program Evaluation: Collect data Faculty Mentoring: Further develop small- scale program with E-TECS students.

18. Questions?