Retention of first year engineering students is approximately 75% in the US. One reason for the low retention rate may be the ineffectiveness of the introductory engineering course. A poorly designed introductory course does not engage the students and does not motivate them to persevere through their heavy load of mathematics and science courses.
The project is creating an introductory civil and environmental engineering course that adapts the "Sooner City" program. "Sooner City" is a virtual city that allows students to design a variety of infrastructure needs such as roadways, building structures, foundations, earthen dams, etc. "Sooner City" program had been developed to be used in a design across the curriculum environment, and thus adaptation of the concept to a single introductory course appears to be promising for retention.
The project consists of: 1. Creating a portable first year "Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering, (ICEE)" course based on the Sooner City program. 2. Assessing the success of the ICEE course at meeting the following global objectives: a. Stimulating interest in engineering among freshmen; b. Providing freshmen with an understanding of the breadth of the civil and environmental engineering profession; c. Positively impacting retention of freshman civil and environmental engineering students. d. Widespread adoption at other universities as a result of its portability, modularity, and cost-effectiveness. 3. Providing course materials on a web site to facilitate implementation of the course at other universities. 4. Beta testing the ICEE course at other universities.
