This project is establishing an undergraduate peer-to-peer mentoring program and also developing concept mapping learning materials for undergraduate Computer Engineering Technology (ET) laboratories (CLABS) based on Blooms Taxonomy. The motivation for this development is the need for skillful technologists with creative design and application skills for both hardware and software at the three urban, minority-serving institutions that are collaborating on this project. The approach is not linked to a particular topic or textbook chapter but rather, includes experiments spanning multiple concepts, thereby creating greater cohesion across the curriculum. Project-based laboratories, are being developed collaboratively with the Industrial Board of Advisors, supplementary and background information are helping to promote increased inquiry-based learning and overall student engagement and providing students with a window into the industrial world. The project builds on three successful lower level labs funded through an internal grant and continues by designing labs using project-based microcontroller systems and sensor applications culminating in the senior project course. The project objectives are (1) Increase students capacity to engage in real world problem solving; (2) Better retain and engage underrepresented students through undergraduate peer-to-peer mentoring; (3) Improve students written and oral communication skills through concept mapping; and (4) Increase students conceptual and factual knowledge of engineering technology through Concept mapping. An Assessment Review Panel, led by the Director of Assessment, meets semi-annually to monitor and assess the surveys with demographic data that allow the investigators to examine how improvements in learning vary among diverse populations, monitor progress and identify problems. Both formative and summative methods are being used to evaluate student-learning outcomes to continue to improve the learning materials.
