Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP)

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali; Sepehr Arbabi; Ramiro Bravo; Hossein Hosseini; Harishchandra Aryal

doi:doi:10.11648/j.her.20210606.11

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Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP)

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali, Sepehr Arbabi, Ramiro Bravo, Hossein Hosseini, Harishchandra Aryal

Published in Higher Education Research (Volume 6, Issue 6)

Received: 23 August 2021 Accepted: 3 September 2021 Published: 10 November 2021

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Abstract

The US is in greater need of STEM graduates to keep its competitive edge. Various US government agencies have raised concerns about shortage of STEM graduates for 35 years. It is equally important to keep US in technologically superior position. One way to grow the STEM workforce is to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. It has been reported that incoming students are weak in Mathematics and thereby having great difficulty in engineering courses. As a result, they are dropping out of engineering programs resulting in low retention and graduation rates. It is desired to reinforce mathematical concepts. It is desired to engage, mentor and tutor them to keep them from dropping. There are three objectives in this project. One is to increase recruitment; the second goal is to improvement via engagement and providing help. The third goal of increasing graduation rates will be automatically achieved by enhancing retention rates. To meet this objective, Engineering Minority student Engagement Project (EM-STEP) is using an innovative five prong approach of offering Saturday Academy, peer lead group, professional lecture series, freshman seminar and summer research projects. Four high D, withdrawals, incomplete and F grade rates courses have been identified and they are Fundamentals of Electric Circuit Analysis, Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and Introduction to Thermodynamics. Students in these courses are from four engineering disciplines of Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical and Petroleum Engineering. These courses are being taught in the Saturday Academy and twenty students are working as peer group leaders. We are also offering motivating lectures in the professional lecture series. Summer research project for 8-week duration is also offered.

Published in	Higher Education Research (Volume 6, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.her.20210606.11
Page(s)	148-152
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

STEM, Retention, Minority, Saturday Academy, Peer Group Leader, Professional, Hispanic, Demographic

References

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[3]	Framework for Persistence, International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE) Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2016, pp. 1-8.
[4]	Mathematics, Engineering and Technology. National Science Foundation, Directorate for Education and Human Resources: Arlington, VA, 1996.
[5]	Bauer, K. W., et al., Faculty perspectives regarding the undergraduate research experience in science and engineering. Journal of Engineering Education, 2002. 91: pp. 291-296.
[6]	Barton, P. E., Hispanics in Science and engineering: A matter of assistance and Persistence. 2003, Educational Testing Service: Princeton, NJ. p. 40.
[7]	Choy, S. A., Access & Persistence: Findings from 10 Years of Longitudinal Research on Students. American Council on Education: Washington, DC, 2002.
[8]	National Science Foundation, Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science.
[9]	Porter, S. R., Assessing transfer and first-time freshman student performance. Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, 2002. 10 (1): p. 41-56.
[10]	Jackson, L. A., P. D. Gardner, and L. A. Sullivan, Engineering persistence: Past, present, and future factors and gender differences. Higher Education, 1993. 26: p. 227-246.
[11]	Pascarella, E. T., and P. T. Terenzini. 2005. A third decade of research. Vol. 2 of How college affects students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
[12]	Porter, S. R., and R. L. Swing. 2006. Understanding how first-year seminars affect persistence. Research in Higher Education 47 (1): 89–109.
[13]	Budny, Dan, Paul, Cheryl A., and Bon Luis. 2006. The Impact Peer Mentoring Can Have on Freshman Students. 36^th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, San Diego, CA, Oct. 28-31, 2006.
[14]	Budge, Stephanie. 2006. Mentoring in Post-Secondary Education: Implications for Research and Practice. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 37 (1), p. 73-87.
[15]	McLean, M. 2004. Does the curriculum matter in peer mentoring? From mentee to mentor in problem-based learning: A unique case study. Mentoring and Tutoring, 12 (2), P. 173-188.
[16]	Edgcomb, M., et al., Peer and near-peer mentoring: Enhancing learning in summer research programs. CUR Quarterly, 2010. 31 (2): p. 18-25.
[17]	Luettich, Rick, et al., Diversifying the Homeland Security Enterprise. Coastal Resilience Center Education Report, 2020.
[18]	Cree-Green, Melanie, et. al., Peer Mentoring for Professional and Personal Growth in Academic Medicine. American Federation for Medical Research, 2020.

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APA Style

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali, Sepehr Arbabi, Ramiro Bravo, Hossein Hosseini, Harishchandra Aryal. (2021). Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP). Higher Education Research, 6(6), 148-152. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20210606.11

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ACS Style

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali; Sepehr Arbabi; Ramiro Bravo; Hossein Hosseini; Harishchandra Aryal. Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP). High. Educ. Res. 2021, 6(6), 148-152. doi: 10.11648/j.her.20210606.11

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AMA Style

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali, Sepehr Arbabi, Ramiro Bravo, Hossein Hosseini, Harishchandra Aryal. Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP). High Educ Res. 2021;6(6):148-152. doi: 10.11648/j.her.20210606.11

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@article{10.11648/j.her.20210606.11,
  author = {Mohsin Mohammed Jamali and Sepehr Arbabi and Ramiro Bravo and Hossein Hosseini and Harishchandra Aryal},
  title = {Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP)},
  journal = {Higher Education Research},
  volume = {6},
  number = {6},
  pages = {148-152},
  doi = {10.11648/j.her.20210606.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20210606.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.her.20210606.11},
  abstract = {The US is in greater need of STEM graduates to keep its competitive edge. Various US government agencies have raised concerns about shortage of STEM graduates for 35 years. It is equally important to keep US in technologically superior position. One way to grow the STEM workforce is to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. It has been reported that incoming students are weak in Mathematics and thereby having great difficulty in engineering courses. As a result, they are dropping out of engineering programs resulting in low retention and graduation rates. It is desired to reinforce mathematical concepts. It is desired to engage, mentor and tutor them to keep them from dropping. There are three objectives in this project. One is to increase recruitment; the second goal is to improvement via engagement and providing help. The third goal of increasing graduation rates will be automatically achieved by enhancing retention rates. To meet this objective, Engineering Minority student Engagement Project (EM-STEP) is using an innovative five prong approach of offering Saturday Academy, peer lead group, professional lecture series, freshman seminar and summer research projects. Four high D, withdrawals, incomplete and F grade rates courses have been identified and they are Fundamentals of Electric Circuit Analysis, Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and Introduction to Thermodynamics. Students in these courses are from four engineering disciplines of Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical and Petroleum Engineering. These courses are being taught in the Saturday Academy and twenty students are working as peer group leaders. We are also offering motivating lectures in the professional lecture series. Summer research project for 8-week duration is also offered.},
 year = {2021}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP)
AU - Mohsin Mohammed Jamali
AU - Sepehr Arbabi
AU - Ramiro Bravo
AU - Hossein Hosseini
AU - Harishchandra Aryal
Y1 - 2021/11/10
PY - 2021
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20210606.11
DO - 10.11648/j.her.20210606.11
T2 - Higher Education Research
JF - Higher Education Research
JO - Higher Education Research
SP - 148
EP - 152
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2578-935X
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20210606.11
AB - The US is in greater need of STEM graduates to keep its competitive edge. Various US government agencies have raised concerns about shortage of STEM graduates for 35 years. It is equally important to keep US in technologically superior position. One way to grow the STEM workforce is to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. It has been reported that incoming students are weak in Mathematics and thereby having great difficulty in engineering courses. As a result, they are dropping out of engineering programs resulting in low retention and graduation rates. It is desired to reinforce mathematical concepts. It is desired to engage, mentor and tutor them to keep them from dropping. There are three objectives in this project. One is to increase recruitment; the second goal is to improvement via engagement and providing help. The third goal of increasing graduation rates will be automatically achieved by enhancing retention rates. To meet this objective, Engineering Minority student Engagement Project (EM-STEP) is using an innovative five prong approach of offering Saturday Academy, peer lead group, professional lecture series, freshman seminar and summer research projects. Four high D, withdrawals, incomplete and F grade rates courses have been identified and they are Fundamentals of Electric Circuit Analysis, Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and Introduction to Thermodynamics. Students in these courses are from four engineering disciplines of Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical and Petroleum Engineering. These courses are being taught in the Saturday Academy and twenty students are working as peer group leaders. We are also offering motivating lectures in the professional lecture series. Summer research project for 8-week duration is also offered.
VL - 6
IS - 6
ER -

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Author Information

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali

Department of Electrical Engineering, The University of Texas Permian Basin, Odessa, USA
Sepehr Arbabi

Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas Permian Basin, Odessa, USA
Ramiro Bravo

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas Permian Basin, Odessa, USA
Hossein Hosseini

Ector County Independent School District, Odessa, USA
Harishchandra Aryal

Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas Permian Basin, Odessa, USA

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APA Style

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali, Sepehr Arbabi, Ramiro Bravo, Hossein Hosseini, Harishchandra Aryal. (2021). Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP). Higher Education Research, 6(6), 148-152. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20210606.11

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ACS Style

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali; Sepehr Arbabi; Ramiro Bravo; Hossein Hosseini; Harishchandra Aryal. Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP). High. Educ. Res. 2021, 6(6), 148-152. doi: 10.11648/j.her.20210606.11

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AMA Style

Mohsin Mohammed Jamali, Sepehr Arbabi, Ramiro Bravo, Hossein Hosseini, Harishchandra Aryal. Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP). High Educ Res. 2021;6(6):148-152. doi: 10.11648/j.her.20210606.11

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@article{10.11648/j.her.20210606.11,
  author = {Mohsin Mohammed Jamali and Sepehr Arbabi and Ramiro Bravo and Hossein Hosseini and Harishchandra Aryal},
  title = {Engagement in Practice: Engineering Minority Student Engagement Project (EM-STEP)},
  journal = {Higher Education Research},
  volume = {6},
  number = {6},
  pages = {148-152},
  doi = {10.11648/j.her.20210606.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20210606.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.her.20210606.11},
  abstract = {The US is in greater need of STEM graduates to keep its competitive edge. Various US government agencies have raised concerns about shortage of STEM graduates for 35 years. It is equally important to keep US in technologically superior position. One way to grow the STEM workforce is to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. It has been reported that incoming students are weak in Mathematics and thereby having great difficulty in engineering courses. As a result, they are dropping out of engineering programs resulting in low retention and graduation rates. It is desired to reinforce mathematical concepts. It is desired to engage, mentor and tutor them to keep them from dropping. There are three objectives in this project. One is to increase recruitment; the second goal is to improvement via engagement and providing help. The third goal of increasing graduation rates will be automatically achieved by enhancing retention rates. To meet this objective, Engineering Minority student Engagement Project (EM-STEP) is using an innovative five prong approach of offering Saturday Academy, peer lead group, professional lecture series, freshman seminar and summer research projects. Four high D, withdrawals, incomplete and F grade rates courses have been identified and they are Fundamentals of Electric Circuit Analysis, Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and Introduction to Thermodynamics. Students in these courses are from four engineering disciplines of Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical and Petroleum Engineering. These courses are being taught in the Saturday Academy and twenty students are working as peer group leaders. We are also offering motivating lectures in the professional lecture series. Summer research project for 8-week duration is also offered.},
 year = {2021}
}

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