GIFTS: Developing a Community of Learners with Incoming Engineering Students that Initially Were Not Calculus Ready

Abstract Engineering students entering college who are not calculus-ready encounter many barriers in their academic development as compared with their calculus-ready peers. Typically, engineering students who are not calc-ready must take a longer path to graduate, are not able to take classes with their incoming peers, and often experience added barriers as students from underrepresented backgrounds. Some schools attempt to prepare students for calculus in the summer before they matriculate with a summer math bridge program. These bridge programs focus on math instruction, and some include engineering activities. The current research on such programming does not discuss the value and importance of community that that can be built and maintained through a summer bridge program. Additionally, many of these programs do not include any support for students after the summer program concludes. We have developed a summer bridge program for incoming engineering students designed to foster community and prepare them for retaking their placement exam. Every part of the in-person experience was designed to promote community building: collaborating on group assignments in math instruction, taking part in engineering activities, and attending a kick-off dinner with parents and families. The students worked with each other to both study and have fun. At the end of the program twenty-two of the thirty-three students increased their placement scores and twenty-eight of the thirty-three students placed into either the one-semester or two-semester Calculus I class. In the Fall semester students were encouraged to attend study tables for math and chemistry reserved mainly for their cohort. After completing Fall semester, the average GPA of the students was a 2.96 with nineteen of the students above a 3.0. At the end of the summer the students were asked about what was most beneficial about the program. They shared that the events outside of instruction, such as meeting people and getting to know the campus and classes, were more beneficial than their exam preparation. While this program's purpose was to prepare students to be successful academically as engineering students at their first semester, we have found they have also developed a community of learners to rely on for the rest of their college career. We will present methods for this community, strategies for community building, results of the program and future work.