Promoting Success of Undergraduate Engineering Students Through Curricular Improvements in First-year Mathematics Courses

Norwich University, a private military college that serves both civilian and Corps of Cadets students, secured an NSF S-STEM award to develop a program to attract and retain highly talented, low-income students. Norwich recognizes that students who enter college with less experience in mathematics are less likely to graduate with a degree in a STEM discipline. With that in mind, the project aims to measure the benefits of corequisite implementation of precalculus and calculus to help students complete the required calculus sequence by the end of their first year. In the first year of the study, 35 engineering students among 72 total STEM students that placed into precalculus by an institutional math placement exam were randomly placed into precalculus or a pilot calculus course with precalculus review. The content, delivery, and outcomes of the first semester offering of the corequisite implementation of precalculus and calculus will be discussed. The short term success of the course using survey results, DFW rates, and retention in engineering will be examined.