How to Keep Engineering Students in Your Engineering Department

I just finished reading this article about why STEM* students change majors. It's a good, albeit kind of long, read, but one that I found really interesting. I was shocked to see some of the statistics on students that drop out or leave the Engineering field while they're in school (I'm going to focus on engineering because that's what I'm studying and thus, is what I have the most experience in).

Perhaps I'm just geared in a way that works well with the curriculum I've been in. Or maybe my school is just different. But either way, it seems to me that my university (Oklahoma Christian University, or OC for short) has a very effective program when it comes to keeping students. I began with 40 students in my Mechanical Engineering Seminar class and ended my Sr level design class with 20 students. Maybe a 50% retention rate sounds poor, but the national average is only a 60% retention. Also, do keep in mind that OC is a private college, so students have to spend about $400/credit, and finances drive a lot of students to other universities. I also don't have a way of knowing if students that didn't make it through OC's engineering program left because they wanted another major or because they just couldn't afford to continue attending. Finally, this is just the retention rate for Mechanical Engineers based on how many people were in my first and final classes. I also don't have access to a list of students that changed to any other type of engineering offered on my campus. So 50% is actually pretty awesome.

I began to wonder what OC does differently. The NY Times article mentioned that a lot of students burn out because they get bogged down in math and theory and didn't get very many hands-on projects to keep them interested. This is what really piqued my interest. At OC, the engineers have several lab-based classes sprinkled throughout the curriculum. For example, my first semester, I had a class called Engineering Computing. This class introduced all of the freshmen to a programming software called MATLAB. We would do a few exercises in MATLAB that involved displaying graphs, which was great because it was a quick and easy way to make sure we had things right and that we were understanding what was going on. After we got the hang of MATLAB, we used K'nex to design and build little golf ball putters. By the end of the semester, we were going to use MATLAB to predict how high to lift the putter to hit a golf ball into a "hole" on the carpet. It was tons of fun.

The next semester (Spring of my Freshman year) I had another class called Engineering Fundamentals. We built a basic robot and used a BASIC Stamp chip to program to help it navigate a maze to find a light bulb. It was a simple robot with two motors to rotate wheels independently and was equipped with photoresistors on the front to detect which direction the light bulb was in, and bumpers to detect walls. That was all. But we had a lot of fun testing them and making them work well. One student even built a circuit on his robot to play the Star Wars theme song when his robot found the light bulb. The professors were encouraging and came around to offer help and to check in to make sure we weren't just too scared to ask for it.

While I didn't have any engineering labs my 3rd semester, I did have them in my 4th, and 5th semesters. Then when I started my final three semesters I was working on my capstone design classes, which may as well have been a lab. So basically, I never got "bogged down in theory" because I had at least one lab that would let me be hands on.

What I think most universities need to do, assuming they want students to stick around in the engineering realm (and have them paying tuition, etc.) would be to incorporate labs into more classes. Do you have a lecture on manufacturing processes and materials? Why not add a lab that involves working in a machine shop? If you have a lecture on controlling dynamic systems, why not have a lab that lets the students try to do that? I had one project in a lab that involved maintaining the temperature inside of a cardboard box, within a certain tolerance, using a light bulb and a fan to heat and cool, respectively. It wasn't something that was excessively difficult, and it was something that helped the whole Dynamic Systems class make a lot more sense. Lab classes are a critical part of a STEM education. Not because they let students practice handling real-world issues, although that is a good thing, but because the sense of accomplishment and, for me, sheer giddiness at times, from being able to make a self-navigating robot that can go around and backs up when it bumps into something while you just sit on the couch while checking in on your Facebook.

So if you want to keep engineers in their majors. Make them take labs, and be sure the professors are obvious about being invested in the success of the students.

And don't grade on a curve. Curves aren't merit-based, and you can lose a lot of brilliant people by making them fail out even though they had an 80% on an exam.

*STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering & Math

IMAlive & Suicide Intervention

A few years ago, one of my college friends took her own life. It was awful and hard on everybody in her circle of friends. One of the most beautiful people I ever had the privilege of knowing was gone. For the next year or so, I did a lot of research into potential warning signs of a suicide, so that if the situation arose, I would know how to help. One day, I noticed a link on the PostSecret twitter account about a new organization that was to be the first online crisis network. That was when I was introduced to this awesome website called IMAlive. People would volunteer and either pay for, or raise funds for training to become an online suicide intervention specialist. This means that the volunteers will be chatting live, over the internet, with people that need help. It's a completely anonymous service, so it's a great way for people that need help, but are too scared of being traced, to be able to get the help they need.

Suicide awareness and intervention became, to an extent, my personal mission. I became much more aware of the people I came into contact with every day and made a conscious effort to be as kind as I could. Doing this, I realized a few odd things: first, that the predominantly Christian environment I exist within was extremely narcissistic when it came to depression, and second, that it only takes a tiny act of kindness to turn someone's day around.

While the part about Christians being narcissistic when it comes to depression can be annoying and, in my experience is true, I would rather focus on the latter point. There are lots of ways you can do small things for people to help them. Maybe give your waiter an extra dollar or two tip. Smile at people as you walk by. Tell the cashier that his/her hair/clothing looks nice (in a non-hitting-on-them way), and, if you have the time, get involved or support suicide/crisis intervention projects. You can do something as simple as advertise for a local or national suicide phone line (in the USA: 1-800-273-8255 is the national hotline*) or, if you want a more active involvement, contact the Kristen Brooks Hope Center or IMAlive to find out how you can get involved in volunteering. If you don't have the time to volunteer, you can always donate to help others raise the funds for certification. Donations to these two projects are tax-deductible too, so it's basically free donations if you itemize your taxes.

So please take the time to check out these two life-saving programs. If you can't afford to donate, and don't have the time to volunteer, then at least take some time to spread the word and raise awareness. Oh, and if you want to donate specifically to me (which would be super awesome of you) here is my IMAlive profile.

Let's all remember that no matter who you are, everybody has battles they must fight and dark nights they must endure. But, to quote Victor Hugo (author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) "Even through the darkest night the sun will rise."

So get out there and be a light in someone's life. Spread the word about suicide awareness. Remember that everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. Love everybody, regardless of their race, gender, political stance or general opinions. And if you have the means, volunteer or help fund the people that want to be out there on the front lines helping.

*If you are outside of the USA and need help, do a quick Google search for your local hotline.

Intro & About Me!

Greetings, and welcome to my blog!

Before I get started with all this blogging stuff, I've decided it might be best to give a bit of an introduction.

First, my name is Stacey. I'm a mechanical engineering student (but I graduate in December [2011]! yay!)

I also studied martial arts for several years during high school. Thus, my roommate dubbed me a "ninjaneer" because I am a 'ninja' and an engineer. (The term 'ninja' is used loosely because I didn't actually study ninjitsu, so there are some technicalities about me being a real ninja)

I haven't decided what kind of blog this is going to be yet, but I have a hunch it's just going to be about all kinds of stuff. Things that I like. Things I don't like. Whatever catches my attention on a given day. It may be photography. Or crafts. Or books. Maybe some math (I do love math. Part of the engineering thing I suppose). Perhaps some stupidly atrocious jokes. Maybe some politics. Who knows. (Although, I'll save you all from a rant about how I really need to trim my fingernails. They're getting way too long)

That's it for now. If you decide that you want to stalk me somewhere, I highly recommend using my Goodreads widget over on the right. You can check out all the awesome books that I'm reading now and have read in the past.

PS - I feel that it should be made known that throughout the duration of this blog, I will adhere to the John Scalzi Disclaimer and Commenting Policy. Please read it if you plan on leaving me comments.

Cheers!