1314 May 2003
Freshman Year in Engineering Miniconference
Purdue University, West Lafayette IN
Contact:
The third miniconference on the Freshman Year in Engineering will be held at Purdue University on May 13 and 14. This conference is funded by the Foundation Coalition. The first miniconference was held at Wisconsin in 2001 and the second one at Michigan in 2002. Participants are invited from the University of Michigan, Purdue University, Iowa State University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Wisconsin.
The focus of the conference is on the freshman-year experience at large universities. The roles of learning communities, design courses, introductory courses, and core courses in helping first-year students in engineering make the transition to a large university have been discussed. The goal of the miniconferences has been to provide a forum for discussion among schools and to develop ways to work with each other on a primary project selected by each school.
At these miniconferences, participants from each school have reviewed their programs and then formulated plans for improving the freshman year at their schools in the next year. The agenda covers the following topics:
- Review of the freshman-year program at each school
- Progress since the last meeting (for participants from schools who attended the previous year)
- Evaluation of proposed changes that were implemented
- Review and discussion of problems and successes common to all schools
- Freshman initiatives in other schools and coalitions
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