Improving Engineering Students’ College Math Readiness by MSEIP Summer Bridge Program

This paper details improvement of the Engineering Summer ridge (ESB) program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). Here we provide some of our experiences to fine-tune the program depending on the student need. Initial goal of ESB program was to challenge the freshman students intellectually, improve student communication and socialization skills, and provide student an early introduction to the University expectations and culture. The students who are graduating from the high school has lack of these qualities and the ESB program at UTRGV prepares engineering students to cultivate these qualities and to meet the challenges of University requirements. First-year college students require developmental education in Reading, Writing, or Mathematics will become “college-ready” in those subject areas through the ESB program. In our 2017 ESB program, we focused mostly with the Calculus-ready component. Specific goals of our ESB program include improving the College algebra and Pre-calculus level math expectations, and help students eliminate the math gap by passing the COMPASS Test as well as the Pre-calculus Test by UTRGV math department in the summer to get ready for Calculus I in their first semester. Study to the six-year tracking data suggests that, participants in ESB program demonstrated higher engineering interests. Improvement of engineering math readiness and overall the success rate in the selected engineering major will be presented in this paper.