<p>My son likes the class a lot and he has an A. He thinks the key is to approach the math from an engineering point of view rather than as a mathematician.</p>
<p>how do you approach the math from an engineering POV instead of a mathematician POV?</p>
<p>Don’t ask me; I am an English teacher. But my son’s not and apparently that approach is working for him.</p>
<p>i wasn’t criticizing you, just wondering what exactly that means.</p>
<p>I will
Ask him.</p>
<p>There are currently 1023 students in the 24 sections of this ENGR 103 class of 2014.
I hope this chart comes out in the proper lay-out. I got these figures from the ASEE.org engineering college profile pages. I think it is enlightening - these data are only UA Eng’g students:</p>
<p>Year Enrolled # Applied # Accepted # Enrolled
2012 3106 1885 1063
2011 2533 1226 844
2010 2298 2209 785
2009 2096 1991 760
2008 1526 1422 586
2007 1157 1073 481</p>
<p>The point (Post #20) about this class being a ‘weeder’ class is much more relevant now than 10 or even 5 years ago. In order to succeed as an engineer, you need two things: the aptitude/ability and the willingness/interest. (I believe you need those two things in any profession.) The early engineering class is designed, by nature, to allow students to see if they have both of these requirements. Very early on, eng’g students are doing high-level math and applying it in difficult classes. Some students, due to applied AP credits, are doing this the moment they land at UA. It will become almost immediately apparent if students don’t have the aptitude for eng’g, nor the interest to work hard at it. </p>
<p>If students are not doing well in an introductory class in engineering…it is not because of bad professors, changed curriculum, inept tutoring. Have your students take a hard look at their ability to do a difficult and challenging profession, first…and at their motivation and passion to succeed in it, second. Humourous comments aside (about how some students have to repeat classes to remain in this track)…it only gets tougher from here. Good luck.</p>
<p>Aeromom, I would not be so quick question a student’s ability or motivation to succeed because of a bit of struggle in a class that another poster has said seems to be challenging for most everyone. This course is brand new - it combined some courses earlier taught as one hours courses. We have no idea of the requirements or grading scale. Very well could be, much like a first attempt at many things, that some adjustments need to be made to the course, whether it’s in content or order of presentation.</p>
<p>I think Aeromom’s point is a good one and that it is worth going through the process of reevaluating the decision to major in Engineering based on new information. (Actually for any major)</p>
<p>My 3 oldest all started college with very strong feelings about a certain major (very different for each). I encouraged each of them to reevaluate that choice in the middle of their freshman and again sophomore years based on their college classes/experiences to confirm that it was still something they wanted to pursue. I also let them know that it was ok to change direction and that any learning is never wasted. It doesn’t mean they made a mistake, just meant that they now realize they want to go in a different direction. You don’t want your kid to miss the big picture. The great thing about UA (and most public flagships) is that there are so many strong programs there is no need to change universities if you change your major.</p>
<p>My thoughts on ENGR103:
My son is in a sophomore engineering class and an intro CS class - both are faster paced/more time consuming than his ENGR103 class. Engineering students must be willing to spend quite a bit of time working on problem sets/projects. Much of it will be frustrating - realizing you approached it wrong and having to start over.</p>
<p>I looked at the 103 homework sets/posted solutions. (I’m an engineer by training although I haven’t been practicing for 20 years) The problems seemed reasonable for an intro freshman engineering class. They set up real life situations that could be solved with pre-cal math concepts/formulas. It is about analyzing a situation, identifying relevant data, using math to calculate needed values, and presenting the findings in a way that states the problem and shows its solution in visual, numerical,and written ways. That’s “engineering thinking”. “Math thinking” is a subset of that, just steps 2 & 3.</p>
<p>I like seeing the variety of thoughts on this. It’s as much about the journey as the outcome. Thanks to the OP for bringing this topic up!</p>
<p>DS is also an engineering student, who is thriving at Bama, we advised him to choose a university that offered a number of majors since a high percentage of students who start in engineering finish with a different degree. I have a degree in Recreation so I don’t offer advice regarding engineering courses.</p>
<p>Thanks to all that posted. Sorry I’ve appeared absent, computer was down and I am horrid at texting on my cell.</p>
<p>DS breezed first exam, so in his case, I think he started thinking the class would be easy. </p>
<p>After reading here and discussing with him further, we realized his lowest exam grade is dropped when semester ends, so his grade isn’t as low as he thought. His instructor also posted the average grade at mid-term and he is below, but not by much. </p>
<p>I have encouraged (and begged) him to go to the ENGinuity lab tutoring.</p>
<p>He has met with his instructor, but that was not helpful. He was just told to “work harder.” Not concrete enough advice.</p>
<p>He struggles with time management and his sleep patterns are way out of whack because of his ECs. </p>
<p>Thanks again for all the advice!</p>
<p>Bumping for anyone taking in Spring 2014</p>
<p>DS has found his class with Monk is vastly more time consuming than suitemates’ courses. Group projects with Monk require each individual to complete all aspects and each to turn in a paper; his suitemates were able to divide duties among group and turn in single page for entire group.</p>
<p>Monk is one of the professors who designed the class.</p>
<p>Spring Instructors have not been posted yet, but just wanted to give a heads up since you can’t find info on Rate My Prof.</p>
<p>DS has learned quite a bit in the class – #1 thing - proper format has a large impact on the grade.</p>
<p>Glad to learn your DS has gotten his legs under him and is figuring out class expectations. Learning to pay attention to details and satisfy the instructor (and not yourself) is an important lesson for all college students.</p>
<p>Is your son in a Regular or Honors section? This could be the reason for the additional requirement of individual write ups.</p>
<p>Although this is stressful now, it will be a good prep for your engineering students for the future. In their final semesters, they will have to take W designated engineering courses. These involve long lab reports, taking all weekend to complete, and the grading is puzzling, too. I know it is easy to get discouraged in the beginning, but believe me, hanging in there through the tough courses will only help you endure the final years. It will all be worth it in the end. Good luck. And hey, can you believe it, the semester is almost over! Just keep telling them, it’s almost over!</p>
<p>See my previous post #26. A teacher with higher expectations than another teacher will always stand a student in better stead in the long run.</p>
<p>Honors - Yes, my son is in Honors, but his suitemates are also in Honors with another Prof.</p>
<p>Most of his Test grades have all been good from the start; it is the HW grade that is hit or miss.</p>
<p>I do agree with Aeromom that he’ll be better off in the long run by having a solid foundation; just the short run GPA hit that isn’t great.</p>
<p>Kids in spring semester courses should ask around once Professors are announced. If DS realized how time consuming the class would be he would have switched around other courses to better be able to balance time.</p>
<p>So does Calculus BC credit exempt this course? I do not see it on the AP chart. If BC Calculus does, does AB as well? I am curious to pertinent this course is to a computer science major.</p>
<p>Sorry, somehow missed this. BC exempted this semester, but AB did not. DS said many Chem E and Comp students felt the class has no correlation to their majors. However, my understanding is many faculty did not like the skip option, so it may not be there in the future.</p>
<p>My DH is a mechanical engineer and he was very impressed with some of the concepts presented in the class. It was a surprise class for our ME freshman son because I think he (and us) thought it would be a much easier class than it turned out to be. It has been a lot of work, but it has helped my son to solidify ME as his major. Also, we have friends (GT engineering grads) with freshmen engineering students at Georgia Tech and they have no class like this for their engineering students. They were equally impressed with the curriculum!</p>
<p>Just an update – DS received a B+ in the Honors class with Monk. Not what he hoped for, but I am thrilled.</p>
<p>He had an 89 semester grade.</p>
<p>The average semester grade for the class was 85.78.</p>
<p>The final was worth 25%; average of 4 mid-term tests worth 25%; homework worth 25% and projects worth 25%.</p>
<p>RECAP – Monk will challenge the student AND demand the student pay attention to the details of the homework (including headings and formatting). </p>
<p>Thanks to all of you who let manic Mom vent here :)</p>
<p>Congrats! a B+ in a challenging class is an achievement! :)</p>
<p>What a relief!</p>
<p>*RECAP – Monk will challenge the student AND demand the student pay attention to the details of the homework (including headings and formatting). *</p>
<p>Warning for anyone taking English Lit, English Frosh Comp, the upper division Writing Intensive classes or some of the Honors classes that require essays…many of those profs can be sticklers for formatting, works cited pages, following MLS (or that other one) format, etc.</p>