A study of calculus I students

Abstract

A great deal of retention research centers on students entering engineering college and placed in Calculus I. In a University of Michigan research study of first-year engineering retention, the special case of the academic success and retention of engineering students enrolled in Calculus I was considered. In this study, Calculus I engineering students were compared to students in other fields of study (Pre-Med, non-engineering STEM students, and Non-STEM students) who also enrolled in Calculus I as their first math course in college. "STEM" refers to science, technology, engineering and math majors. From this study, the following research conclusions were made: 1. There was no significant difference in the grade distribution of the engineering students. Calculus I grade compared to students in other fields. 2. A significant difference in the distributions of the first-year GPA (grade point average) existed among the four student sectors with the engineering students showing the distribution with the lowest first-year GPA. 3. There was no significant difference in the retention of students from the first year of college to the beginning of the second year. The retention for engineering students enrolled in Calculus I was 95.6%. The significance of this research is the comparison of first-year student success performance of engineering students enrolled in Calculus I to students in three other fields of study. This research adds to the literature of similar comparisons of the college GPA, except that this study is specific to engineering students enrolled in Calculus I. While it is significant that Calculus I students in engineering have the same first-year retention rate as students in the other fields, the first-year academic performance was less for engineering students, suggesting that they are at a higher risk for academic probation and eventually dropping out of engineering college. A discussion including the comparison of the first-year STEM GPA distributions is included. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2009.