Cooperative learning in engineering through academic excellence workshops at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

In order to increase the number of successful underrepresented minority engineering graduates, the Minority Engineering Program and the Mechanical Engineering Department developed two model academic excellence workshops for introductory engineering mechanics: vector statics, first offered in the fall of 1987, and vector dynamics, begun in the spring of 1988. The results of the workshops have been dramatic. In the first vector statics workshop underrepresented minorities, who on the average have historically scored lower in engineering mechanics than other groups, scored on the average one full letter grade above students who were not a part of the workshop program. The authors present the overall structure of the program and the focus of the workshop sessions, especially in engineering mechanics. Workshop strategy is described, and program cost is noted