Work in progress - the dance of change the reality of college life and beyond

What if you could only teach one idea, concept, or tool to the freshman engineering student? What would it be? While most of us would teach them how to learn, we know that is not the most important issue facing their survivor in the newly diverse environment called the university. How about teaching them the concept of adaptability, how to measure their question of adaptability, how to learn the dance of change and adaptability that is demanded on them for the rest of their lives? In this paper we will introduce our ideas, approaches and findings related to freshman engineering program at Iowa State University. We will examine our objectives, our introductory class design, and the effect we see on the students´ education and growth into active university participants and engineers who are well rounded to face the challenges of the future. We believe our approach of actively seeking students´ change inertia and ways to measure and communicate it to the students is a valid key to their success. This paper will address some of our newest findings in our ongoing research focus on engineering education