(478e) Impact of Rose-Hulman Institute of Tecnology's Freshman Engineering Course in Chemical Engineering On Retention

The transition from the freshman to sophomore years is often considered to be the critical stage in the retention of engineering students. Our students' first exposure to the chemical engineering curriculum is during the spring quarter of the freshman year in our Introduction to Design course. This recently revised course exposes the students to a wide range of chemical engineering applications in a team-focused, problem-based learning environment, with one of the goals being the retention of freshmen in the chemical engineering curriculum. In this presentation, we will examine the impact of this course on freshman retention as well as the effect the changes have had on the students' perception of chemical engineering as a profession.