Evaluating Retention of Engineering Problem Solving Skills of First-Year Engineering Students

One of the overriding topics in education is determining how well students retain knowledge from a particular course.In this study, we wished to evaluate not only the improvement of problem solving skills during the Fall semester but also the retention of those skills to the beginning of the Spring semester.Therefore, in the Fall Semester of 2010, we administered a Pre-Test during the first week of the Introduction to Engineering I course.The Pre-Test content included the engineering problem solving topics to be covered during the upcoming semester.During the Fall semester, we administered two, in-class, closed-notes, closed-book exams.In addition to the Pre-Test and the exams in the Fall, students were unexpectedly presented a Post-Test on the Introduction to Engineering I material during the first week of their Introduction to Engineering II course in the Spring 2011.Student performance improved remarkably between the Pre-Test and the in-class exams.Although student performance dropped slightly from the inclass exams to the Post-Test, many key concepts and skills were retained.