Teaching Engineering Content to First-Year Students: Does it Impact Success in Future Coursework?

This paper details a course developed at the University of Arkansas -Fort Smith called Engineering Analysis.The course was designed for first year students in engineering to learn critical content that should boost their chances of success in their sophomore year.This content included vector math, computer programming, and solving systems of linear equations.The course was first implemented in fall 2011 and this work represents the first analysis of the effect of the course on sophomore performance in engineering.The performance of the Engineering Statics and Engineering Physics I courses were used to gauge the impact of the Engineering Analysis course.