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How introductory courses deter minority students from STEM degrees
phys.org ^
| 09/28/2022
Posted on 09/28/2022 5:33:33 AM PDT by devane617
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To: moovova
I hope at least half the people on the thread get that.
To: NorthMountain
You haven’t lived until you’ve had graduate level statistical thermodynamics, wherein you do things like learn how to calculate the pressure in a pressure vessel by counting the molecule bounces off the walls . . .
To: N. Theknow
I’d laugh, but I’m afraid this unreality is what libiots want to inflict on all.
To: central_va
Then there are guys like one of my college roommates at a major league tech school, who was a 4.0 in Physics, and could crush beer cans on his forehead like Bluto Blutarski.
To: Elsie
To: chaosagent
Yes. Spatial relations is a term used for that in the general sense, or was, and it tends to be something men are better at than women.
To: mewzilla
What in heck is intro calculus? To get into calculus, I had to retake Algebra 1, 2, then Trig. BFD.
To: NetAddicted
He was an excellent husband, father, and provider. He and my Mom stayed together until her death (54 years of marriage). He passed 6 months later.
208
posted on
09/28/2022 5:04:33 PM PDT
by
TheWriterTX
(Trust not in earthly princes....!)
To: FreedomPoster
That often starts with EE, and sometimes includes a stop in CE along the way.
To: Professional Engineer
Optionally sub EE for ME and/or CE for IE, sure.
A counterpoint to my own list - about 20 years ago I had a tennis buddy who was an IE professor. I went to his office once, and there were all sorts of Cisco materials, and I am not talking about CCIE training manuals (which were quite tough, probably still are). Very theoretical stuff. Naturally I was curious.
It turns out high level queuing theory of the sort IEs did for complex logistics also had practical applications in routers, and he was doing work for Cisco.
To: FreedomPoster
I studied Physics at the “PhD” level for 2 years before dropping out. I remember Electrodynamics, Solid State Physics, Quantum Mechanics, and a ton of math.I would probably have failed the graduate version of thermodynamics ...
Father, forgive me ... I have strayed from the True Faith.
I got an engineering degree.
;’}
211
posted on
09/28/2022 6:22:38 PM PDT
by
NorthMountain
(... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
To: cuban leaf
212
posted on
09/28/2022 6:45:37 PM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: cuban leaf
...and the law threatening us with a life sentence ain’t as scary as it used to be.
213
posted on
09/28/2022 6:46:25 PM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: devane617; NorthMountain
All the cool kids for the last 15 years or so have had water-cooled CPU and GPU desktops for maximum performance gaming rigs. They think they’re so ahead of things.
Well, I’ll have them know I was water cooling CPUs in the mid-1980s, long before these kids thought about it (or were born). I’m talking 45F chilled brine straight to the CPU. Of course, it was for a pair of 360s, and we’re talking about a pair of 90 ton Trane recip water chillers to make the cooling happen for the CPUs and the giant room full of peripherals! Big insurance operation.
To: FreedomPoster
When they tore out an Amdahl mainframe from a building I worked in eons ago, totally screwed up the HVAC system. Neither heating nor cooling was quite right after. Still “effed” when I left 3 years later ...
215
posted on
09/28/2022 7:04:51 PM PDT
by
NorthMountain
(... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
To: FreedomPoster
DCAA is the Defense Contract Audit Agency. I wasted 3 years of my life there, but it allowed me to bring in my active duty military years in for pension purposes.
As the name implies, their mission is to audit defense contracts. Terribly bureaucratic, poor management, the work is mind numbingly boring. The demographics of the Agency is over 60% women.
The office I worked at had 7 supervisors, all women, most with Napoleonic complexes. There was one supervisor who was excellent, but I never had the opportunity to work for her.
216
posted on
09/28/2022 7:06:57 PM PDT
by
Night Hides Not
(Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
To: Night Hides Not
Sounds nightmarish. I’m glad you got what you needed out of it and got out with your sanity intact!
To: Chickensoup
The intro course is a tough comprehensive overview.
No, it's not.
Students interested in such subjects typically take introductory courses like calculus or general chemistry
...
The investigators studied the records of student performance in introductory courses in physical sciences, life sciences, mathematical and computational sciences, and engineering to discern the likelihood of students earning degrees in these subjects.
What they mean by "introductory courses" are just the basic courses that almost every student takes unless their major is art history or dance or such. Chemistry, life sciences?, physical sciences (you take basic Newtonian Mechanics and E&M in HIGH SCHOOL)...? Sure, calculus might be more limited in which degrees require it, but if students can't easily pass this pile of basic courses, what makes anyone think they would have any chance of being successful in college whatsoever? Sure, I agree with you that they'll have trouble in more difficult classes that use and build on the subjects from these "intro" courses, but the problem goes much further than aptitude to be in 'STEM'.
I had to take an intro 1-hr "Problems in Mech and Aero Engineering" that UTA recently added for some reason. I transferred in with 65+ hours, but nothing checked the specific box for this class, so I had to take it, despite having credit for 5-6 courses it's a pre-req for... Sigh. The entire class was a waste of time half-teaching almost nothing but 3D vectors. I got an "amazing approach" comment for using the law of cosines (sines?) on a HW problem, since they never taught to use it, made the problem done in a couple steps instead of a pageful of vector crap. There were kids in that class that didn't know what the associative property for addition was. Not "didn't remember the difference between associative or commutative or etc..", but kids that had somehow never even been taught them in the first place. Granted, a bunch were international students from India, but this is 2nd grade material that COLLEGE kids were needing to be taught. You bet they needed to be switched to a history/liberal arts degree plan!
To: FreedomPoster
The progression joke when I was at the technological institute was:
ME => IE => IM => I’m out
That’s mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, and industrial management, for those not familiar.
Fail out rates were in the 25-35% range IIRC.
That's funny. This chick I know failed out of the Aero program (by failed I mean didn't keep a 2.25 GPA to stay in), so she switched her major to "construction management". Said she's now regularly taking 18hr semesters and easily getting almost all As in them. And she still has more free time than AEs and MEs taking a bare 12-14 hours who are plenty happy with a B or some Cs...
To: Svartalfiar
I assume you are taking recent courses. I assure you that traditionally the intros have been tough across the sciences.
You were in a program that was teaching to their uneducated incoming students.
The biggest issue in American education. Why I tell people to remove children from government schools and oversee their education.
220
posted on
09/29/2022 4:15:08 AM PDT
by
Chickensoup
( Leftists totalitarian fascists are eradicating conservatives. Leftists are genocidal. )
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