Teaming activities in a freshman engineering and computer science course aimed towards recruitment and retention

Our university has an open enrollment policy. This means that any person with a high school diploma can enroll in engineering or computer science. As a result entering students have a range of abilities from being excellent in math and science to struggling to understand algebra concepts. The current course, developed over the past five years has seen the overall engineering retention grow from 45% to 70%. This has been accomplished through hands-on experience, establishing a sense of community, developing an understanding of how to be successful in studying, and fostering collaboration among students through cooperative teaming events. This paper describes three major teaming events within the freshman engineering and computer science course that have contributed to fostering collaboration and helped provide an enjoyable experience within the college. Data from each event is provided which includes the students' candid feedback, what they like and dislike, and what implementations they would like to see in the future. Students discover that working as a team takes effort and that a team's result depends upon each member's efforts. Overall the teaming activities have been well received.