An Investigation into the Preparation of High School Students to Pursue an Engineering Career

All new students admitted to Texas A&M University at Qatar undertake a course entitled Foundations of Engineering I (ENGR 111); an introduction to the engineering profession and its required skills. It has been established that most of the freshmen students who join the University face significant challenges in this course and thus struggle in completing their engineering degrees. The goal of this research was to determine the main reasons behind the observed weaknesses. Detailed student surveys and class room observations were designed and then conducted in eight local schools to assess the extent to which students were introduced to five basic engineering skills that form the essence of the foundation course. Results of these surveys indicated that students were introduced to the appropriate sequence of steps needed for analytical thinking throughout most of the classes. As for problem solving, although an appropriate sequence in solving a specific problem was followed in 97% of classes observed, no explanation was given on why that specific answer was selected and alternative approaches to solve the problem were not suggested. Students were also given limited exposure to teamwork. Students were also rarely involved in design activities and infrequently encouraged to contribute with suggestions or ideas. Finally, during the classrooms observations, it was noticed that the students were not exposed to online resources to do their research and assignments. This research has shown that there exist significant weaknesses in the Qatari high school resulting in the poor preparation of the students for careers such as engineering. The results have provided an insight on how the ENGR 111 course should be reshaped to satisfy the needs of the future incoming students. Moreover, these results can be shared with schools in Qatar to assist them to better prepare their students for an engineering degree. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.