The Picker Engineering Program, established in 2000, is the first engineering program at an all-women's college in the United States. One of its aims is to develop learner-centered pedagogies that better attract, educate and retain women in engineering. In their first year at Smith, prospective engineering majors take calculus, physics, chemistry, and computer science, as well as a project-based introduction to engineering. The first engineering course with rigorous scientific content is EGR 270, Continuum Mechanics, which students take in the fall of their sophomore year. Since the program's inception we have found that a number of students struggle in this course because of difficulties with pre-calculus math skills, calculus and physics. This paper presents the rationale, content, pedagogy and assessment of a one-week course designed to help academically at-risk engineering students in the summer before their sophomore year. The primary goal of the course, Physics and Engineering Problem Solving, is to deepen conceptual understanding and to improve problem-solving skills for selected topics in physics and engineering. A secondary goal is to facilitate the development of a relationship between the participants and Smith's Quantitative Learning Center (QLC). To achieve these goals, the course was developed using learner-centered strategies that are based upon both cognitive and social cognitive theories about learning.
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