Combining Mentorship with Inductive Reasoning
Funded 2021-24
Cross-department collaboration was exemplified by the Physics and Astronomy departments. Their entire cohort for three years, totaling 801 students during the academic years between 2021-2024, was impacted through several courses and a tiered mentorship tutoring program. Together, these departments established an official elective course, C101 Order-of-Magnitude Physics, that provides students the intuition to ask and answer well-posed mathematical questions in any topic of the physical sciences, from the biomechanics of flying to the quantum mechanics of semiconductors.
- Reach: 801 + 150 new students every year.
- Program sustainability beyond grant term: two courses and multiple autonomous student-run courses that enforce the thinking skills required for real-world applications and under-the-hood intuition. Major laboratory equipment upgrades.
- A robust peer mentoring program through the establishment of the Student Learning Center and student-run DeCal courses, modeling scalable provisions of one-on-one guidance that students need.
- Cross-department collaboration and a tight intra-department community was built in Physics and Astronomy among cohorts, mentors, faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.
