The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not always reflect the views of Reverb.
As an educator, I love making students who once hated a subject fall in love with it. This has happened multiple times with my engineering students.
It’s been my experience that if an elective, many students who come into an engineering class do not actually want to be in the class.
Some tell me they hate Math or they hate Engineering and are sure they will not do well.
Here’s what I tell them.
“If you can look past the class’s ‘label’ and see how things are engineered on a daily basis, you will have no more fear.”
For instance, while defining the concept of speed, which is change in distance divided by change in time, I let students know their cars constantly calculate and display their speeds in miles per hour as they drive.
Seeing concepts from a basic point of view makes a significant difference.
I had a Georgia Tech student in China who hated engineering at the beginning of the semester.
This student failed his first exam.
By the end of the semester, however, he was consistently scoring among the highest in his class.
I was thrilled to write him a letter of recommendation for an internship afterward.
With patience and understanding, all students can be reached!
