Worcester Polytechnic Institute



Student Survey #2

Welcome Back! As part of the NSF-Sponsored Institute-Wide Reform Initiative at WPI, we are collecting information on student attitudes and opinions to improve courses and curriculum.

Instructions:

Do this post-course survey only once! (Even if more than one instructor asks you to do it!)

Your answers will be kept confidential. The information provided will be used in a curriculum development project.

Your instructor may provide credit for completing this post-course survey, but the information provided by you will not influence your grade in any other way.
Thanks for taking the time to fill out and submit this form!


Name: SS#: - -
Email: Age:
Gender: F M
Major Department:
Class Year:



Rate your confidence in your ability to succeed in the following introductory courses at WPI:

(Choosing 1 means that you have no confidence, choosing 5 means that you are very confident.)
MATH: 1 2 3 4 5 PHYSICS: 1 2 3 4 5
CHEMISTRY: 1 2 3 4 5 BIOLOGY: 1 2 3 4 5



Choose the answer that best fits your response to each of the following statements.

SD = Strongly Disagree D = Disagree N = No Opinion A = Agree SA = Strongly Agree


SD D N A SA
Question #1: Work in technological fields requires a strong background in "the basics" of college-level mathematics and science. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #2: Many real-world problems require tools from more than one academic discipline. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #3: After I complete a course, I rarely refer back to the notes or books from that course. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #4: I saw connections between different first-year courses. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #5: I believe that what I learn in the first-year will be useful in my later courses. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #6: Homework for a course should require only material covered in that course. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #7: I like to work with other students on course assignments. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #8: To be a good engineer or scientist, it is important to be well educated in basic science and mathematics. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #9: Most of what you learn in an introductory science course is not really useful outside that class. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #10: Mathematics, chemistry, biology, and physics are each "separate worlds" that have little if any relationship to one another. 1 2 3 4 5



SD D N A SA
Question #11: I do not expect to change my major in the next two years. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #12: Courses in the first-year will NOT be relevant to my later studies. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #13: Creativity is more important than technical knowledge for a good engineer. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #14: Working with an interdisciplinary team of experts would be more enjoyable than working with a team of specialists in the same area. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #15: I prefer problems that follow directly from material covered in class. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #16: Professors should try to emphasize connections between concepts from different introductory courses. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #17: I learn mathematical principles more easily when they are applied to real-world problems. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #18: I expect to see connections between introductory courses and my chosen major. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #19: Calculus has broad applications in science and engineering. 1 2 3 4 5
Question #20: Concepts from one scientific discipline are rarely relevant to other scientific disciplines. 1 2 3 4 5



How often did you use each of the following resources for your course work this term?

0 = Never 1 = Very Rarely 2 = Once a Week 3 = Several Times per Week 4 = Every Day
Textbook 0 1 2 3 4 Other Students in the Class 0 1 2 3 4
Advanced Students 0 1 2 3 4 Faculty Member 0 1 2 3 4
Library 0 1 2 3 4 Internet 0 1 2 3 4




Art Heinricher <heinrich@wpi.edu>
Last modified: Thu Dec 11 11:55:05 EST 1997