This work examines the impact different pedagogical approaches in an engineering statics course had on student learning, long-term retention of material, student interest in their field of study and how the impact differs with gender. During the 2015-2016 academic year, five sections of engineering statics were taught, for a total of approximately 130 students including all sophomore civil and mechanical engineering students along with junior and senior electrical engineering students and some bio-engineering students pursuing a minor in mechanical engineering. Four sections, each taught by different professors, implemented significant pedagogical changes. Course changes incorporated flipped classes, flipped-flipped classes and many hands on activities. One of the professors taught the fifth section as a control group using their normal teaching style that includes more traditional active learning methods like group work, questioning and demonstrationsTo assess the impact of the pedagogical approaches, the statics concept inventory developed by Paul Steif was used twice during the course to assess pre-then post-course knowledge. The concept inventory was also used to assess long-term retention of a cohort of students one to four months after they finished the course. Results between the control class and the students taught with the inverted model are compared. Students filled out a post-course survey asking for input on activities and videos and how they perceived the course helped them learn and engage in the subject and engineering.Results from this work indicate the specific active learning technique implemented is less important in student learning gains and student engagement than the experience and training of the faculty member in effectively implementing active learning methodologies. Students in all sections showed long-term retention of course topics and had similar preferences in contentdelivery methods. Gender differences were striking, with female students gaining significantly to their male counterparts. The results of this study provide insight for other researchers hoping to implement active learning approaches in introductory engineering courses. IntroductionEngineering statics is one of the first classes specific to the fields of civil and mechanical engineering and an important opportunity to engage engineering students in a challenging subject in their field of study. Extensive lecturing is still the most common form of instruction for engineering faculty at Santa Clara University, with over 70% of STEM faculty self-reporting lecturing "most" or "all" of the time.1 A recent meta-analysis by Freeman, et.al. 2 of over 225 studies in STEM education, indicates that students in STEM courses taught with extensive lecturing are 1.5 times more likely to fail, earn a D, or withdraw from the course than students taught with active-learning methods in the same STEM course subject. To facilitate other SCU faculty in adopting more active approaches in the statics course, the authors developed a...

where she teaches undergraduate courses in civil engineers. Before coming to SCU, Laura was a post doctoral scholar for the John Muir Institute of the Environment at University of California, Davis where she used multi-dimensional models to examine water quality of the San Francisco Bay Delta system. She earned her masters and doctoral degrees at UC Davis and her undergraduate degree (all in civil engineering) is from Loyola Marymount University.

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