Fostering Effective Multidisciplinary Student Teams Through Engineering Projects in Community Service

通过社区服务工程项目培养有效的多学科学生团队

• 批准号: 0123884
• 负责人: Leah Jamieson
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-09-15 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0123884&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Fostering; Effective; Multidisciplinary; Student; Teams

Over the past ten years, it has become widely recognized that engineering students need skills that go beyond their technical strengths: skills in communication, project planning, and teamwork, as well as an awareness of the customer in an engineering design project, of ethical and professional issues, and of the social and global context in which their engineering is employed. A key component of this broader education is experience in collaborating with people from many disciplines. At the same time that engineering students are faced with the need to learn "soft skills," students from essentially all other disciplines are faced with a need to understand and appreciate technology. A powerful vehicle for enhancing the technical fluency of non-technical students is participation on design-oriented project teams with students from technical disciplines. The PI is leading a faculty team from education, organizational psychology, organizational communication, and engineering to address the issue of fostering effective multidisciplinary student teams. The EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) program provides the framework for the proposed work. EPICS students earn academic credit for long-term, multidisciplinary, team-based projects that solve technology-based problems faced by not-for-profit community service agencies, K-12 schools, museums, and municipal organizations. Founded at Purdue in 1995, EPICS programs are in progress at six universities and planned at two more, with over 500 students participating on over 50 project teams paired with community partners. Although EPICS projects are engineering-centered, effective real-world solutions rarely depend on a single discipline. The quality of the teams' solutions and the breadth of the students' educational experience will therefore be profoundly affected if the institutional and educational challenges to creating well-functioning multidisciplinary teams can be addressed. Outcomes of the project are anticipated in three areas: Student learning outcomes: The project is developing vehicles to enhance students' ability to work effectively on multidisciplinary teams. As a result of their experience, students should be able to: identify and articulate areas of contribution from their discipline; apply their disciplinary knowledge to advance the team's goals; respect the contributions of individuals from other disciplines; describe how different disciplines add to the effectiveness of the team; enjoy the interactions with other disciplines in accomplishing the team's objectives. EPICS / Program outcomes: The increased effectiveness of the student teams enhances the ability of the teams to meet their community partner's needs. Pedagogical Methods outcomes: The project is developing a body of experience that draws on research and practice from several fields, and recasting the findings to apply them to the specific problems faced by teams of undergraduates in an academic setting. By developing structures and processes that transform EPICS into a truly multidisciplinary program, the potential impact extends beyond the student, program, and pedagogical outcomes. EPICS provides a framework for the in-context integration of faculty research and undergraduate education by the faculty from the many disciplines who will advise teams, bringing the full spectrum of research into the classroom. The collaboration of Engineering, Science, Education, and Liberal Arts has the potential to break down institutional barriers, transforming the way we think about the university. The partnership between student teams and the community gives both students and the people with whom they work a new view of the university, with the potential to transform the image of science and engineering.

在过去的十年中，人们已经广泛认识到，工程专业的学生需要超越他们的技术优势的技能：沟通，项目规划和团队合作的技能，以及在工程设计项目中对客户的认识，道德和专业问题，以及他们的工程所处的社会和全球背景。这种更广泛的教育的一个关键组成部分是与来自许多学科的人合作的经验。与此同时，工程专业的学生面临着学习“软技能”的需要，基本上所有其他学科的学生都面临着理解和欣赏技术的需要。提高非技术专业学生的技术流利性的一个强大工具是与技术学科的学生一起参与以设计为导向的项目团队。PI正在领导一个来自教育，组织心理学，组织沟通和工程的教师团队，以解决培养有效的多学科学生团队的问题。EPICS（社区服务工程项目）计划为拟议的工作提供了框架。EPICS学生获得学分的长期，多学科，以团队为基础的项目，解决非营利社区服务机构，K-12学校，博物馆和市政组织所面临的技术为基础的问题。EPICS项目于1995年在普渡大学成立，目前正在六所大学进行，并计划在另外两所大学进行，超过500名学生参加了与社区合作伙伴配对的50多个项目团队。虽然EPICS项目以工程为中心，但有效的现实解决方案很少依赖于单一学科。因此，如果能够解决建立运作良好的多学科团队的体制和教育挑战，团队解决方案的质量和学生教育经验的广度将受到深刻影响。预计该项目将在三个方面取得成果：学生学习成果：该项目正在开发工具，以提高学生在多学科团队中有效工作的能力。作为他们的经验的结果，学生应该能够：识别和阐明他们的学科贡献的领域;应用他们的学科知识，以推进团队的目标;尊重来自其他学科的个人的贡献;描述不同的学科如何增加团队的有效性;享受与其他学科的互动，以实现团队的目标。EPICS /计划成果：学生团队的有效性提高了团队满足社区合作伙伴需求的能力。教学方法成果：该项目正在发展一套经验，借鉴几个领域的研究和实践，并重新审视研究结果，将其应用于大学生团队在学术环境中面临的具体问题。通过开发将EPICS转变为真正的多学科计划的结构和过程，潜在的影响超出了学生，计划和教学成果。EPICS为教师研究和本科教育的背景下整合提供了一个框架，由来自许多学科的教师为团队提供建议，将全方位的研究带入课堂。工程，科学，教育和文科的合作有可能打破制度障碍，改变我们对大学的看法。学生团队和社区之间的伙伴关系为学生和与他们一起工作的人提供了对大学的新看法，并有可能改变科学和工程的形象。