Based on data collected over the past few years in the Mechanical Engineering department at Texas A&M, some students were not ready for the capstone experience. Therefore, the UNITES team was initiated as a multi-year NSF-funded project aiming to better equip our students with the much-needed “soft” teamwork skills before they start their engineering careers.
Since finding time to fit new teaching materials into an already busy and dynamic curriculum can be a challenge and substantial changes to the current curriculum are not feasible, we have introduced three modules of new content as one- to two-hour workshops within existing courses. These courses involve team projects to allow students to immediately implement their learnings and reflect on their experiences. The workshops highlight expectations and deliverables, team communication, and conflict management, respectively, at the sophomore, junior, and senior levels. Even with the short time span, the workshops are designed to be active and engaging so that students can build awareness, gain experience, and have open discussions with their peers. All of this together can establish trust among team members.
The Mechanical Department at Texas A&M has close to 500 students involved in the two-semester capstone projects at a given time. This means that 70-80 teams are formed every year – many of which are industry-sponsored. This project has the potential to greatly impact our students’ experiences here at Texas A&M and into their engineering careers. We have already seen positive impacts on our students resulting from this work.
Click here to see the modules!