Learning simulation through team projects

For several years, team projects have been an integral part of the simulation course at the department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. We believe that team projects are an effective tool for learning how to perform simulation. In this paper, we present a brief summary of research on cooperative learning from the field of education research. Based on findings from that research, we present the procedure we follow in assigning, running, and evaluating team projects during an academic semester. We analyze students' responses to a survey on their preference and perceived value of the team project as conducted in this course. Two student papers, published in this conference, provide for examples of completed team projects.