Team Building in a Project-Based Learning Course

Implementing a project-based approach in a core macroscale equipment design calculations course sounds like a good idea as students become motivated to learn fundamental concepts to accomplish their project design and at the same time develop team skills through an industry-like team approach.However, we find organizing the class into teams and assigning a project task is a small part of what needs to happen for those teams to function properly.Typically teams have considerable issues in terms of interpersonal relationships, schedule miss-matches, distribution of labor, and sharing leadership responsibilities.While there are websites that help with senior level design team performance these are not usually used for courses offered earlier in the curriculum.In a recent offering of a junior level two-credit one-semester Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer course we asked students to use a team-centered website originally developed for senior level integrated design course assessment and learning.The process begins with joint development of a team contract followed by team citizenship assessments for formative improvement of the team process during the semester.Finally a summative aspect is added in which team members rate each other on their contributions and achievements.The website provides the instructor a listing of team comments that affords ample opportunity for assessing team development.We find by use of the website that students who typically overwork to accomplish tasks left undone by others now begin to challenge others and encourage them to reach a higher potential.In this paper we document a case study for one particular team and demonstrate how use of a team-training website adds significant benefit to the team experience.Inclusive Climate: Building an inclusive supportive climate for all members.Member Commitment: Gaining buy-in and interdependence of all members.Conflict Resolution: Resolving conflicts to enhance teamwork.Joint Achievements Goal Establishment: Establishing shared team goals.Planning and Management: Managing tasks to achieve team goals.