Managing and mentoring capstone design teams: considerations and practices for faculty

• Autores: Marie C. Paretti, Richard A. Layton, Stephen Laguette, Greg Speegle
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 27, no. Extra 6, 2011, págs. 1192-1205
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper presents the findings from a panel session at the 2010 Capstone Design Conference in Boulder, Colorado in whichpanelists and participants had a lively discussion about practices associated with managing and mentoring student teams. The threebroad topics discussed at the session were the methods of assigning teams, product versus process learning objectives for designteams, and non-technical aspects of team performance (e.g. race and gender dynamics, professional and interpersonalcommunication). For each topic, the paper describes the wide variety of views and approaches (some contradictory) that wereexplored regarding each topic, as well as the factors affecting choice of approach. In addition, the paper highlights three themesthat recurred across the topics: 1) clear learning objectives for capstone or any project-based activity are central to effectivelydesigning and mentoring teams; 2) faculty participants do care deeply about their students and take steps to act in ways thatbenefit students, and 3) both positive and negative aspects of student attitudes and behaviors may reflect faculty attitudes andbehaviors, implying that we should examine and act to improve our departmental cultures if we hope to affect student performance. The results of this discussion point strongly to the need for more research on teaming in capstone courses to betterunderstand the relationships among curricular environment, student development, and learning outcomes.