Practicing What we Preach: A Multi-Disciplinary Team Teaching Multi-Disciplinary Teamwork
- Conference
- Location
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Columbus, Ohio
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2017
- Start Date
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June 24, 2017
- End Date
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June 28, 2017
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Multidisciplinary Engineering
- Page Count
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16
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--28748
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/28748
- Download Count
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788
Paper Authors
Ada Hurst
University of Waterloo
orcid.org/0000-0002-2481-8566
Ada Hurst is a Lecturer in the Department of Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She has taught and coordinated the capstone design project course for the Management Engineering program since 2011. She also teaches courses in organizational behavior, theory, and technology. She received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering, followed by Master of Applied Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Management Sciences, all from the University of Waterloo. Ada’s research and teaching interests include decision making under uncertainty, subjective probability, gender issues in STEM disciplines, design teaching, experiential and online learning, team processes, and peer review.
Mehrnaz Mostafapour University of Waterloo
Rania Al-Hammoud P.Eng. University of Waterloo
Dr. Al-Hammoud is a Faculty lecturer (Graduate Attributes) in the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Al-Hammoud has a passion for teaching where she continuously seeks new technologies to involve students in their learning process. She is actively involved in the Ideas Clinic, a major experiential learning initiative at the University of Waterloo. She is also responsible for developing a process and assessing graduate attributes at the department to target areas for improvement in the curriculum. This resulted in several publications in this educational research areas.
Dr. Al-Hammoud won a couple of teaching awards in 2014 and 2016 from University of Waterloo. Her students regard her as an innovative teacher who introduced new ideas to the classroom. Such ideas include using “props” to increase students’ understanding of the materials, as well as using new technology such as i-clickers and IF-AT cards. Dr. Al-Hammoud also organized a bridge-building contest in one of her courses where she worked with other professors in the department to integrate the project horizontally across the curriculum.
Andrea Prier University of Waterloo
Andrea Prier is the Senior Academic Development Specialist within the Student Success Office at the University of Waterloo. She holds a PhD from the University of Windsor in the field of Cognition and Learning. Andrea’s research interests include STEM education and the design of research informed retention initiatives.
Erin Jobidon University of Waterloo
Carol Hulls P.Eng.
University of Waterloo
orcid.org/0000-0003-0236-3676
Dr. Carol Hulls, P.Eng. is a Continuing Lecturer in the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo. She has been teaching courses in programming, robotics, and digital logic since 1999. Always looking to improve classroom learning, she has tried a variety of techniques including Tablet teaching, flipped classrooms, and experiential learning. She received her BASc, MASc, and PhD from the University of Waterloo in Electrical and Computer Engineering. In 2016 she was awarded the STLHE-Brightspace Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning.
Christopher Rennick
University of Waterloo
orcid.org/0000-0003-1682-3311
Mr. Christopher Rennick received his B.A.Sc., Electrical Engineering in 2007 and his M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 2009, both from the University of Windsor, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Since 2010, he has been employed with the University of Waterloo, as teaching staff in First Year Engineering.
Jason Grove P.E. University of Waterloo
Jason Grove is the Graduate Attributes Lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is responsible for leading the continuous program assessment improvement process for the chemical and nanotechnology engineering programs. He is also heavily involved in the development of Waterloo Engineering’s IDEAS Clinic initiative.
Dr. Grove obtained his PhD from the University of Waterloo investigating the microbial community ecology in biofilters used for air pollution control. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford.
Eugene Li University of Waterloo
Sanjeev Bedi P.Eng. University of Waterloo
Dr. Sanjeev Bedi is the Director of the Engineering Ideas Clinic. He earned his PhD from the University of Victoria in 1987. As a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo, his research focus is machining, and he is well known for developing innovative 5-axis tool-positioning and flank-milling techniques.
Abstract
The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo has identified teamwork as a skill that requires immediate attention [1]. A multi-disciplinary team was assembled to address this challenge. The team is made up of members of existing faculty and support groups from across campus: representatives from a student support unit, a teaching support unit, the First Year Engineering office, engineering faculty, and graduate students. In the beginning, the team struggled with how to leverage the unique and diverse skills and perspectives which initially brought them together. This lack of cohesion around teamwork practices ultimately led to inconsistent success and reception of the first learning modules. While the learning curve for the individuals involved was steep, this challenge led the team to reflect on their teamwork skills to ‘practice what they preach.’ In this paper, the team members address what they’ve learned about assembling, and working effectively in, multi-disciplinary teams. This paper discusses the formation of the team and initiative (applying the Institutional Entrepreneurship paradigm [2]); the reception of the created modules, from the students, instructors, and team’s perspective; and highlights the immense value and challenges that exist in working within multi-disciplinary teams. The paper will also address overcoming some of the challenges around an extra-departmental group developing learning modules from the ground-up within a university environment.
Hurst, A., & Mostafapour, M., & Al-Hammoud, R., & Prier, A., & Jobidon, E., & Hulls, C., & Rennick, C., & Grove, J., & Li, E., & Bedi, S. (2017, June), Practicing What we Preach: A Multi-Disciplinary Team Teaching Multi-Disciplinary Teamwork Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28748
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