The team projects that instructors give students are usually research-based, start with a problem and require about half a semester to complete. Often the research questions do not have right answers, just credible ones.

Interdisciplinary teams

Building teams that have students from different disciplines gives them experiences of different skills, perspectives and priorities, mirroring their work after they graduate.

Example: Juliana Felkner and Zoltan Nagy worked together in their Environmental and Building Environmental Systems courses to design an elementary school. Matching engineering students with architecture students they gave the students the problem of maximize natural daylighting, while minimizing the cooling/heating requirements. The students produced models and posters displaying the rationale for their design decisions.

Building complex models.

When students are asked to do things they have not done before, having a team to support them is very important. Learning together, making mistakes together, and celebrating successes can be highly motivating for students.

Example: When the Texas Performing Arts production of Enron needed working costumes for their dinosaurs, J.E. Johnson and Karen Maness Theater and Dance class students stepped in to work as multidisciplinary teams to design and build them.

Applying Complex Concepts

Students in introductory classes and capstone classes, need the space to process information and discuss what is being learned. Having a team to support them in their learning is invaluable, particularly if they are being asked to apply their knowledge in a real-life problem.

Example: Fernanda Leite in her Engineering course has teams of students working together to survey a building using drones to take photographs. As a team they learn to navigate the drones and use the software to interpret the results.

Example: Amit Bhasin and Steve Boyles in their Civil Engineering Systems course asked their teams of students “From an engineering standpoint, where should the Frank Erwin Center be relocated to?” The students had to work in teams, discuss practical implications, and explain solutions. They had to learn to take into account various stakeholders and negotiate ethical decisions around economics and sustainability. They worked as a team, just as they would have to in the real world and produced an engineering report with all their different expertizes.