Robotics Engineering
DoDEA - Career and Technology Education
Applying the Engineering/Design Process
Exercise 1 – Team Building Initiatives
Objective:
At the completion of this exercise, you will have demonstrated effective
communication and problem solving skills as a member of a group. You will
practice leadership and followership to solve problems as a member of a
team. As part of a team, you will experience frustration and success as
you strive to complete a series of team building initiatives. You will
gain a broader understanding of how teams can solve problems
where individuals cannot.
Information:
Since the dawn of the industrial age, there have been powerful
cultural, economic and political forces at work trying to determine
what public school students should learn and how they should
be taught. Most likely, your parents’ and grandparents’ high schools were rigidly
organized with each subject being taught in separate classrooms, during specific
periods of the day and with their desks perfectly organized in rows and columns.
Traditionally, conformity may have been the key concern as students were moved from grade-level to
grade-level according to their age as if they were part of an intellectual production line. All students studied the
same core subjects and focused upon getting good grades so they could go to college and then get a good job.
This antiquated educational paradigm was literally “Old School”.
In 1991, The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) reported on “What Work Requires of
Schools.” This commission, under the U.S. Secretary of Labor conducted research and interviewed hundreds of
employers asking them about the desired skills entry level employees should have when joining the world of work.
As outlined in SCANS report, employers required workers to have a solid foundation in basic literacy and
computational skills. They wanted our graduates to think critically while putting knowledge to work. They also
wanted workers to possess the personal qualities that made them dedicated and trustworthy employees.
Additionally, employers wanted entry level workers to manage resources, to collaborate and work productively with
others as they acquired and used information. Employees also needed to master complex systems and work with a
variety of technologies. The purpose of the SCANS report was to help educators understand how curriculum and
instruction must change to enable students to develop the necessary skills to succeed in the high performance
workplace.
The SCANS report was a big deal for education in 1991 and was responsible for a closer examination of what’s
important in our schools. In fact, it’s brought about many changes in our nation’s classrooms. SCANS has been
revisited frequently and has also spawned new endeavors over the years with the latest developments provided by
the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). Here is an edited excerpt regarding one skill area from the Partnership
for 21st Century Skills initiative.
Personal and Work Place Productivity Skills
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I n t e r p e r s o n a l and Collaboration Skills The ability to read and to manage the emotions, motivations and behaviors of
oneself and others during social interactions or in a social-interactive context. Collaboration means cooperative interaction
between two or more individuals working together to solve problems, create novel products, or team and master content.
Initiative and Direction The ability to set goals, plan for achievement, initiate action, manage time and effort, and
independently monitor and assess one's own effort.
Flexibility and Adaptability The ability to modify one's thinking, attitudes or behaviors to be better suited to current or future
environments, as well as the ability to handle multiple goals, tasks, and inputs with understanding and adhering to
constraints of time, resources and systems.
Ethical Behavior The ability to act with integrity according to the principles of right and/or moral conduct.
S o c i a l / P e r s o n a l and C r o s s - C u l t u r a l Skills. The acceptance of responsibility for personal actions, including
responsibility for learning, and to initiate or support actions that resolve issues in the interest of the common good.
Robotics Engineering – DoDEA Career and Technology Education
Applying the Engineering/Design Process – Solving an Engineering Problem
Revised 10 March 2016
Page 1 of 3
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L e a d e r s h i p and Responsibility The process of influence or example by which an individual induces a group to pursue
objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers.
P r o j e c t Planning and Development The ability to organize and achieve the goals of a specific initiative or problem with
efficiency and effectiveness.
Productivity and Accountability The ability to set and meet high standards for delivering quality work on time and to
demonstrate diligence and a positive work ethic.
At this point, you’ve got to be asking yourself, “What is all this edu-babble about? I thought this was a robotics
class. When do I get to play with the LEGOS ®?” Well… The question an educator must face, when teaching a
class, is a difficult problem to solve ...and that is: If this stuff is so important and our graduates are lacking
these skill-sets then, “How do I teach these skills to my students?”
Taking a closer look at the lists of the P21 skills should help educators and students realize that these traits are not
taught directly and cannot be properly assessed using standardized exams. They are skills that must be
experienced, practiced and performed until they are mastered. As a student, your cooperation in this process is
essential to help establish an environment that is conducive to mastering these skills. Your ability to work as a
member of a team is the key to your success in this course. By you understanding what we’re trying to do, you’ll be
part of the solution as everyone realizes the important skills that are actually being taught in this team building
activity.
Research Resources:
It’s important to realize that the very nature of the world-wide-web is fluidic. Hyperlinks that are
valid today may be dead tomorrow. If a link listed below doesn’t work, inform your instructor and then use your favorite search
engine to find the information you need. Valid link or not, you are still responsible to learn this information.
Web Site
Description
http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/whatwork/
http://p21.org/index.php
http://www.learnscienceandmathclub.org/Resources/TeamBuilding.aspx
SCANS Report
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Team Building Tips and Resources
Nomenclature: These are some terms you should research and understand.
Problem Solving
Flexibility / Adaptability
Initiative
Interpersonal
Collaboration
Ethical
Procedure:
Your instructor will setup a variety of team building initiatives. You can find more activities by clicking on the
appropriate link in the Research Resources section above. Below is one example. Regardless of the activity, the most important
part of the exercise is the Discussion Prompts asked by the instructor to close the initiative. Although these questions are
essentially the same for any of the team building activity, they are vital for participates to identify and then process the skills
being learned.
Pyramid Cup Stack Challenge
Equipment: (Per Team)
 One thick rubber band (must fit snuggly around the circumference of the plastic cup)
 6 each, 1 meter long pieces of string
Goal:
To improve problem solving, group communication and teamwork
Set Up: Prior to the activity
 Cut 6 each 1 Meter lengths of string.
 Tie one end of each piece to a rubber band as evenly spaced as possible.
1. Divide the group up into teams of 6 or smaller (minimum of 3)
2. Provide each team with the rubber band & string assembly and 10 paper / plastic cups. Place the cups on a
table, spread out, upside down and on their sides.
Challenge: The group is to build a pyramid from the ten cups (4 on the bottom, 3 on the next row, 2, and then
finally… 1 on top). Group members are to use only the materials provided and may not touch the cups with any
part of their body. If a cup falls on the floor they have to continue the task from the floor.
Robotics Engineering – DoDEA Career and Technology Education
Applying the Engineering/Design Process – Solving an Engineering Problem
Revised 10 March 2016
Page 2 of 3
Discussion Prompts: These discussion prompts will be posed by your instructor for group processing.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Was anyone frustrated during this activity? If so… Why? and… How was it handled by the group?
Who were leaders? Who were followers? How did you know who was who?
Why was teamwork so important for the success of this activity?
Are you ever in a situation where you must use teamwork? Is this always easy for you? Why or why not?
What are some skills needed to be a good team member?
What is so hard about being part of a team?
What have you done recently to contribute to the success of another team?
Conclusion:
As part of the U.S. Armed Forces, service members are required to attend classes, schools and even resident
academies to develop one essential skill… Leadership. Leadership is a vital skill to the military and a rite of
passage for many service members that serve for any significant length of time. So… How do you think a complex
subject like leadership is best taught? Can leadership even be taught? Or are the traits of leadership something
someone is born with? Certainly there are books on leadership. In fact, there are many books, videos and on-line
classes designed to offer the insight and instruction to help professionals become effective leaders. Can studying
these kinds of materials alone make someone a
competent leader? For that matter… Can reading a
book or studying a series of videos on
teamwork make someone and effective team
worker… or flexible… or ethical? It would
seem that there would have to be more to
effectively teaching these types of skills.
The teaching profession has long since
skills based education methodology.
21st Century Skills certainly require
application and practice of those skills for
is an essential skill in the engineering
skill-set should be the goal for all
team building initiatives completed
because they form an engaging
demonstrates firsthand the power
They are a simple form of practical
members to practice skill-sets that
traditional or knowledge based
distinguished between knowledge based and
Skills such as those listed in Partnership for
knowledge, but they also require the
students to achieve competency. Teamwork
profession and achieving mastery in this
students in this engineering course. The
in this exercise were selected
and relevant learning experience that
of teamwork in solving problems.
application
that
allow
team
cannot be taught within the realm of
education.
Robotics Engineering – DoDEA Career and Technology Education
Applying the Engineering/Design Process – Solving an Engineering Problem
Revised 10 March 2016
Page 3 of 3