A Conceptual Framework for Progressively Developing Students' Team and Problem Solving Skills Across the Curriculum

Project Catalyst is an NSF-funded initiative to promote systemic change in engineering education by utilizing proven instructional design techniques, transforming the classroom into an active learning environment, and incorporating the use of information technology in the teaching/learning process. In the first two years of Project Catalyst, a core group of faculty from all five engineering departments at Bucknell University has begun implementing this focused shift by systematically incorporating collaborative and problem-based learning into their courses. This emphasis has required a coordinated effort to introduce significant elements of team building and problem solving into the undergraduate curriculum. This paper discusses a conceptual framework for progressively developing students' problem solving and team skills across the curriculum. The framework is modeled after the university's writing program and identifies introductory, intermediate and advanced problem solving and team building activities in courses that are staged through the undergraduate engineering programs. This staged framework provides a structure to guide faculty in selecting teaming and problem solving activities to be emphasized in a given course. To assist faculty in introducing appropriate problem solving and teaming activities, Project Catalyst has also developed instructional modules for faculty that focus on problem solving and team building at each level. These modules are course and curriculum independent and can be used in any course at other institutions. This paper will also describe preliminary assessment results to integrate problem solving and teamwork into the curriculum structure. It concludes with the future work for the remaining year of this 3-year NSF-funded project.