The Chemical Engineering "Projects Laboratory" (10.26) and "Processes Laboratory" (10.27) are capstone courses taken by all Course 10 undergraduates, usually in their senior year. In the Projects Laboratory, groups of students work on real-world problems under the supervision of both an industrial consultant and a faculty advisor. Students must do several writing assignments pertaining to the project as well as an oral presentation. Thus communication is a strong component of the course as it is in 10.27.

During the spring of 1996, Professor Clark Colton, the faculty member in charge of 10.26 and 10.27, brought in Bonnie Burrell, an organizational behaviorist, to begin to develop a curriculum in team building and team management skills. The impetus was the belief that if students were going to work in groups, they should have some education in that process. There was a pilot study that spring, which, according to a report in the Course 10 Alumni Newsletter, "demonstrated that even limited exposure to training enhanced the skills of a substantial fraction of the students." This kind of training has now become an integral part of the curriculum.

Over 20, three-student teams are formed in 10.26 with a faculty facilitator assigned to each. Students are asked to fill out a lengthy questionnaire about their experiences with and expectations of teamwork, and in the second class period, they are assigned to teams according to their interest in possible projects and certain demographic information such as GPA, gender, and ethnic background.

The students receive five hours of training in team building and management in the first two weeks of the course. Ms. Burrell covers such topics as building a team, stages in the team life-cycle, feedback, decision-making, listening, and diversity and intercultural communication. The work in class is highly interactive with students asked to do exercises directly related to the topics under discussion. Students receive a team manual of over 150 pages.

Facilitators are rotated so that every student facilitates his/her team sometime during the semester. Each facilitator attends another workshop that goes into more depth on leadership, listening, and diversity. The teaching assistants and the facilitators flag any problems in the teams for Ms. Burrell, who visits the lab at least once a week. (Students may make an appointment to see Ms. Burrell at any time.) Students are required to keep a journal in which they write their observations on the team process after each team meeting. Ms. Burrell collects the journals three times during the semester and comments on them. Finally, she meets with each team separately for an exit interview, and students fill out an exit questionnaire as well.

Ongoing monitoring and contact with the teams throughout the semester is an extremely important facet of the course. During this year’s IAP, faculty and teaching assistants attended a day-long workshop to help them learn how to serve as coaches and mentors. "What we’re trying to do," Ms. Burrell explains, "is create a safe place to be a team member, to experiment with team interactions, and to understand the process."

According to Professor Colton not only has this project improved the education students receive in these course, but "what Bonnie has learned is very valuable about what life is like for students." And with that information, we can become even better at helping our students improve their interpersonal and communication skills.