HOW DO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS FORM THEIR PROJECT TEAMS?

Abstract

Abstract - Common wisdom of how students, form their teams for projects is "who they know", not necessarily who would make a good teammate, nor someone they can actually work with.   In their first semester on campus, Mechatronics students have multiple opportunities to work with their classmates, any of which could have contributed to how they formed their course project team. The activities range in scope from straightforward assignments to challenging projects, and vary in length from one, to several weeks.  This research was conducted as a sequential explanatory, mixed-methods study. First semester team formation data was cross-checked with survey responses, and student self-reporting on satisfaction with their choice of team members. Focus groups were then conducted to investigate external forces on team formation.  Conclusions from the initial work show that students are much more strategic with who they work with than initially hypothesized and the motivations behind the choice of teammates are diverse, and complex. Further work needs to be completed to see how widespread these motivations are across Engineering at UWaterloo.