1. Creating a Healthy Classroom Culture for Engineering
July 2008
LEGO Engineering Summer Institute
CEEO, Tufts University

2. What’s different about engineering?
Hands-on projects
Collaboration/Teamwork
No single “right” answer
No “right” way to approach a problem

3. Collaboration & Creativity
Allow for ridiculous brainstorming
Even silly ideas can inspire great innovation
Encourage idea sharing
Not “cheating” or “copying”
Recognize Innovation
Be sure to give credit to ideas you use
Make students into experts
Expert students help their peers

4. Reflection & Learning Embrace failure & redesign
Engineers don’t expect it to work the first time around
Reflect on why things aren’t working
Each trial leads to a design change; each design change is motivated by a trial
Emphasize end of class discussion
Motivates students to improve design
Provides a chance for student reflection
Gives you an opportunity to assess progress

5. Competition vs. Collaboration
Some thrive in competitions, others turned off
Most successful if the competition isn’t seen as “high-stakes”: no grades on the line
Some students won’t help peers if it could hurt their performance
Try competition against a standard – then your success doesn’t hurt my chances
Gold, Silver, Bronze medal ranges of performance
Provides a motivating goal without pitting students against each other