Teaching Teamwork Skills

Utree teaches teamwork skills by making students sensitive to common problems that pull down teams. To that end, Utree has developed two videos that show problems that pull down design teams. Drawing on ​actual experiences from a large number of engineering design teams, undergraduate engineers at Penn State wrote, acted in, directed, and filmed these videos. When visiting classes, Utree students show these videos and lead discussions about them.

"Slacker"

From the perspective of an engineering team, a slacker is someone who does not carry his or her load. Having a slacker on a team generates frustration and hostility by other team members. 

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"Communication"

Communication is important to a team's success. Team members often come together to communicate with one another, and then split apart with each member working on specific tasks. When the team does not communicate each member's responsibilities, much inefficiency can result. 

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"Collaboration"

Collaboration is an important factor in working in a team on a project. The video shows that the team is pushed to focus and follow the rule by having a strong leader. Designating responsibilities ensures that each member contributes an equal share and allows the team to work more efficiently on the project.