Resumen de Sustaining interdisciplinary projects in green engineering: teaching to support distributed work
Marie C. Paretti, David M. Richter, Lisa D. Mcnair
Design projects associated with sustainability efforts often require interdisciplinary student teams to address technical, social, andenvironmental concerns. While educators are increasingly seeking to understand and actively teach interdisciplinary collaboration skills,less attention has been given to the structure and context of such teams. In this paper, we draw on prior research to analyzeinterdisciplinary teams as sites of distributed work. Using frameworks that identify key characteristics of co-located and distributedwork, we identify key factors in interdisciplinary design teams that may inhibit collaboration. We conclude with strategies for faculty tohelp sustain such teams through concrete course management practices and through explicit learning outcomes that can help studentstransfer teaming skills learned in this environment to new projects.
