Helping Earth Sciences Students to Develop Key Skills:
a portfolio of curriculum exercise

Chapter Three:Long Exercises

Introduction

Most of the exercises in this section contain a strong element of teamworking and/or student/centred learning. Student-centred learning empowers students to think for themselves, to take control of their learning, develop research techniques and also provides a deep-learning environment.

Why is teamworking so important?

The world is a very competitive place; students compete to enter university and businesses compete to keep their customers satisfied, maintain their market and create new growth opportunities. To do these things companies need to use the combined knowledge and expertise of their employees to the greatest effect. A group of people doing the same task at the same time isn't a team. Each individual will bring a different set of personal, scientific and key skills to the group. For the group to develop into an effective team these individuals need to work together, interact and balance their combined skills. Scientific knowledge and skills experience is relatively simple to determine in the team, however, personal roles are more difficult to define. The first exercise in this chapter addresses the issue of team roles and provides some insight into the way in which teams operate.

Evaluation of Performance

Self and peer assessment:Some of the exercises include self and peer assessment (and these techniques may be used for other exercises as required). Why should students be involved with their own and other's assessment? There are many reasons, for example:

To develop a range of skills - analysis, critque, listening, note-taking etc.
To enable students to take more control over their own learning by being better able to judge the weaknesses and strengths of their own work.
To integrate assessment as part of the learning process rather than as a seperate entity.
To encourage deep rather than surficial learning.

Feedback: As outlined in the introduction to the section on tutorial exercises, feedback is extremely important. In most of these cases the student will not only be reflecting on his/her own individual performance but should be analysing how the team worked together also. Questions that the team could ask itself during a review/debrief session could include:

What roles did individuals adopt and why?
What working methods were adopted and why? Did the plans change at any time?
How were unforeseen problems dealt with and how did they effect the morale, working quality etc. of the team?
Communication: were all ideas communicated, valued and understood? Did everyone contribute? What was the atmosphere like?
What went well? What could be improved?
If you could do another task with the same team would you behave differently and, if so, why?

It may be worth keeping a record of any comments made in the feedback session perhaps as a list of bullet points to take forward. Supply the students with a copy of these and remind them to refer to, and act on, the points next time they tackle a team exercise.

This section aims to:

Encourage students to develop a higher level of key skills than they have in previous years of study, particularly focusing on team, communication and problem solving skills.
Empower students with an ability to assess their own work and that of peer groups.
Develop a higher level of understanding of some of the projects/tasks that they may have to perform as professionally-employed Geoscientists.

(For more information on assessment, including self and peer assessment, the booklet 'Strategies for Diversifying Assessment in Higher Education' published by the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development is handy.

Sample Exercise:

Exercise: Kingston Oil

(Source: Dr Neil Thomas, School of Geological Sciences, Kingston University

Students:	Final year.
Length of Exercise:	2 hours
Group Size:	Students are split into teams of four or five
Key Skills:	Teamworking, problem solving, planning and organisation, time management, decision making, written, oral and visual presentation, questioning.
Number of Staff Required	1 (acting as an observer, assessor and consultant)
Exercise Summary:	Each team of students has to design the floor plan for the offices of an oil company.

Tutor's Notes
Aims

To develop problem solving in a team environment
To practise planning & organisation, time management and decision making skills
To further practise and develop written, oral and visual presentation skills.
To develop students' basic understanding of the functions of a hydrocarbon exploration division.

Methodology

The methods are as detailed in the attached sheet 'Kingston Oil Background'
Assemble the students into teams of four or five and hand out the information sheets.
Outline the main aims of the task and explain how it fits into their course - they need to consolidate and apply their knowledge of all the aspects of hydrocarbon exploration in order to best decide where each section should be placed in the office (i.e. which sections interact with each other directly, can any section be 'stand alone', etc.)
Announce the time available for the task (2 hours) and emphasise the strict time limit. No further information need be offered to the students - they have all they require on their sheets.
Assessment can be qualitative (comments on team dynamics) and quantitative (presentation style, structure, content and quality of floor plan).

Assessment Note: If you are using more than one group in this exercise, you will need assistance of colleagues to assess the group (particularly a group leader to keep the group dynamics and problem solving strategy.One tutor per group should be sufficient, There are no set ways of assessing this exercise but you should consider the following points:
1. Planning stage: This is probably the most crucial part of the exercise. At this stage, students should ideally identify roles within the group (particularly a group leader to keep the group to time and to resolve conflict in decisions and usually one student to draw the office floor plan and be responsible for updating it as decisions are made). Watch out for people over-dominating the group at this stage and also for people who contribute little or nothing to the discussion.
2. Brainstorming stage: May merge naturally with the planning stage but could be separate after the group has established roles. This is the stage where there is most noise and arguments being put forward before quality control comes in! Again assess the extent to which each individual contributes to the group discussion.
3. Quality Control Stage: The stage when ideas are accepted or rejected depending upon the group's perception of what is the most appropriate action. It is possible that some students may loose interest at this stage, especially if their idea(s) are rejected by the group.
4. Performance Stage: Once the ideas are formed the group should begin to physically solve the problem and plan the office layout. This is where the technical knowledge may be of major importance.

Debrief

If possible, debrief each team separately. Comment on the quality of the oral presentations paying particular attention to the logic of their argument for developing their particular plan. Also comment on the plan itself - does it have a scale, suitable annotation etc.?
Using the feedback technqiues outlined in the introduction to this chapter get the team to reflect on their performance.
If it is not possible or appropriate to address each team individually make sure any feedback comments are conveyed to them in writing.