Extended Degree Programme Students’ Experiences With The Skyscraper Activity

An activity called “Skyscraper”, developed as part of the CDIO initiative (http://www.cdio.org), was implemented with 275 first year students in the Engineering Augmented degree programme (ENGAGE) at the University of Pretoria. ENGAGE is an extended degree programme for students who are not ready to cope with the mainstream programme without support. Implementation of the Skyscraper activity involved logistical challenges as the 275 students were divided into six classes, each of which met for three 50-minute periods in the same week in normal classrooms. All the materials had to be carried from room to room. Within each class, students were divided into groups of about nine people. Students were marked according to six criteria. In a secondary analysis of students’ results each group’s performance was assessed according to 12 criteria.

Problems identified included incomplete project plans, failure to identify constraints or produce a thorough design, not building what was designed, poor time management, failure to perform calculations, incorrect budget calculations, careless mistakes, poor presentation of designs and the need to change the design after building. These problems can be attributed to a variety of sources, including inadequate life skills, poor understanding of basic mathematics, inattention to detail, not understanding the importance of creating and following a design and not transferring knowledge from one context to another. Students who planned poorly may have wanted to get on with what they perceive to be the task—building the structure—arising, perhaps, from their experience of figuring out how gadgets work without reference to systematic analysis or written instructions.

For ENGAGE students to gain greater benefit from the Skyscraper activity we may need to devise more structure, such as checkpoints, checklists and budget and materials templates, and create the role of quality assurer in each group. On the positive side, nearly all groups functioned well, especially those that were diverse in terms of race and gender.