Educational Methods For Design Courses: Functional Dormitories

The purpose of this paper is to describe a student-led international engineering project that is both exciting and educational. The challenge with this project is to reach the proper balance of student-led creativity and learning, collection of data, adequate expert review, and transfer of knowledge to other students. This paper details an international student project that was then documented as a case study. After providing a synopsis of the example case study, a suggested structure for developing such a case study is provided with references to the example. This can help guide a faculty member design such a project in the future. A suggested classroom teaching methodology prescribes a continual check on student knowledge of the problem as they read through the case study to ensure absorption of key concepts, as well as an iterative design process for solving the problem after understanding all aspects of the problem. Case studies such as the one presented below expose students to complex, real world design problems, therefore giving them a chance to apply previously learned information, practice it by integrating their design knowledge into the process, and obtain valuable teamwork skills.