Building on the Moon: An Open-Ended Exercise Benchmarking Freshman CMGT Students

It has been noted that in the Construction Management degree program students arrive with preconceived notions and experiences about the construction industry. This can lead to established bias that is difficult to identify and address in terms of what student abilities are in relation to the construction management competencies. In an attempt to better understand construction management students’ industry perspective/experience, a problem solving exercise, “Building on the Moon” (BOTM), was implemented in the introductory course. BOTM was developed as an opened ended problem statement that would allow the instructors to engage and assess students’ experiences as they related to a construction problem. The writing/design exercise followed course textbook reading that provided a pragmatic historical rationale of the evolution of construction process development from its infancy to the current times. The exercise was intended for a group of pairs to propose the construction of a residence on the moon, including a materials list, method of construction, design rationale and a sketch. Fiftyfour students submitted work, with vastly different conclusions. The responses were categorized allowing for quantifiable results. Benchmarking of current students will allow for additional curriculum enrichment and adjustments that take into consideration the extent to which the experience of students meets the needs of educational competencies. The instructors; an architect and an engineer, purposefully provided minimal direction in order to prevent the projection of their professional bias on the students and to gain further insight of students through a less intimidating approach.