At tables littered with pop cans and chip bags, some students leaned back and shared jokes. A pyramid of pop cans being built by one distracted team fell to the table with a metallic clatter. Yet at nearly every table, small knots of three or four students hunched over calculators or rifled through papers, seemingly oblivious to the commotion around them. Enneking noted the great disparity between team members. Due to the depth and breadth of the test, he said, the students need to deal with organizational issues.
Successful teams delegate the workload and their members closely cooperate.
Once again, said Enneking, this dynamic resembles the manner in which professional engineers attack problems. Often, students' attitudes reflect their teacher advisor's level of frustration. He explained that learning institutions traditionally separate disciplines for organizational purposes and the benefit of teachers. The real world, however, doesn't follow suit. Employers don't care what your degree is in.