Activities - Exercise 3: "Discussion or Debate" on a technical but controversial topic

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this exercise is to develop the presentation skills of each student as part of a team activity. This requires the organisation of thoughts and ideas in collaboration with other members of the team, which is a frequent requirement when making technical presentations in an industrial context.

Activities: Suggestion 1

Introduction

How can you communicate and bring people around to your way of thinking? Talk through different types of discussions that occur in society, e.g: " The Government making a decision; " Special Commision; " Referendum; " Public Enquiry. Use Sizewell B as an example. 4 years of Public Enquiry, 3 volume report, £5M spent, to come to the conclusion that a B road should be diverted. And this wasn't even implemented in the final site plan!

Procedure

Set up a mini enquiry in 2 teams of 6: Team 1 will put case for renewable energy sources, Team 2 non-renewable. Subdivide each team into three pairs. One will have responsibility for presenting technical issues, another economic and the third environmental. They are given one week to research, and then they have to present the case. Leader makes notes on each presentation and awards marks out of 10. Feedback is given to each person on their presentation. The 6 who have presented are kept behind for detailed discussion on their presentation.

Activities: Suggestion 2

Split into two groups of 6.

Explain that each group has to give a talk, something to do with engineering, although this could be some aspect of society that is pertinent to engineers:

Each group has to agree on a topic that they are prepared to debate. Split them into the 'in favour' group, and the 'opposition'. Then ask each to argue the opposite view (just initially to help prepare their argument). Each member of the group must have some part to play, even if it is simply listening to what is said during the debate and preparing answers. Everyone must have some input into preparing material for the debate.

The Exposition Leader should sit in with each group during this time and join in with their discussion. Each group is given a maximum of 30 min to agree on a topic, then the rest of the time is allocated to preparing the topic for discussion.

Activities: Suggestion 3

Conduct four debates over the two weeks (numbers, times): award marks according to whether a good case has been made. The final debate should be something light-hearted such as 'Emmanuel is a much better College than King's' as this will defuse what can otherwise be a potentially heated session, and ends the course on a jolly note.

Activities: Suggestion 4

Determine topics to discuss in the format of a formal debate. Consider role playing: e.g. environmental protestors against industrialists or go for a straight debate (for and against) If someone in a group has a particular passion, then make them take the opposing viewpoint. This is a whole group (and most demanding) activity. Everyone has to play a part. There is only time for one major discussion in one format. It is important to have a mixture of people in each group-not a group of close friends.

Activities: suggestion 5

Have two debating activities each lasting 2 hours:

1. Short debate.

Put up a list of simple issues for a short debate that requires no background preparation. Each pair of students will choose a topic from the list to debate, one proposing the motion, and one arguing against it. They are given 3 minutes as a pair to prepare their arguments, before they debate with each other in front of the audience. 10 minutes is allowed for the debate, with 5 min for questions. A vote can be taken before the debate starts with a show of hands indicating 'for' or 'against'. A similar vote at the end will indicate whether anyone has been convinced to change their mind.

Suggested topics:

  • A project week should be introduced into the middle of term
  • College libraries should be closed because the Department ones are much better
  • The supervision system should be eliminated/modified to reduce college costs
  • Lectures should be made compulsory
  • Lectures should be released on video for 'home' viewing
  • The Engineering Department should be re-located to the West Cambridge Site.
2. Technical Debate

For the technical debate, a list of technical issues is presented, based on actual essay topics set in exams to become a Chartered Engineer. Each pair of students is allocated one topic at the beginning of term, to allow plenty of preparation time. Background material must be obtained from the relevant professional journals. The topics suggested below are from the Civil Engineers' essay list. This gives a chance for the students to gain some understanding about the Professional Bodies and the sort of issues that they might be concerned with as Professional Engineers.

Again the debate will take 10 mins for each pair, with 5 min for questions from the floor.

Suggested topics taken from Professional Exam:

  1. International harmonisation of standards (for or against)
  2. International regulations on the control of many forms of pollution (for or against)
  3. The engineer of the future: specialist or generalist?
  4. Whether the original version of many types of information should be electronic.
  5. Whether the construction industry could improve its health and safety performance.
  6. Whether engineers should be responsible for designs being aesthetically pleasing as well as functional

Activities: Suggestion 6

Invite half the group to present individual proposals for the remainder (acting as Board of Directors with allotted title roles) to assess as a preferred company strategy.

Whatever you choose to do, however, should involve all students equally in active roles (it is very easy to 'forget' quieter members of the group in this part of the course).

Activities: Suggestion 7

Get the students to form a "round table committee". Let the group choose a topic for debate from a short list. Split them into two teams. One team will present the 'in favour' argument, and the other will oppose. The topic is agreed at the beginning of term, giving plenty of opportunity to work up material for discussion. On the discussion day, each member of the team must present a five minute contribution (without visual aids) giving their side of a (basically two-sided) argument e.g.western technologies vs. lower cheaper standards for water provision. When everyone has tabled their arguments, the group must then discuss the topic to arrive at a committee "position statement", i.e. 'the committee thinks this on this subject'.

The aim of this is to encourage reaching a consensus rather than just arguing a strong case. If the students simply prepare a debate based on two sides of an argument, the danger is that they say their bit, but don't listen to the alternatives. This way, their contribution should encourage deeper thought on the subject.

Suggested topics for debate

  • Information engineering and political power;
  • Robotics and unemployment;
  • The need for professional institutions;
  • Positive discrimination in education and employment;
  • Working in Europe;
  • Environmental issues, with respect to engineering;
  • Single currency;
  • Nuclear Power Debate;
  • Role of the Government in intervening with moral issues;
  • Railways are an inherently safe means of travel" ;
  • We are for/against GM crops;
  • We are for/against nuclear electricity generation;
  • Third World development;
  • Wobbly bridges;
  • Turning King's College into a Theme Park (Developers v. Governing Body).

Activities: Suggestion 8

Split the students into 3 groups of 4 each. They are asked to pretend that they are from a hypothetical university who are considering whether labs should have a place on their new, 'upmarket' engineering course.One group acts as the conveners of the meeting. The other two groups are asked to argue 'for' and 'against' labs.

The teams should appoint 'student' and 'industry representatives', as well as 'researchers' and 'administrators'.They should be encouraged to use visual tools and to focus on specific labs/subject areas e.g. 'structures' to make their points.Ideally they should analyse a typical lab in detail, such as cost, effort, material learned etc. They could also consider a similar 'virtual lab' (web-based) to compare with the real one on similar grounds (again think through the details) and contrast labs with lectures.

The University group makes a short introduction and then the 'pro' group followed by the 'con' group give verbal presentations of 10 minutes each. This is followed by a question and answer session and wrapped up by a conclusion reached by the 'university' group after a short (5 minute) private consultation.

Comments:

This activity is a good way of finding out what students think of labs. (when this was tried for the first time, the students brought out very valuable points about the labs and, in the final conclusion, it was decided to have labs - but not like the ones we have here.)

It was clear that our current 1st year labs did not do their job very well. Some of the criticism sounded familiar and was well justified (not tying in with lectures, being asked to do a lot without understanding it, being too rushed, computing solutions being emailed, etc). Some of the suggestions were good too (have a lab term, make labs optional/voluntary, simplify labs so that the lectures aren't needed...).

This is a worthwhile exercise in exposition, and at the same time provide some valuable lessons about our teaching. For example, if we were to change a 1st year lab (at some point in the future) we would have an instant, in-depth, feedback opportunity.

Activities: Suggestion 9

Round Table Discussion on Energy (Dr E. Mastorakos) The energy 'debate' is varied into a 'round table discussion. The students play the role of energy experts, who meet to discuss the energy problem and suggest solutions. The leader provides the agenda for the meeting (example below). A type of energy is allocated to each student (i.e. one takes oil, another takes solar etc. - listed below), and the students are asked to come to the meeting with 1/2 page of notes on their topic. During the discussion (2 sessions), the 'chair' and 'minute taking' are alternated. The leader encourages the chair to force the discussion around the particular agenda topic. At the end of the first session the 6 'minute takers' get together to write the minutes and circulate them by email to the rest of the group (example in separate file). In the second session, the discussion is wrapped-up and the group is required to come-up with recommendations.

The students learn how to focus on an issue, how to present a focused argument in a group discussion, how to participate in a meeting, how to chair and how to take minutes. They also learned something about energy and pollution.

Useful reference material

Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air by David MacKay ISBN: 9780954452933/978-1-906860-01-1