Preparing Sustainable Engineers: A Project-Based Learning Experience in Logistics with Refugee Camps
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- RQ1: How did this PBL approach impact student learning to develop sustainability competencies by incorporating a socially responsible engineering perspective?
- RQ2: How did college students become engaged with social and sustainable PBL projects when external clients of developing economies were involved?
2. Method
- Creation of distinct categories of description related to the learning objectives of the project or to the sustainability competencies they should have developed (Table 3).
- Breaking up of the students’ responses into sentences with a main idea.
- Labelling off the sentences extracted, assigning them to the pre-defined categories from step 1 or to sub-categories merged.
- Finding important quotes that describe the main ideas found, group them to examine the general ideas and find the correlations between them.
- Constructing a narrative that connects the findings.
3. Framework: PBL, Courses and The NGO Tatreez Project
Syllabus, Learning Outcomes and Competencies
- Ability to solve problems with initiative, decision-making, creativity, critical reasoning, and to communicate and transmit knowledge, skills and competencies in the field of Industrial Engineering.
- Ethical values: Ability to think and act according to universal principles based on the value of the person who is directed to their full development and that entails a commitment to certain social values.
- Entrepreneurship: Ability to take on and carry out activities that generate new opportunities, anticipate problems or bring improvements.
- Global mindset: Being able to show interest and understand other standards and cultures, recognize one’s own predispositions, and work effectively in a global community.
- To characterize the processes of the direction of operations and their relationships;
- To understand and apply business resource management methods;
- To evaluate systems of decision-making of productive plants;
- To analyze the production capacity and optimization methods.
4. Description of The Learning Experience
4.1. First Phase: External Client (Tatreez Project) Presentation of the Problem
4.2. Second Phase: Information Given to Students. Project Definition
- Coordination among the three camps is key, although access to computer-based communications and management software is unavailable.
- In the same sense, there are difficulties in exporting products to potential international web-based markets, limiting the sales to handicraft fairs and selected Lebanon shops. Their webpage did not work as an online shop, making the process for acquiring products very difficult.
- Since the project had grown rapidly, problems related to supply chain, production organization and quality controls had arisen:
- Channels to gain potential customers and increase the market are very limited
- Paying for the materials in advance, without guarantees of selling them and gaining returns make these entrepreneurial women struggle with a monetary strain.
4.3. Third Phase. Project Development
4.3.1. First Stage of The Project: Solutions of The Different Teams
4.3.2. Second Stage of The Project: Unified Solution for The Client
4.4. Fourth Phase: Final Report and Improvement Proposals
4.4.1. First Stage: Students’ Solution for The Tatreez Project
- Product sales: Improve the webpage online shop procedures (PayPal implementation) and in the meantime, manage the email account more diligently;
- Procurement of materials: Prepare a detailed shopping list, benchmark providers, estimate quantities and qualities in advance;
- Material distribution: Create a Bill of Materials for each product, prepare packages with raw materials for a seamstress, and calculate more accurate prices;
- Product Specialization: Reduce the catalog, specialize the seamstress and provide training to improve the qualifications of the staff;
- Quality controls: Create patterns, have a “golden bag” (model to physically compare the production) and allow the supervisors to check the work in process;
- Warehouse: Conduct an inventory and organize shifts to take care of the warehouse organization;
- Visual management: Implement the concept of Obeya Room in the workshop.
4.4.2. Second Stage: Improvement Proposals
5. Findings and Discussion: Competencies and Learnings
5.1. About the PBL Approach
5.2. About the Engagement
6. Conclusions and Future Works
- The importance of faculty involvement: Teachers are required to be familiar with the development of sustainability skills and with the PBL methodology,
- The need for of a well-designed PBL-based project according to the stakeholders’ needs,
- The imperative of connecting students with the client during the process,
- The requirement of providing all the necessary information to students so they may carry out the project in a structured way,
- The value of good the coordination between the teachers and the NGO.
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Project Name | Consulting Project to Improve Embroidery Process in Refugee Camps |
Degree | Industrial Engineering |
Year of Study | Second year of study/ Second Semester |
Project Description | See Table 2 |
General objectives:
| |
Sustainability Competencies of the Project:
| |
Learning Outcomes and Tasks:
| |
Courses Involved in The Project | Business Organization Industrial Production Systems |
Project Schedule | The project starts on the third week after the classes have begun. The project requires a dedication of 25% of the students’ workload for each course |
Assessment Procedures and Tools | Given in an annex Twenty percent of the final mark Rubrics will be used. |
Deliverables |
|
Tatreez—Project Management in Refugee Camps | |
Requirements |
|
Constraints |
|
Background Data |
|
Project Sustainability Competencies | Categories |
---|---|
Ability to solve problems with initiative, decision-making, creativity, critical reasoning that promotes sustainability | Interconnected thinking |
Critical reasoning | |
Decision-making | |
Creativity | |
Ability to solve problems and make decisions with sustainability | |
Self-confidence | |
Ability to communicate and transmit knowledge (written and orally) | Communication skills |
Organizational and planning ability in the field of business, with processes that promote sustainability | Complexity management |
Project Management | |
Develop different options for action based on present conditions | |
Consulting | |
Create common visions, action strategies | |
Organizational and planning ability | |
Global mindset | Tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty |
Collaboration/teamwork | |
Global mindset | |
SDG4 and 5 | |
Ethical values | Social and ethical issues |
Motivation | |
Entrepreneurship | Innovative transformations |
Entrepreneurship | |
Autonomous learning |
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Terrón-López, M.-J.; Velasco-Quintana, P.J.; Lavado-Anguera, S.; Espinosa-Elvira, M.d.C. Preparing Sustainable Engineers: A Project-Based Learning Experience in Logistics with Refugee Camps. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4817. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124817
Terrón-López M-J, Velasco-Quintana PJ, Lavado-Anguera S, Espinosa-Elvira MdC. Preparing Sustainable Engineers: A Project-Based Learning Experience in Logistics with Refugee Camps. Sustainability. 2020; 12(12):4817. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124817
Chicago/Turabian StyleTerrón-López, María-José, Paloma J. Velasco-Quintana, Silvia Lavado-Anguera, and María del Carmen Espinosa-Elvira. 2020. "Preparing Sustainable Engineers: A Project-Based Learning Experience in Logistics with Refugee Camps" Sustainability 12, no. 12: 4817. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124817