You are the professor in an undergraduate engineering design class. The year-long class uses student teams to complete a complex design project. Your goal is to simulate a real-world professional experience in the class, but you also need to ensure that it is a safe and productive learning experience for the students. Like many engineering classes, there are few women students. In the past, you have not been concerned about gender issues when assigning students to project teams. However, last year
You received several complaints from women students about feeling bullied and unsupported in their teams. These students were the only women in their design teams.
Question
1. How should you as the professor distribute the few women engineering students among the project teams? Are there class actions you could take to provide support for the women students in the class? How do you handle complaints from women students about team relations?