Exploring Complexities of Energy Options Through a Jigsaw Activity

Benchmarking a Sustainable Energy Engineering Undergraduate Degree against Curriculum Frameworks and Pedagogy Standards from Industry and Academia

“…Barkley et al [41] provides details of a variance of jigsaw, which allows for whole-of-class discussion following the jigsaw activity, and another variance where the entire jigsaw activity is done on a whole-of-class basis. Hensley [42] provides an example of a lesson where students compare renewable and fossil fuel energy technology options using jigsaw, with a focus on externalities and interlinking of sustainability factors for the various technologies. Jigsaw is a teaching method that encourages peer reciprocal teaching and its recommended use by Hensley to teach what is effectively a renewable energy sustainability lesson, supports the use of jigsaw in renewable energy engineering education.…”

“…Firstly, lessons should be designed with potential problems in mind to minimize the chance of problems arising for students or faculty in the first place. Barkley et al [41] has broad principles to follow for group work lesson design, and depending on the specific teaching approach used, other sources have specific guidance for individual instructional methods (for example, Hensley [42] has suggestions for jigsaw). Secondly, should problems still arise during the lesson or course, Barkley et al [41] provide specific guidance on how to address 10 common problems with group work.…”

“…The nature of the delivery and assignments of ENG442 where students work in groups to develop a detailed design for a real customer is also applying a problem-based learning pedagogical approach as described in Perrenet et al [39]. The way in which laboratories and group work are worked on as a group, presented to the class, and then shared as a class discussion could be considered applying some of the principles of the collaborative teaching described by Barkley et al [41], Byrne [52], and Hensley [42] such as jigsaw on a class basis. The working as a group, and then sharing with each other and then the class, helps to maximize learning and allows faculty to guide and support students as part of using this as scaffolding for the next topic and task.…”