HEEAP 2010 participant Pham Huy Hoang’s photo of a teamwork-building class activity recently made it to The New York Times website. Displayed both online and in Education Life, the Times’ quarterly education print magazine, the photo shows Hoang’s students Nguyen Quoc Thinh, Van Cong Tran, Doan Duong Thai Son and Nguyen Van Thang with the product of their group work—a skyscraper made of spaghetti and marshmallows.
Hoang, a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology’s School of Mechanical Engineering, submitted the photo as part of a “Class Assignments” contest, in which the Times asked readers to send in a photo of their favorite class assignment, along with a brief description. The assignment could be for any subject; among the other featured photos are pictures of education, genetics, theater and art history assignments.
“I’ve observed many very interesting things about our classes and students since I’ve applied the new teaching method to the courses,” Hoang said. “I would like to show those things to people around the world.”
Hoang said he came up with the assignment, “Building a Skyscraper with Spaghetti and Soft Candies,” during his time at HEEAP in the summer of 2010, where he discovered ways to integrate active learning and innovation into engineering teaching methods.
“The assignment is very interesting and meaningful for developing group-working skills. I brought this assignment into my course as an opportunity to practice group work.” Hoang said. “In the past, we ’forgot’ or ‘bypassed’ teaching working skills, and just concentrated on purely technical and theoretical knowledge. Sometimes, effective group work is the key to success.”
HEEAP participant’s teamwork-building - photo featured in The New York Times Education Life