Hardware dissection in computer science as a tool to improve teamwork

Abstract

In our subject: "File Organization and Processing", a classical computer science subject, we decided to introduce a floppy disk drive hardware dissection in order to motivate students with a different type of work, a true engineer's work as it is perceived by society. We asked teams to disassemble, reassemble, explain the working principles, compare, and write an assembly-disassembly manual of the drive. The authors present their experiences and our outcomes. We found that dissection is a motivating task that not only worked as desired, increasing the retention, but also improved the team productivity. Each team managed to build an adequate environment to develop its own style of work. The mixed nature of the requested work, with tactile, intellectual, research, analysis and organizational requirements was addressed to each member's personal style and allowed them to find a common way of working, subordinating their personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole.