Dualistic Team

[BrianT103]

I would categorize 103's team structure as what you have called "dualistic". The manufacturing/programming/electrical/CAD/Inventor crew works in the shop and is headed by one of the engineering teachers. Meanwhile, in the art room down the hall, the PR/Marketing/Animation/Web crew work together under the direction of Mrs. Beck.

Splitting these groups works out very well for many reasons. The main ones being:

More freedom in scheduling between sub-teams

Diffusion of responsibility between team mentors

Students can focus better on the task at hand and really get involved in what interests them

Some of the problems that you need to be weary of include:

Disconnect between sub-teams (i.e. PR not knowing what's going on with the design process of the robot)

Little to no understanding between students of what each student is actually working on

Some ways to alleviate these problems include cross-training students between sub-teams and ensuring all students are part of the design process early on despite lack of technical expertise. Many years, some of the best ideas regarding design come from PR or animation students. It's important to get these students involved as much as possible.

Hope this helps!