• Project Summary
• Project Outputs
• Project Report
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Project Report

Several reports have identified that graduates from STEM disciplines feel there is a lack of opportunity to develop transferable skills during their degree. This deficit was highlighted in an Royal Society of Chemistry report, The Chemical Skills Pipeline, which recommended that universities should embed training in transferable skills, ideally using CPBL. Students can show a reluctance to engage with skills training as it is often seen as low priority during their degree; it is felt that CPBL can be a good way of making training relevant. However, finding discipline-specific contexts can be difficult. Although a bank of CPBL problems is being developed by various higher education institutions, skills sometimes lacking are those of commercial awareness, enterprise and leadership.

This project added value by providing a discipline-appropriate context through which Chemistry students could explore these skills through a fun and challenging problem. Collaboration with industrial partners helped make the task relevant to the needs of employers and highlighted employability skills to students. In addition, the use of PhD students as facilitators during the task gives them the opportunity to develop communication skills and to gain experience of teaching in HE.

The report below outlines the design process, implementation and trialling of the resources created and the evaluation data gained, including feedback from undergraduates, postgraduates and staff involved in the project. A discussion of the lessons learnt is also included to help transfer the project to other institutions. The resources from this project are readily transferable to other chemistry departments, and to other STEM disciplines with minimal alteration. 

The final report for the project can be downloaded below:

CPBL - Final Report

Project Highlights

1. Industrial input – Working with industry was essential. The information provided by Glenn Plume from Alchemy Fireworks and Matthew Tosh from Skyburst the Firework Company, helped guide research. Without the inside information provided by these companies, the project would not have been as realistic. Students also commented on the value of industrial input, making the task more “real world” and engaging.

2. Introducing Context and Problem Based Learning to the department – Staff from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bath have been very impressed with the project and it has catalysed an interest in embedding more CPBL approaches into the curriculum.

3. Feedback and effort from students – This was a non-credit bearing activity and everyone involved with the project was impressed at the significant level of effort put in by students completing the activity. Feedback from students showed that they felt the activity was fun but also helped them to develop key transferable skills and to receive formative feedback on areas such as oral and written communication, areas summatively assessed as part of the third year.

Staff involved

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