Student group’s challenge

“I supervised a group of women who wanted to do something about population screening for breast cancer. Students wanted to make a mammography less painful for women, because they (students) found out that a mammography is very painful for women with as result that women do not want to participate in such a population screening. […] The students eventually also went to the hospital, because there was a researcher who developed a new paddle which makes the mammography less painful for women. So, students discovered that there was already a solution that existed. They (students) included that in their final report that they (students) did not come up with it themselves, but it was a very good solution direction for their problem. […] Students then focused more on the problem of cultural change, because it can be less painful, but how do you convince women who talk to each other that it is still very painful, even though it will be less so in a few years? […] At first, students were very disappointed when they (students) found out that there was already a paddle developed. Then, the students thought ‘can it be less painful in another way?’. Well, the hospital here was also already researching that. […] Every time the students took such a path for another solution direction, it would lead to a dead end. So, the students were a bit frustrated” [T5 population screening for breast cancer].

Teaching activities

“So, I recommended the students to participate in a hackathon where they (student) can spend a whole weekend working on their problem. I advised students to participate in it, because I noticed they (the students) were a bit stuck and then their enthusiasm was also gone. If you notice that everything that you come up with has already been thought of, the question becomes what you can still add as a student. Student experience quite a pressure to come up with something innovative. It is not called an innovation project without reason, while it is actually a task to learn how to innovate. What do you do as a teacher to help students with this pressure or expectation? Yeah, I mostly explain it to students, but that does not always work. Are there any ways to explain it? I think I just mention it occasionally when I notice that the students are stuck” [T5 population screening for breast cancer].