How Did Students Become Academically Adrift?

Melinda Burns:

"Academically Adrift," a new book on the failures of higher education, finds that undergrads don't study, and professors don't make them.

Here's the situation. You're an assistant to the president at DynaTech, a firm that makes navigational equipment. Your boss is about to purchase a small SwiftAir 235 plane for company use when he hears there's been an accident involving one of them. You have the pertinent newspaper clippings, magazine articles, federal accident reports, performance graphs, company e-mails and specs and photos of the plane.

Now, write a memo for your boss with your recommendation on the SwiftAir 235 purchase. Include your reasons for finding that the wing design on the plane is safe or not and your conclusions about what else might have contributed to the accident.

You have 90 minutes.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 11, 2011 4:03 AM
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