Roger, For second year veterinary students in clinical pathology, I found that sorting by career path works very nicely. I ask the students "If you had to make a decision today (I will not hold you to it), what area of veterinary medicine would you choose?" I then put up a list of possible career paths on a Powerpoint slide and have them choose (please see below). Then, I line them up and they count off with the method that Larry shows on the TBL Website to sort them during class. Since I built the course around cases, it brings diverse expertise to the teams-- e.g., most students who choose food animal practice bring a rich experience and background with farm animals, etc. It like it because it is transparent and it has worked well creating heterogeneous and ultimately cohesive teams for the past 8 years. Best wishes, Holly Holly Bender, DVM, PhD, Diplomate ACVP Associate Director, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching Director, Preparing Future Faculty Program 3024 Morrill Hall 515-294-3584 Professor, Department of Veterinary Pathology Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011-1250 [log in to unmask]<http:[log in to unmask]> http://vetmed.iastate.edu/users/hbender<http://www.vetmed.iastate.edu/faculty_staff/profiles/hbender.asp> *Small animal practice *Food animal practice *Equine practice *Mixed animal practice *Research *Academic *Industry position *Government *Zoo or wildlife *Exotic companion animal *Other On Jul 2, 2012, at 11:18 AM, Geiss, Roger wrote: We are embarking on using TBL in a number of our second-year preclinical courses, and I am interested in knowing the criteria used by others to form teams in such classes. Some criteria are fairly straightforward, while others are not. In particular, how does anyone “get at” previous academic achievement without embarrassing low-achieving students. I suppose one could “preselect” using their transcripts, but that would compromise transparency. In addition to using (or not using) academic achievement, what other criteria do any of you use? Thanks much. Roger Roger W. Geiss, M.D. Professor and Chair Department of Pathology University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria 1 Illini Drive, Box 1649 Peoria, IL 61656-1649 Phone: 309-671-8440 Fax: 309-671-8434 E-mail: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Holly Holly Bender, DVM, PhD, Diplomate ACVP Associate Director, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching Director, Preparing Future Faculty Program 3024 Morrill Hall 515-294-3584 Professor, Department of Veterinary Pathology Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011-1250 [log in to unmask]<http:[log in to unmask]> http://vetmed.iastate.edu/users/hbender<http://www.vetmed.iastate.edu/faculty_staff/profiles/hbender.asp>