Projects in STEM fields, such as software engineering, biology, chemistry, etc.  rely heavily on the collaboration.

As mentioned earlier, a lack of skills to collaborate transcends the classroom and PBL groups. A lack of collaboration has a social impact. Apart from their classes, students may avoid organizing joint activities in their free time, or gathering together to address issues important for their generation. The absence collaboration reveals other shortcomings that in the community, such us the lack of solidarity, empathy or selflessness.

However, when it comes to PBL groups in diverse classrooms, lack of collaboration hinders project planning, implementation, and delivery stages. It is not uncommon to see group reports that are not coherent. Sometimes, there may be instances where only one person works towards the product result. Often, when collaboration breaks down, students cannot learn from each other. They tend to work independently on a joint project, and the result is uneven. 

Hence, the teacher may want to ensure that students gain not only the subject matter knowledge, but also the soft skills: critical thinking and collaboration skills.