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Traveling Water
Developed by Dr. Jeff Froyd
Texas A&M University
Group Design Report
Group
#________
Name 1
___________________________
Name 2
___________________________
Name 3
___________________________
Name 4
___________________________
THIS
TEMPLATE HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO LEAD YOU THROUGH THE REPORT
PROCESS. PLEASE REMOVE THE ITEMS THAT ARE PLACED IN THE
SAMPLE DOCUMENT FOR INSTRUCTION.
Executive Summary
The first
section in the report should be an executive summary. The
executive summary should contain two subsections. The first
subsection is a summary of project results. The second
subsection is a summary of what new competencies are being
demonstrated in your final report. Details on the contents
of the subsections follow.
Summary of Project Results
In the
first subsection, the team should report the results of the
project. The results summary should answer the following
questions. How far did your vehicle travel? Did the
vehicle meet the design specifications? Did you meet your
goals for the project? Provide concrete examples to show
whether or not your goals were met. Please make sure that
the summary is well-written paragraph that addresses these
questions. The first subsection should not be a list of
questions with brief answers. It should be a
well-constructed paragraph.
Summary of New Blocks Demonstrated
In the
second subsection, the team should address what new
competencies are being demonstrated in the final report.
Each team member has received a report on what competencies
have been demonstrated to date via oral and written
reports. In the final report, the team should include a new
copy of the page 12 competency matrix (not one of the
existing copies). On the new page 12, the team should show
what new competencies they believe they have demonstrated in
the final report. The second subsection should provide a
description of how the team believes they have demonstrated
these new competencies. This input will be a valuable
component in awarding new blocks based on the final written
report.
1.0 Group Processing
Each time
your team submits a project report you should process your
team's performance and enter the results under the
appropriate date. Please do not delete previous sections,
but keep them so your team can see a record of previous
entries, previous strengths and previous suggestions for
improvement. Each group processing entry should include a
short narrative describing the activities of your team, a
list of present strengths of your team, and a list of
suggestions for improvement. It is important to describe
how your team has responded to the previous suggestions for
improvement. Remember to include specific, concrete
examples to support the statements about your team and its
performance. If you list strengths, cite specific, concrete
examples of how your team has demonstrated of these
strengths. If you list suggestions for improvement, list
specific reasons why your team believes it is important to
make these improvements. Remember that you are trying to
demonstrate your understanding of effective team performance
so that you may wish to also include descriptions of
elements that encourage effective teams.
Keep
adding to this section with each submission to record how
your team functioned and improved. Please do not delete
previous entries.
2.0 Defining the Situation
Here you
are to define the situation as you see it. Think of this
section of your report as an attempt to answer the following
questions:
·
Who?
·
What?
·
When?
·
Where?
·
Why?
·
How?
This
section should be more than a record of the obvious facts.
Probe into the situation. Get at more than the facts on the
surface. Focus on the importance of the situation,
opportunities for outstanding performance, and challenges to
be overcome. Be sure to have read about design processes
and suggestions for implementing this step in the design
process. This section will be graded based on how well you
describe the problem you are faced with.
3.0 Stating the Goal
Your goal
must be concise, but well thought-out and specific as well.
YOU MUST BE SPECIFIC AND CONCRETE. You must say more than,
“Our goal is to complete this design project.” You should
pause to consider the necessary stages in arriving at a
goal.
·
Identify situation problems (Your statement
of the goal should depend on your definition of the
situation in the previous section)
· Create
goal options (Consider several alternative goal statements)
· Select
the goal from these options (State why your team believes
your selected statement is the more appropriate goal
statement.)
This
section must take less than a page. “Just going through the
motions” will earn few competency blocks. What happens if
your goal changes? Feel free to amend this section when you
turn it in with a later update.
4.0
Generating Ideas
Let
the creativity begin! You are to brainstorm ways of
designing an engineering system that will meet the
specifications of your goal. We would not be surprised if
each group could come up with literally dozens of ideas for
this project. What you are to do in this section of the
report is to generate as many ideas as you can that would
work—in other words: that would accomplish your goal.
Think of
the idea generating process as having three parts:
-
Identify
goal problems. This step involves analysis.
-
Create
Idea Options. This step is synthesis.
-
Select
Ideas. This is the evaluation step.
Go
through these steps and work with as many ideas as you feel
comfortable with. We are expecting at least three ideas to
be in consideration when this section of the report is
finished. In this preliminary part of section 3, you must
try to identify as many of the problems associated with
reaching your goal as possible. When this list of problems
is completed, delete the instructions in this part of the
template and substitute your list. Use bullets. Here is an
example.
4.1
Idea Number 1
Your individual ideas should
be discussed under subheadings such as the one just above.
Describe the idea briefly. How does it solve the goal
problems? Is this idea to be considered a possible option,
or is it to be rejected from further consideration.
4.2
Idea Number 2
Et cetera.
Every time you want to describe a new idea, start a new
paragraph. If you are using the Frame template, use the
paragraph style “Heading 2.”
Remember,
you can put as many ideas as you want in here, no matter how
wild. At least three ideas must be submitted.
5.0
Preparing a Plan
O.K.
You’re making progress! It is now time to prepare a plan of
action using the ideas generated so far. A new situation is
before you; plans are on the table. You are now to critique
the ideas being considered. What weaknesses and problems do
you see in each? What options do you have now? Are there
ways of synthesizing a plan out of the ideas generated?
Finally, after considering the goal, selected ideas,
constraints, and potential problems, and identify the best
plan. Describe your plan in this section. Include
5.1 A
physical description of your intended design
You are also allowed to submit
drawings made with any computer program that you have access
to. Finally, neat hand made drawings will also be accepted.
5.2 A
step-by-step account of how it is to be executed.
Who will be doing what and
when?
5.3
Cost estimates to the best of your ability
What you think it will cost.
5.4
Performance estimates to the best of your ability
What you think it will be able
to do.
As with
the previous sections, this section will probably be updated
more than once. You may try something that just doesn't work
well. No problem. Update this section and the previous one
as well, then select a new plan.
6.0 Implementation
What
problems are associated with the chosen plan? Analyze you
chosen plan carefully. Next imagine options in carrying it
out, or variations on the main theme. Try to anticipate
problems that will occur. Carry out your plan, and describe
what happens. This section of your report will have
sub-parts as follows.
6.1
Chronology
State in this section of your
report who was responsible for each aspect of the work, and
how long it took you to actually build your system.
6.2
Cost
This section is where you
record the actual costs of materials for your system. You
must save all receipts.
6.3
Performance Tests
You must try out your device.
Describe the tests that you used and their results.
6.4
Final Evaluation
What is your opinion of the
results of your project so far? Be as objective as possible.
Do you need to go back and refine your ideas and make
another iteration? Should you go to a different plan? Should
you even pick a different goal?
7.0 Instructor's Comments and Grade so far
This
section will be appended to your report for your instructor
to use to communicate his/her overall impressions of your
work so far. Nothing to do here.
Lesson
| Instruction
to Students |
Group Design Report
©2002,
Jeff Froyd
These materials may be duplicated for educational purposes
if properly credited. |
