Background & Rationale:

In engineering and the sciences it is crucial that individuals document their work throughout the evolution of a project.  The success and especially the failures tell the story of how a person or team arrive at a theory, produce a result, or design a product. This documentation allows peers to authenticate each other's work and provide critique ultimately making the individual or team better, stronger, smarter.  Being published in industry journals is a great honor, because as a community that group of professionals has indicated that the work is of great quality and an idea worthy of others in the profession to consider.

In all professional fields clear communication to those with similar knowledge of a topic for critical peer review is necessary.  However, often an "expert"  will find themselves sharing their work with someone who has little to no familiarity with the subject (examples - future funder, student, elected official).  It is therefore, imperative that as a team we demonstrate best practices in keeping personal and team notebooks and spend time honing our communication skills.  As part of the competition the team will be required to submit written reports as well as make live presentations.  Time spent now carefully documenting both group and individual work along the way will make preparing the written and oral presentations phenomenally easier!

Journal Requirements:

Students will document their work weekly throughout the trimester in their personal student notebook/journal.  

1. The journal is each student's account of the relevant work that occurred during the week and the impact that work has to the Rover project.  

2. Each student is responsible for submitting their own journal MEMO style entries.  Shared entries are not permitted and will be treated as an honor violation.

3. The journal should follow the provided Action MEMO format and may not be longer than two single spaced pages.  The document must be in Times New Roman font size 12 pt with one inch margins.  Photos, screen shots of CAD models/drawings, Smartsheet and budget spread sheet will be organized on the Addendum page.

4. The entry should include:

   •  summary of the subgroup and team's SIGNIFICANT work for that week

   • context of that work to their subgroup as well as the broader rover project

   • location of the subgroup and/or team in the Engineering Design Process

   • documentation of problems encountered and problems solved

   • recommended/needed next steps for the subgroup and team

   • budgetary impacts from the week's work

   • should include pictures/images relevant to that work.

     • • • For example if student is working on a CAD design it would be appropriate to insert a screen shot of that work.  

         • If a student was working on fabrication of the rover a picture taken by another student of their work would be expected.

5. Notebook/Journal entries are due on the dates listed on myParish. 

   • Journals must be posted to the proper page by the deadline and viewable by coaches to receive the habit of work point.

   • Journals must be written as a Google Doc housed in their personal student folder located inside the Parish Rover 2024 Google folder and then inserted into the proper weekly journal page.

   • Google Docs must be shared with the setting “Public on the web.”

   • Journals are to be written in a professional voice. The audience of fellow team members and coaches who serve as senior project managers. Do not use pronouns and follow grammar conventions (such as capitalization and punctuation to the best of your ability).

   • Journals MUST contain pictures of week's work which tell the story of the week, including a screenshot of an up to date ProjectPlan and budget spreadsheet

   • If photos are not a student's original work, a photo credit MUST be cited to receive credit

6. Journal font size should be no larger than 12pt font and be single spaced.

Rover 2023 Google Folder - Contains blank Journal Decision Memo template

• REQUIRED FORMAT:  

  • 12 pt Times New Roman

  • 1 in margins

  • section headers in bold

  • housed in your personal folder in the Rover 2023 Google folder

  • posted to the proper page in your engineering notebook

Technical Writing Tips from NASA:

Sample Action MEMO Format: