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 others 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 presentation. Time spent now carefully documenting both group and individual work along the way will make preparing the written and oral presentations phenomenally easier!

Notebook/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 work the contributed during each class and work session.
2. Each student is responsible for submitting their own notebook/journal entries. Shared entries are not permitted and will be treated as an honor violation.
3. The journal should include an entry for each work session and class that occurred during that week (including the 4-6 hours outside of class).
4. The entry should include:
   • well written summary of the student's work
   • relevance to their subgroup as well as the broader rover project
   • document in problems encountered and problems solved
   • update the project status referencing the SmartSheet, current phase in the engineering design process and project life cycle
   • 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 for are due on the dates listed on the class calendar at the beginning of class.
   • Journals must be posted to the proper page by the deadline.
   • Journals must be written as a Google Doc 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 to the audience of fellow students at Parish with a non-technical background.
   • Journals MUST contain pictures or screen shots of the week's work, including a screenshot of an up to date SmartSheet
6. Journal font size should be no larger than 12pt font.